Gettin' Hip Again

Clothes, movies, restaurants--I keep up (or attempt to) with the latest, the newest, the trendiest. When it comes to music, however, I'm a flat out dork. You see, I like country music, and besides PB's kids' tunes (which I usually hear all day long) I haven't really listened to much else for years. If asked to sing one of Billboard's Top 10 songs i would most definitely not get one word right.

And perhaps I could attribute this embarrassing love up to being reared in Nebraska, but the truth is I just like it. In fact, growing up in Nebraska I listened to all the edgy, indie, punk music I could get my hands on. I lived for live music shows--sometimes even sitting in the alley with friends behind clubs we couldn't get into just to listen to the sounds we could. I spent hours in music stores and spent countless dollars on albums (yes, albums, I'm that old) by the Dead Kennedys, The Smiths, Lou Reed, and a huge gamut of others. I dressed the part--mostly in finds from thrift stores--and even once had my hair near-shaved Annie Lenox style.

However, my ever-so-conservative parents found it all the work of the devil. I remember a particular argument about Lou Reed's song "Heroin". And after I got into some major trouble in high school (which i may write about sometime) they got rid of my entire music collection. Hundreds and thousands of dollars gone. Yes, I'm still bitter.

After my anger subsided, I went to college, and for some reason country swing dancing was a big deal at fraternity and sorority parties. I loved it (even broke a bone doing so), and soon I was hooked. My senior year I bought a Tricia Yearwood CD (yes, it was my first CD). After that, I just didn't have the time or energy to keeping up with the latest or greatest in the musical world, and I got stuck in a country rut.

But now, after all these years, honky tonks, red high heels and Bubba shooting the jukebox may have to step aside! During my now-frequent gym workouts I've been tuning the flatscreen to VH1 where I have fallen in love with a whole new world of music. I first paused when I saw the beautiful Justin Timberlake (Geez he's sexy!), and the music (and him) got me going. So I kept it tuned there and keeping going back where I've found a whole host of others like Plain White T's and Nickleback. These songs are getting ingrained in my head, and I even switched my car radio to some kind of pop station--my Volvo is probably in shock since nothing of its kind has ever graced its speakers.

But I like it, and it brings back memories of the love I had for so many different genres of music that were forgotten for too long. I wonder what my mother would think?