Saturday, February 27, 2010

Where the hell did my alternative music go?

"Let's go and throw
All the songs we know
Into the sea" - Robert Smith

So today I'm driving the wife to work, and we're listening to CD101 -- you know, Columbus' alternative station -- and the DJ says the following:

"Your 9am lounge tip is 'island'. That's 'island', I-S-L-A-N-D."

"Wow," says I to Liberty "so their target audience now can't spell." After dropping her off, I kept listening, and a "Tegan and Sara" song came on that contained the following lyrics:

"I just want back in your head
I'm not unfaithful but I'll stray
When I get a little scared"

I usually tend to avoid blaspheming, but... weeping Jesus on the cross, when the hell did alternative turn into mainstream pop for idiots and emo posers? CD101, in the 90s, had a reputation for playing unusual tunes that would never get air play anywhere else, and their target audience was me and my fresh-out-of-school snobby intellectual posse, who would jam to it and revel in our rejection of all things mainstream. We had the lovely Siouxsie Sioux, treating us to interesting gems such as: