I just had the misfortune of hearing a remake of the classic Extreme song, More Than Words. Oh, the humanity! I never cared much for Extreme, but what this "Frankie J" character did to this song should be considered a crime against humanity. I'm still reeling.
What happened to popular music? Admittedly, there have always been songs that I wanted to shield my ears from, but at least it was somewhat listenable. Ever since the demise of grunge about 10 years ago, pop music has deteriorated to the point that it is now used to torture prisoners of war. Make them listen to Hollaback Girl for an hour straight and they'll be begging to tell you where Osama is and renounce their almighty Muhammad at the same time. Some song called Photograph just came on the radio. Echo and all. Blech.
But following up that garbage is Gorillaz. Odd. In case you didn't know, Gorillaz is a band that includes the former lead singer of Blur. Blur received little airplay in this country, even though their songs are much more original and far superior to those of Oasis, their rivals in their native Britain. It is ironic that Blur had to morph into a fake band (Gorillaz is represented by cartoon characters) in order to enter the mainstream in this country.
Also being played heavily now is Beverly Hills by Weezer. Weezer just never seems to go away, and I can't say that I'm complaining. Except for the insufferable Buddy Holly, (Weezer's Shiny Happy People) Weezer's output has been welcome. Curiously, it took about 5 months for Beverly Hills to take off, as it was being played on alternative radio way back in late April. The Gorillaz song had also been around a while before being embraced by top 10 radio.
But for every decent song, there are ten that are embarrassingly bad. I wonder if any of the new Fiona will make it. Her performance on the VH-1 benefit for Katrina victims (about a month ago) made me remember what real singing is.
