music

I am more faithful to Twitter than blogspot and facebook put together. So some life updates,  fave quotes and thoughts (all that fit within 140 characters) will be found on Twitter.

That being said- I want to blab about something- music.

Before I left for Tonga, I fell out of sync with new, popular music. This was in January 2011. Why? I was disgusted with the radio- the autotune crap, the less-than mediocre lyrics, and consistent sexual references (which are not even subliminal anymore.) .I resorted to songs I already loved and decided that “old” music is not “bad” music.  If Old songs that were a pleasure to listen to back when it was released and still sounds good TODAY,it means it’s GOOD music. As the saying goes “Good music never dies”- think Beatles, Queen, Johnny Cash, The Four Tops, Gladys Knights and the Pips, and one of my all time favourites- Relient K…. etc…

During this time, if anyone played ANY popular music and expected me to roll with it received the death glare…and “this music sucks” statement. Think- Nicki Minaj, Ke$ha, Usher, Katy Perry…

Also, everything sounded exactly the same. I felt like I was listening to the SAME song sung by different artists. “Creative” took on the definition of “recreated- over-edited”.

Then in Tonga, I had no choice but to fall out with popular music (well, pop culture all together).  What a blessing this was. Think about it- not being bombarded by “this is what’s cool to listen to…” no - and even greater- the freedom from the sexual references (and this was just not in music.) There were no billboards with mild, sexual references, no tv ads or junk mail, and because Tongans don’t make sexual jokes in English, it was such an escape.

I enjoyed this escape. While I did wonder “what’s new?” , I felt freedom in listening to whatever I wanted to blast. Popular music does make it’s way to Tonga, but it does not have the in-your-face affect as the States. I even dug deeper and listened to songs I hadn’t listened to in years and found that these songs that spoke truth into my life, made me dance like a fool, and sing my heart out still had the same affect.

I enjoyed the hymns that were carried from the church next door, early Sunday mornings, I heard a variety of international music blasted from cellphones (some good, some terrible and should not even exist), and I even learned some Tonga nursery rhymes (which I never, ever, ever learned.) I even got “Tongan Pop/reggae”. I feel like a traitor saying this, but it’s not genre I will ever willingly listen to…however, some of cousins feel very differently. There were times when I just wanted to go deaf because the “music” was just terrible (my taste…)

But after, four months curiosity got the best me. Thank you facebook and youtube for keeping me a bit updated. All those lyrics statuses were put to good use (especially when facebook blew up with Paradise- by Coldplay) Listening to that magnificent song while being IN paradise was something to cherish.  

I know you’ve all heard it but I want to point out the first verse

“When she was just a girl

She expected the world

But it flew away from her reach so

She ran away in her sleep

and dreamed of

Para-para-paradise, Para-para-paradise, Para-para-paradise

Every time she closed her eyes”

Coldplay is definitely talking about me. Thank you Coldplay for narrating my life.

And the of course the chorus tops it off –

“and dreams of Para-para-paradise”

In Vavau- my last month in Tonga- I was beginning to get desperate. My itunes no longer could satisfy my music needs, youtube and 8tracks took forever to load, and I was locked out of all the FREE- music streaming websites due to copyright- playlist.com/spotify/etc.  I was tempted to pirate a bunch of music. Fortunately, one café in Vavau, Mango café had great mixes! Country, alt rock, pop punk, oldies, light rock, hard rock, heavy metal, bumble gum pop…. I later learned that most of the Americans were contributing the mixes- American TEENS. Ridiculous or what? So while enjoying coffee, blogging or just chillin, I got music fix.

Then, New Zealand happened.

Reverse Culture shock galoooreee.

And one of the weird things was the music.

Everything I had escaped came rushing into my ears at 100mph. Along with that New Zealand has a very different music culture. Reggae turns out to be the most popular genre.  Australian and European Artists (predominantly UK) dominate the radio station. This was a nice change. But, I was overwhelmed. The fact that all these songs were in English took some adjustment.  For a while, the bass-line was all I was able to hear. My reticular activating system blocked out most of the melody and even the voices. 







I wrote this in February 2012. and I I have nothing to add. because whatever brilliant things I had to say, died. This is my Mona Lisa. #unfinished