Radio-Free Me

Today I am making a confession: I can't listen to the radio anymore, or rather stations that today's music.

I don't like stations that feature silly names like Jack, Giant or The River. I don't like those that play the latest hits, lite hits, hits from the 80s, 90s & today, or even classic rock. It's not like I generally hate rock music although I admit some current musical trends like EMO baffle me. Besides, if I couldn't stand it, I wouldn't be commissioning someone to build me some new shelves to accommodate my ever-expanding CD collection.

No, there are two reasons behind my decision. The first is that these stations all play the same old things over and over again. It's like those annoying "new" catchphrases like "orange is the new pink", "Twelve is the new Eleven" (or my current fave "fugly is the new pretty") as "FM radio has become the new AM Top 40 radio".

I notice this trend last year when I was driving to wushu training everyday. I turned on the radio (no CD player and the tape deck was "wonky") and it seem like I was hearing a certain Avril Lavigne tune at roughly the same time (3 pm) everyday. I could almost set my watch to it. It was then followed by either Nelly Furtado, one of three Britney tunes that was in heavy rotation at that time or that annoying "This Love" song by Maroon 5 (a tune that's taken its toll on me and one I wish I would say goodbye to).

And it's not exclusive to new stuff either. I've been popping into the gym almost every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning for a few months now, and no matter which classic rock station they have on (either Q107 or FM108), I keep hearing Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" every time I'm there. It's not that I don't enjoy Ozzy and his antics, but I'm almost positive he has other songs in his reportoire (and that's not even including his Black Sabbath material) that they can play.

The second reason is much more critical: all of today's music sounds the same to me. If someone asked me to tell the difference between Sum 41 and Simple Plan, I couldn't do it. The same can be said with Ashanti and the deceased Aaliyah. How about Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan?Sound the same to me.

I remember when FM used to showcase the likes of Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, The Clash, U2, The Jam/Style Council (Paul Weller acts), The Smiths and later on Nirvana. All of those artists had a unique sound that made them stand out from the pack. Nowadays, there is no new artist or band out there whose sound would put them in the category of the aforementioned. And no, Coldplay doesn't belong in that group as they do nothing for me (and they are DEFINITELY NOT the second coming of U2).

Instead, we're inundated with commercially pre-packaged American Idol crap featuring the likes of Hilary, Lindsay and Kelly Clarkson, or the guitar-heavy angst artists like Evanescence, Seether and Good Charlotte. And I won't listen to dance/R&B stations because I'm not fond of that genre, plus I haven't liked a rapper since Biggie died.

Granted, there are some recent artists that I like The Foo Fighters, Green Day (American Idiot is brilliant) and Liz Phair, but they're not in my "must-buy" category. Now I'm just filling up the holes in my collection with the likes of Pink Floyd and Aimee Mann.

So whenever I have to turn on the radio to listen to music (ie. if I'm driving or do any writing), my FM dial is now set to 91.1 which plays real jazz music (NOT the pseudo-new age jazz featuring the likes of Kenny G and John Tesh). Someone told me recently that the older you get, the more you gravitate to jazz stations since you've pretty much heard everything being played up and down the dial. That sounds like that has happened to me since I've crossed the forty threshold a couple of months back. For me, all I know it doesn't sound like anything else on the dial.

And thankfully they don't play Coldplay either.