Friday, April 25, 2008

blast from the past

There is something disconcerting about hearing a song that was really popular a year or so ago but has since faded into musical obscurity. While last summer it may have been the hit jam, the song is now a mere shadow of its former self.

But when you hear it playing at a bar or something, you nevertheless find yourself humming along without even really thinking about what you're doing. "Earl, check it out, it's that song, ya know?" you hear someone say at the table behind you. And everyone's spirits are briefly buoyed, thinking about that one time that song was playing in the parking lot when they were eating French fries and talking to that totally sweet guy. You mouth the lyrics of the chorus during your conversation about subway systems in different U.S. cities. It's instinctive.

And then you walk home that night feeling a little nostalgic. There are new songs now that have replaced the hit from a year ago that you heard at the bar. And while it's natural and inevitable and probably a good thing that there are always new songs, there's still something about it -- the boom-and-bust transience of pop music, the conveyor belt-ness of it all -- that makes you feel sort of hollow.

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