Gender Warfare Snooze

DISCLAIMER: this is not the "real" post I have been promising, just something I need to tackle via type before this unexpected rage settles.

Two examples of utter referential overdoze-ing. Example number one, heard on the radio this morning: Driving down Lake Washington Boulevard I was enjoying the relatively high quality of Seattle's FM until this utter BS caught my attention--"Girls Don't Care" by alt-indie band Clem Snide (name taken from Burroughs's Naked Lunch, no doubt.)



Besides such tired indicators of obscurity ("Don't listen to Frank Zappa, late Coltrane, Faust or CAN... girls don't care") the song's message is depressing, trite, and... dumb. Ironically, it also proves successful as I, Girl, do not care about Clem Snide or their snide ballad by said song's finish. Or, perhaps, it's the opposite -- I care more than ever --I hate this song, and this Boy. Truly, lines like "the girls just want a sweet melody" serve as antithesis/antichrist to all theories of love, genius, etc. It makes me feel bored, sick, alone. Yeah, sometimes The Girls don't care. Sometimes The Boys don't either (hypothetical comparative ratio: FRANK ZAPPA: BONNIE RAITT??)But, if The Boys can't seem to refrain from feeling sorry for their unappreciated tastes, one would hope that The Girls could rise above and avoid such referential anthems of their own.

Unfortunately, looks like they can't. Ever since I began to contemplate Kate Perry's absurd, catchy, yet ultimately obnoxious "I Kissed a Girl" (according to a recent interview, highest play count on Madonna's ipod!!!) I have found myself repeatedly watching, showing, and gaping at her videos. Perry's other big hit -- "Ur So Gay" seems to, in some ways, serve as the She equivalent to "Girls Don't Care."



Again, so much cultural critique, of such a low caliber, all crammed into a totally elementary verse-chorus-verse structure: recipe for disaster; immediate disenchantment (mine). In this second case, there is really not much to say. Watching this video makes me feel bad. Like someone made a Zoolander-esque spoof movie about My Generation that failed to be funny, but still was a box office hit, the type that you hear strangers quoting in public spaces too often.

And...I forgot my point. Maybe it's that I like pop songs, and I like liking them, and songs like these make me sad, because I can't seem to forgive them for turning me off. They're redundant and shallow -- not even biting, because their whole critique is so over played. What is to be done? Nothing.

However, in resistance (equal parts to these enemy songs, and to my own urge to not post this post,) I'll leave on an antidotal, if not completely cultish and utopian, note.