Raindrops on roses, whiskers in kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with string; these are a few of my favorite things.
Every time I get into my car the radio blasts me with old songs from the 1990's, breathy male vocals, or raps with the music from the 1990's songs in the background. I always switch back and forth between these stations, hoping to hear something better, something different. Maybe I am old-fashioned, but it seems like if the vocals and melody aren't formulaic, then the lyrics are bound to be. Every song is about love and heartbreak and sex. People rhyme over art that isn't their own, and younger generations are none the wiser. It's a damned tragedy.
I remember a few years ago when I used to be so inspired by music. I would listen to the lyrics and feel like they were talking to me. I would hear new styles of music that made me want to go out and see these bands live. Fast and slow, hard and soft, sweet and aggressive; it was all there. But now.... ugh. I looked through my iPod the other day and realized that all of those things were just a phase, a passing fad. Half of what I held so near and dear to my heart I can't stand to listen to anymore. Bands I'd paid money to see just weren't worth the time anymore. I deleted them from my iTunes, and made room for new music.
The only problem? There is no new music. Everything out there sounds just like all the stupid bullshit music I listened to three years ago when I was drunk and confused and "finding myself". Was that music only good because I was impressionable? Is music these days only geared to the teenagers of America? Yes, and Yes. I know there are demographics industries need to meet, but it is just so depressing to feel like nothing is original any more. I mean Jay-Z rapped over Chris Martin covering "Forever Young". "Forever Young"! Are you kidding me? And don't even get me started on Jason Deroulo and Imogen Heap. Ugh.
What has gotten me through this hard period of enlightenment is one thing. The timelessness of show tunes. I know what you are thinking... show tunes are gay, or campy, and unrealistic. And I couldn't agree more. You don't see show tunes taking an older show tune and rapping over it and calling it the new wheel, do you? You don't get show tunes stuck in your head even though it has the intellectual eqivalent to crack cocaine.
Show tunes tell a story. They are the original ballad, and take you away to a character's pain, love, struggle, or even death. They are timeless masterpieces that are not formulaic in the slightest, and have finally come back into the main stream. Thank God for Glee. I almost forgot how happy singing and listening to Broadway musicals made me feel. How calm and jubilant my face becomes when a story is fleshed out into sing song.
If things were different I would be auditioning regularly in the theater as we speak. I would be singing until my heart's content. But I work weekends and am expecting to get into nursing school, so this dream of mine might have to wait.
Until then, however, I will listen and sing. If anyone reads this, I beg of you to give show tunes a chance and see if they touch you the way they have touched me.
Namaste
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