Take the country out of the girl?

Since downloading some much needed new music onto my iPod over Easter weekend, I've been thinking about my recent 'listening habits'. What I mean is, I've been thinking about the overall style of the songs I choose to listen to while waiting for my classes to start, or even walking to class - which I don't like to do very often because now that it's spring (and it's finally warmed up!) I love to listen to the robins, cardinals and other birds that flitter from tree to tree and warble their mellifluous songs around campus.

But anyway, so what are my recent listening habits concerning my iPod you ask? Well, let me first fill you in on what type of music I downloaded last weekend. I now have two Fleetwood Mac songs, and my first three Stevie Nicks songs! Also joining the meager crowd of music on my iPod are Peter Cetera, Apocalyptica, Bad Company, 38. Special and I'm completely drawing a break, so I'll stop there! But I guess my point is that I mostly downloaded 80's rock songs, and that's basically what I've been selecting with my thumb every time I turn my iPod on.

So what happened to my iPod's humble origins? Where it started out with country? Well, granted Shania Twain isn't very country, but soon enough I realized the folly of 'poptry' and moved into the territory of Patty Loveless, Brooks & Dunn and other more traditional country artists, and I was content with a 80's and 90's rock song here and there. But now? Like I mentioned above, the 80's to 90's era of rock has taken over my iPod and now I find myself gravitating towards it, and completely avoiding the country songs on my iPod. Why?

It's not like I've stopped loving Patty Loveless' music, albeit I have discovered I have a quite obvious impatience to listen to her slow songs. But hell, I've always been that way. I love fast songs, always have. And although over the years I've tried to force myself to listen to slow songs, I haven't been very successful. Big surprise right? Of course, in general I don't have much patience to begin with so maybe that's a root cause of it? Well, whatever the reason, when I do listen to Patty Loveless I find myself gravitating towards...her more 'pop-oriented' songs!

Yes, I know, I'm confused about it too. After all, didn't I just a few paragraphs before condemn today's - and yesterday's - 'poptry'? And just now confessed to gravitating towards it? Who knew a simple pondering on my current music listening habits could become so confusing? But then again, is every question so simple to answer? I mean everything has some events or occurrences leading up to it. I sense a string of some long questions coming on, or maybe a plethora of metaphors and similes, so I'll just stop right here.

On one hand, I love the 80's and 90's rock I've downloaded onto my iPod. Why? Because it's fast, has lots of electric guitars and I love that era of music in a lot of genres. Did I ever mention my love for the electric guitar? I'm a sucker for squealing guitar solo's, but I don't like a rock song to be too 'hard', if you know what I mean. Which is why I balk at my brother's choice in rock music, which is what currently graces today's radio stations. Radio is a whole other beast though, isn't it? I rarely listen to it anymore, except for occasionally tuning into a local rock station in Green Bay. Usually I'm not disappointed. The country station in Sheboygan? Now that's a different story. Damn, I'm doing it again, aren't I?

Maybe my lack of patience both in life and for slow songs and my apparently growing love for rock music have combined to snuff out the once boldly burning candle of my passion for country music and all that's left is a crackling tendril of smoke like a dying tornado twisting out upon the countryside, desperate to leave a mark because it has realized too late that it hasn't made any mark, but it has simply spun atop the Earth's surface like a collective summer breeze. Oh dear, and I was trying to avoid the rambling metaphors. Oh well, I can't help myself!

If my iPod could talk I wonder what it would say? Would it retaliate against me? Would it scold me? Or just ask a million questions as to why I have abandoned the country music on my iPod? Why have I left it like elegant furniture behind several closed doors at the end of a long addition on a mansion? Why have I left each piece of furniture and beautifully crafted chair rail, fireplace mantle and plaster ceiling medallion to collect dust like time itself solidifying on their surfaces? Why have I chosen to only occasionally walk down that narrow hallway, open the doors, perhaps inch only one foot over the threshold or maybe step all the way in, but not letting the door close behind me, letting the room know I am staying only temporarily, and that they shouldn't shake off the dust but let it remain.

The truth is, I feel guilty for bypassing - I've been trying to think of that word this whole time! Don't you hate that? - all the country music on my iPod. Songs like "Blame It On Your Heart" by Patty Loveless and "Someone Else's Dream" by Faith Hill I used to love! And was so excited to finally have on my iPod. What is it about songs like "No Smoke Without A Fire" by Bad Company or "Seven Wonders" by Fleetwood Mac that is so intensely appealing I would forget about the origins of music that urged me to get an iPod to begin with? Or like today's pop music icons like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, is this obsession - can I call it that? - just a 'fad' that I am going through musically? Or is another 'stage' perhaps like the one that led me from Jump5 to poptry and poptry to traditional country music and finally traditional country to 80's and 90's rock? But that still doesn't explain why even when I do listen to the country music on my iPod it's modern artists like Whitney Duncan and SheDaisy. Well okay, SheDaisy isn't as modern as Duncan is, but if you know their music it's still relatively like what's on the radio these days. But yet the fact that I listen to it and not the poptry on the radio says something else doesn't it? I mean, look at Sugarland! I'm honestly surprised at how low they've stooped within the past few years. Jennifer Nettles used to know how to sing, now she's let the pop music go to her head like an overdose of drugs...and perhaps there's no coming back to "Settlin'" or "Something More" because her brain and vocal cords are permanently infected.

Okay, that was a little harsh. But seriously? Have you seen her video for "Stuck Like Glue"? It was disturbing to me as a Lady Gaga music video. All right, all right. I don't want to nitpick on Lady Gaga, although obviously you've probably come to the conclusion that I don't much care for her. Oops, too late I've realized I've begun a mini-rant on today's pop music and it's infiltration into country music. But perhaps within today's mess of pop and country radio's alike lies the answer to my own 'music-identity crisis'. It's weird how I just come up with terms like that, isn't it? I wasn't aware I had a 'music-identity-crisis' until I typed it just now.

Whatever the answer, perhaps I will restrain myself from listening to Phil Collins, Peter Cetera and the like for a while and turn back to Patty Loveless, Suzy Bogguss and Lorrie Morgan for a while. Perhaps I'll even be able to sit through a slow song or two without squirming, crossing and uncrossing my legs or playing with a pen and eventually succumbing to doodling. that's another problem I have, sitting still. But, maybe that doesn't surprise you. :)