POP CULTURE Do you ever get annoyed with American culture? I mean, incredibly annoyed? Have you ever really paid attention to it? To my way of thinking, it's the little things, which I've always believed are important. After all, didn't someone once write a song about it, a song titled, Little Things Mean A Lot? And speaking of songs, have you ever noticed how music is playing almost everywhere you go? Whose idea is this? I get out of my car to pump gas and hear music being thrown at me. And yes, that's the way I feel, like I'm somehow being violated. What if, at that particular moment, I don't want to hear any music? Does anyone care? Apparently not. What am I supposed to do, wear ear plugs to drown it out? Why should I have to do that? If I wanted to go to a lawyer to sue someone over it, who exactly would I sue? And what for, invasion of privacy? I'm actually tempted to go to a store manager sometime and ask him/her about it. I'd like to know where the instruction came from to play the overhead music. And who made the decision about what kind of sounds would be played? And so on. It wouldn't be so bad if the music was good, but more often than not it's total crap. And I'm sure it has something to do with marketing (doesn't everything?). Somebody probably made some sort of study and determined that background music has a positive effect on spending. If this is the reason, which I suspect it is, then it also has the effect of being just another form of advertising being dumped on us. Most of the time though, I barely listen. I'm numb to it. But the other day, I did listen. I heard the distinctive voice of Shania Twain (which I happen to like), and for reasons that I cannot begin to fathom, I started paying attention to what she was actually saying. Big mistake. Talk about crap. Later, I searched online for the lyrics to make sure I had heard right, and what I read was downright scary. It made me think about subliminal messages, which is the effect that some of this stuff can have. The song was "I'm gonna getcha good." Real classy, huh? The lyrics are even worse. I refuse to profane this page with such garbage, but I will tell you what the gist of it was. She was virtually telling some guy that she was going to do everything in her power to make him love her, like forever. And I thought, "Can you do that? Make someone love you? Forever?" The answer of course is that you can't. But people listen to this stuff and nonsense and start getting ideas from it. I'm talking about younger people, with more impressionable minds that are capable of being shaped by this kind of pop culture drivel, now playing everywhere, brought to us from the very heart of sparkling downtown America. And we wonder why the rest of the world looks down their noses at us.
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