Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks that today’s “avant-garde” is tomorrow’s Kenny G. And this is not to say that I have a problem with our modern-day adult contemporary on the face. Actually, I think it’s great that more people are listening to indie rock - which I often think of as being better, more artful music (Sufjan would exemplify that). And while I find a some of these bands boring (Great Northern, I’m looking at you), I still think they make decent music - just not music that I especially want to give my attention to. What bothers me about indie-adult-contemporary are the empty acts that treat their audience as a ‘market’ and cater to them with shit songwriting that is as generic as it can be to cater to the broadest segment of this market. And to the public who listen to and perpetuate it. Yet again in America, status is assumed to be something that can be bought; and so if you buy an iPod, you automatically have acquired taste through the act of consumption.
I occasionally belay the fact that I don’t think especially highly of Nic Harcourt’s Morning Becomes Eclectic. The backstory of my distaste stems from the fact that I am essentially forced to listen to it almost every morning at my office. The show is littered with the exact sort of yuppie-market bands that succeed when people desire to buy “indie,” rather than enjoy music on its own merits. I hope that I’m not the first to say that Nic’s new favorite, Glass Pear (warning: not safe for ears), plays some empty, worthless and unimaginative garbage. Can’t we find a more original way of expressing feelings rather than whining “I love you” over and over again? That shit is straight up adult contemporary.
In other other people’s adult contemporary news, Feist will make an appearance on Sesame Street. I’ll give that a fully-non-sarcastic “awesome!” And here’s a Cap & Jones mix that kicks off with Fabolous over Peter Gabriel. Now! that’s what I call adult contemporary!
