I think I just realized that I'm going to puke

If you just realize what I just realized,
Then we'd be perfect for each other
and will never find another
Just realized what I just realized
we'd never have to wonder if
we missed out on each other now

I heard this song (Realize by Colbie Caillat…I would have never guessed the title of the song based on the amount of times that word is used in the chorus...) for the first time today. Apparently it’s pretty popular.

I don’t get it though. Why? The music itself is bland. Then you add in the lyrics and it gets worse. No imagination…no creativity.

I don’t consider myself a music snob. People like different kinds of music and I appreciate and understand that. But at the same time…some of the music that is being released today makes me shake my head in disbelief. Ok…maybe not the music itself. But the popularity in which the music is received makes me shake my head in disbelief.

I have a pretty wide array of genres in my iTunes: Country to Showtunes to Classical to Pop to Oldies to Hard Rock to Speed Metal to Ska to you name it! My husband laughs at me quite a bit when a Jerry Reed song follows AC/DC. But I don’t mind…I appreciate each song for different reasons. Basically, if it piques my interest…if it takes me by surprise and makes me stop and rewind the song to hear a sweet guitar riff or piano solo or funny lyric, it’s probably going to be in my playlist.

And don’t get me wrong…I have a few crappy, unimaginative songs in my playlist as well. I like simple music just as much as the next person – most people hate Rihanna’s Umbrella, but I listen to it and sing along with no shame when it comes on during my shuffle play. It’s catchy and I love saying the word umbrella the way she does, “Um-buh-rella, ella ella…”

So while I appreciate the love of crappy music, what bothers me is that some of the people who devour songs like Realize and Bubbly don’t appreciate other music. If it’s not on the top 40, they want nothing to do with it. They claim they “hate” country and oldies, but have they ever really listened to it (and I'm talking about real country here - not the countrified pop songs that are popular on the radio today)? Or are they generalizing the music based on how pop culture does? Country music is just a bunch of hicks singing about losing their wife, their dog and their pickup truck all in one day, right? Some of them, sure, that is what they are singing about. But some of them are about heartbreak. About love and life and lessons learned. And putting the lyrics aside – some of the music is amazing and the instrumentals are stellar. There is nothing like hearing a bit of steel guitar or a fiddle and having the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

So yeah, I’m cool with people loving crap like Realize. But I just with they’d realize (lame, but I couldn’t help myself) that there is so much more out there to appreciate about music! And that if they’d give a different style a try, they might be surprised. And they might learn something about themselves.