jottings down
Just a quick note to myself about a possible future research project: consider the phrase “rhetoric of happiness.” I tend to eschew “rhetoric of” projects (the recent “rhetoric of the closet” thing is kind of an aberration) but I’m increasingly interested in the question of how happiness has come to be understood as something people (admittedly, within wealthy postindustrial societies) think they have a right to. Note that the Declaration of Independence, a wonderfully Enlightenment document, only speaks to “the pursuit of Happiness.” Hmmmmm.
radio gaga
I’ve been mixing up my radio listening habits lately. For quite a long while, I pretty much listened to NPR exclusively, either via WDET/Detroit Public Radio, or Michigan Public Radio out of Ann Arbor, but for some reason, I started getting bored with them toward the end of last year. For a while, I kind of rotated between the NPRs and WDRQ/DOUG-FM, one of the new-format “random playlist” stations (“We play everything”) … but eventually the fact that Mr. Doug has a rather limited view of “everything” got really annoying.
I happened to chance upon 93.9/The River as they were playing The Killers’ “Human” some time ago and was hooked by both the song and the station. For those of you who don’t know, The River is what, in an earlier age, might have been called a college rock station, and in an earlier but more recent age would probably have been labeled an alt-rock station (in fact, their bumpers still trade on this, describing the station as “Detroit’s real rock alternative”). The River kept me interested for quite a while and I can still listen to it without complaint but a month or so ago I again became bored with what I started to recognize was a fairly limited playlist. To be fair, the jocks at 93.9 seem to have fairly individualized and eclectic tastes, but since I’m a creature of habit and happen to be listening the radio during fairly regularly patterned times, I only ever got to hear the same 1 or 2 jocks (and, really, wtf kind of name is Gnyp, anyway?).
All of this is background to the fact that I’ve been branching out and switching mostly between two stations lately: 97.9/WJLB and 106.7/The Beat. WJLB (“The Strongest Songs in Detroit”) is the pre-eminent rap/hip-hip/urban/r&b station in the Detroit area. I’ve started listening to it as part of my ongoing project (launched on Facebook some time ago) of developing some greater appreciation for these styles of music. On the whole, that project has been a mixed success. To my surprise, I’ve discovered I really like Jay-Z, but some of the other things I’ve tried have met with kind of a resigned “meh.” Anyway … the JLB playlist is refreshing if only because I haven’t heard many of these songs before–even if they’re not all going to end up as personal favorites (like, say, the execrable Robin Thicke track they debuted this morning, “Sexual Therapy”) I’m enjoying the novelty of the different format. Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” which I first heard on JLB, is maybe the best song of this year. I also find myself delighted by the sheer balls-out ego of Trey Songz’s “Invented Sex,” whose chorus goes as follows:
Girl let me get u to the crib (let me get u to the crib)
Upstairs to the bed (upstairs to the bed)
Girl you gonna think (x4)
Girl when I pull back them sheets
And you climb on top of me
Girl you gonna think (x4)
You gonna think I invented sex (x3)
These lyrics are remarkably stupid, and yet, danged if I haven’t been humming this track to myself (incessantly, to the point of madness) for two weeks now.
The other station I’ve been listening to, more than I’d like to admit, is 106.7/The Beat of Detroit. I guess this used to be a country station until about two months ago, when it relaunched in its current format as a … urgh … dance music station (or, as Michiguide calls it, “Rhythmic Adult Contemporary”). This station was suggested to me by the ex, and while he might love it, I remain skeptical. I am not a dancer, nor am I prone to rhythmic movement. But … I will admit to grudging enjoyment of this station at times. Those times are when they play just about anything by Lady Gaga (I really dig “Poker Face,” but I suspect it is about fellatio) or that kind of cool remix/cover of “Time After Time” (though I have no idea who performs it). It’s also reminded just how idiotic the song “It’s Raining Men” really is, since I think they’ve played this song once an hour on the hour in the scant few days I’ve been listening. Observe:
It’s Raining Men! Hallelujah! – It’s Raining Men! Amen!
I’m gonna go out to run and let myself get
Absolutely soaking wet!
It’s Raining Men! Hallelujah!
It’s Raining Men! Every Specimen!
Tall, blonde, dark and lean
Rough and tough and strong and mean
There’s not subtext here. There’s barely even text. I’d say the best way to appreciate this song is as an artifact of camp culture, but I think that’s doing a disservice to perfectly good pieces of camp. Ah well.