On my ipod, I have a pretty large collection of music that most people would consider 'crap.' Hanson, the Spice Girls, Bel Biv Devoe, BLACKstreet, Kris Kross, Bryan Adams, C+C Music Factory, Digital Underground, Technotronic, Ace of Base, Tone Loc, etc. etc. etc....it's a sizeable list. I enjoy most of those one-hit wonder type of songs not only for the reasons that most people enjoy pop music, but also because of random memories that those songs remind me of.
So it was following that line of thinking that inspired me to download Big & Rich's 'Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy' the other day. It reminds me of the era shortly after we all turned 21, and of going to WeFest a couple times despite hating country music***, and even of when they would play this song at El Roco, right in the middle of a block of 15 hip-hop songs, and watching all the black guys from the Air Force Base clear off the dance floor and sneer at us as we attempted to two-step (which I know in my case constituted grabbing an imaginary belt buckle, tipping an imaginary cowboy hat in different directions, and mostly high-stepping in place, all while trying not to spill the pitcher that I was drinking straight out of-- if you actually poured your beer into a glass at El Roco, you were a sucker.) Definitely some fond memories there.
But upon downloading the song, I listened to it twice, cringed quite a few times, and immediately deleted it from my ipod. I couldn't believe how bad it was.
The point: if not even I can tolerate your shitty pop song after not hearing it for years and being excited to wallow in its memories.....then you know you've made a truly shitty pop song.
***My standing rule during WeFest: if just ONE person out of our camping group agreed to stay back at the campsite with me and drink, then I wouldn't attend the concert going on at that time. Over a couple years, I think I went to 3 out of 24 concerts total-- and believe me, those 3 times, I seriously debated staying at the campsite and continuing to get sauced by myself over trekking to the main concert area to not listen to shitty country music.
