Head South Pt. 2

Over the weekend I was in Georgia. Bremner and I were driving around lost, looking for the way back to our hotel. Bremner was manning the radio, and a song by Rhianna came on. It was called "Rude Boy". I know I sound like a real prude here, but I was sort of shocked by the lyrics of that song. If you've never heard it, the song doesn't allude to sex. It describes it in detail. Now again, I am not against rhythm and blues, or having Rhianna describe rough sex, but I found it difficult to picture a time and place outside of a club or in a bedroom that a song like "Rude Boy" would be appropriate. It certainly wasn't while driving around looking for a hotel with my friend.

The episode reminded me of a brilliant plan I had on our road trip south. I thought it would be interesting to prohibit the use of discmans and mixtapes for the entire forty hour round-trip. We would listen to whatever was on the radio, nothing else. For some reason I felt the music would act as a soundtrack to whatever it was we were passing by. I imagined bluegrass as we entered the Appalachian foothills, and country music while driving through the fields of Kentucky. What I failed to realize, was the very nature of radio. Every station would play the hits of the day. Which left us scanning for one of four songs we found tolerable during our trip. And as people become more attractive as choice becomes limited, these four songs became worth celebrating if found while trolling through the stations. The songs were "Tipsy" by J-Kwon, "Yeah" by Usher, "Toxic" by Miss Spears, and "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" by Jay-Z. Ironically, as none of them fit the geographical landscape we were driving through, they still became our soundtrack. There's something awfully special about how a song can connect you to a memory, often having little to do with the content of the tune. I like the idea of "Rude Boy" triggering the memory of a baby's baptism, because that's what the radio was playing on the way to church.