Monday, December 31, 2012

Of Chili Burgers and Radio Stations

So I've been Stateside just over a week. Went and got a chili burger and fries from Country BBQ on Wendover. Nothing says I'm back in the south like beef marinated in its own fat on top of more beef. I'm driving along in my car, something that seems so, so, very strange, and I'm listening to the music on the radio. Flipping through the channels, realizing how horrible the radio stations here. Even the "pop" channel 107.5 and 105.1 (A Triangle station) play nothing but mostly two year old songs, that are over-played. Does anyone here realize how horrible the music is here? The variety of music has me now looking for an XM satellite radio for the car. I guess I never realized it till I left, how sanitized the play-lists are here.

Of course I don't mean to complain, but there's a whole world of music out there, a whole demographic of young people around the world listening to music that I suspect a lot of people who live here, are unaware of. When is the last time a hit song from a song from foreign country or of another language played? Where's the dubstep? I can go into the most reserved of public locations in Europe and listen to Dutch rappers, Arabic love ballads, or Skrillex. My first week in Brussels, I'm listening to Eminem talking about his "fucking elevator" in Delhaize (Delhaize owns Food Lion) as families shop the aisles.

I feel like I'm living in a censored, dark-age of persecution against my ear-drum. Thank God for Spotify, and please radio stations, send your program directors on vacation to get some perspective.