California on my Mind

The other day I saw something on TV about living in Los Angeles, and it reminded me of our recent visit to the City of Angels. This inspired me to download a song about California and add it to the “I Love L.A.” playlist that I made recently (yes, I am a dork). This, in turn, inspired me to load up my iPod shuffle with that playlist and drive around town rocking out to a whole bunch of songs about Cali.

What I noticed as I filled my mind with TV and music about Los Angeles was that I started to desperately want to go back there. I began to really obsess over it. California was all I could think about. And that is because as I poured ideas about California into my mind, they filled it up and started to take over.

I hear people say all the time that the stuff they expose themselves to in the media doesn’t affect them. We all like to think that we are better than that. I thought so too, until several years ago I realized that those things did affect me. I tend to notice this phenomenon when it comes to harmless obsessions such as this one, but it is a reminder that no one is powerful enough to resist the never-ending pull of the media. We all must watch what we put into our minds because it always comes out of our lives.

Also, my iPod is now full of songs about Jesus.

The Voice of a Generation

This year commemorates the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind. This album changed the history of rock music, and it became the anchor of a movement that defined my youth. Like him or hate him, Kurt Cobain spoke for my generation, he was our voice. As a follower of Christ, I would say that I disagree with a lot of the things he had to say, but the “Seattle Sound” that Nirvana helped to create was the foundation of my teenage years. Kurt Cobain was my generation’s Bob Dylan.

As I was thinking about this, I started asking myself about the voice of this generation. Who is their Nirvana, their Dylan? Is it Lada Gaga? Ke$ha? If that is the case, that is one sorry state of affairs.

I know that this is just my opinion, and that while I usually try to use this blog for something spiritually uplifting, in this case what you have is the ranting and raving of someone over 30 (and we all know not to trust anyone over 30). So what does all this mean? Honestly, that’s been the question I’ve been asking myself as I was writing this. I don’t mean to insult the musical tastes of this generation. And I don’t mean to elevate Kurt Cobain, he was far from perfect and never claimed to be.

I guess it just comes down to this: when I was a teenager, people over 30 used to hate on my music because they said you couldn’t understand what they were saying. Now that I’m over 30, I say I’d much rather listen to someone who was hard to understand but had something meaningful to say than I would someone who’s lyrics are crystal clear but they aren’t saying anything of value. Was that message worth all this typing and rewriting? Does anyone out there care? That’s up to you to decide. As for me, I just feel better having spoken up about something that I care about.

Neither Positive nor Encouraging

I’m going to get letters on this one.

Today is National College Radio Day. When I lived in Virginia, I loved listening to 91.9 WNRN. Now that I live in Texas, I listen to Amarillo College’s Cutting Edge, 89.9. If you are unfamiliar with college radio, they play a wide variety of music, stuff you wouldn’t ever hear anywhere else. And, they play new music often months before you hear it on traditional radio.

While the college radio station is #1 in my car, a quick press of #2 reveals KLOVE, the nationally syndicated Christian Radio station. I try to listen to it, really I do, but I have this little problem. You see, their slogan is “positive and encouraging” but I find neither to be true.

There are essentially three kinds of songs that get played on KLOVE on a constant repeat all day long. The first are worship songs, which are good and can be encouraging, but when I’m in my car I want to jam with the music up and the windows down. What I do NOT want to do is sing “heart of worship” while I’m waiting at a stoplight. The second are 90s throwbacks, which can be fun every once in a while, but how many times do they have to play “Shine” by the Newsboys before somebody realizes that it was never that good to begin with. A throwback only works if it happens once in a blue moon, but when you make “El Shaddai” by Amy Grant part of your heavy rotation, you’ve got a problem. The last kind of song is what I call the “KLOVE Special.” This song works the same way every time. The first verse is the most depressing thing you’ve ever heard, the sadder the better. It’s usually about an out-of-work single mom with a drug habit and the flu or something. Then the chorus talks about how great God is and how He’s there in our problems. But you know what this kind of song makes me think about, not God but all the problems that I have. It’s depressing, and by the time it get’s to the bridge I want to drive my car off one.

But I don’t ever make it to the bridge, because by that time I’ve already changed the station back to College Radio.

Sure, the college radio station is secular, and sure sometimes there are lyrics that I don’t want to listen to. Those are the times when I change it to KLOVE. But I can’t stay there for long because of all the negative and discouraging music they play. All the songs are the same, and it’s the kind of junk that sells in the Christian music industry.

On college radio they can play just about any band at just about any time. You hear real originality, an actual artist who is producing art rather than another cookie cutter Christian band trying to sound like Casting Crowns. I remember one of my mentors in college saying “if it’s Christian, it ought to be better.” I believe that. I believe the Creator God is worth true creativity, true originality, and true worship through song. So let’s step it up, believers in the King of Kings, and give Him the kind of radio station He deserves.

Better Than Ezra

I have to have music in my car, it’s just essential for living. Even though now my commute is only 5 minutes to anywhere I want to go in town, there is still music playing all the time. I play CDs still in my car because we only have one iPod and Meghan uses it at school, plus there’s nothing to plug it into. But it’s cool, because I get to pick out 12 albums at a time and listen to them all the way through, which is not something we do to much anymore when we can just put our iPods on shuffle.

Anyway, I said all that to say that I picked all four of the “Better Than Ezra” CDs that I have and have been listening to them in order. It’s been a cool experience, something I’ll have to repeat again with other bands I like. I realized something as I was listening to all their albums. While the later ones may be technically superior, I’m still drawn emotionally to their first major label release, “Deluxe.” It came out when I was in the 8th grade, and I wore out the grooves (well, I would have if CD’s had grooves). Every time I listen to that record, it takes me back to another place in time.

It’s cool how music can do that. It can totally transport you to somewhere else in your life. I love playing and listening to music, but especially when a song or an album is more than just that, it’s an experience or a memory. That’s when music really is music.