The Peacock Shows the Way

I love love love pop radio. Or at least the idea of pop radio. I was raised on mix stations before I discovered the glories of WHFS (R.I.P.) and always liked the way the sets vacillated between saccharine slow jams, mild rock songs and bumpin fresh beats. It's probably the cause of my voracious appetite for all genres of music and the occasional lack of quality control when it comes to MOR pop and other hits meant for kids 18 years my junior.

These days I don't listen to as much Top 40 radio as I did in my middle school days and without access to MTV or Hot Topic or other bastions of teen and tween culture, I am at sea without a Justin Timberlake-endorsed life jacket. I really do miss having my finger on the pulse of today's youth so I try to at least have some idea of what's out there but reading the top 20 charts always proves to me how out of it I am. Of the top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 right now, I know 6 of the artists but that's only because there are dinosaurs like Madonna, Frank Sinatra and inexplicably, Neil Diamond on there. Looking further down the list, I drift further away from my comfort zone, stuck in a crowd of unfamiliar faces. Who the hell are the Flobots? Seriously are we out of band names?

Occasionally, a band and/or track will be so hot that I can't avoid it and I once again fall in love with a slick radio gem. Oftentimes, I have Saturday Night Live to credit with the assist. They book musical guests that I rarely pursue in my own life but I give the benefit of the doubt when awake at 12:30 am. In the past I've had my mind completely blown by performances by Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne whose angst-filled rendition of slow burn "I'm With You" changed my opinion of her before the first chorus.

Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone"
Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone (Saturday Night Live 12 February 2005) -

Avril Lavigne - "I'm With You/Complicated"


I also renewed my interest in Radiohead when I saw Johnny Greenwood twiddling knobs and pulling plugs during "Idioteque," a song so strange & beautiful it nearly gave me heart palpitations.

Radiohead - "Idioteque"


Recently I've fallen in love with Gnarls Barkley after witnessing their breakneck attack on the single "Run." It was like a punk rock soul song performed by a Pentecostal Southern Baptist preacher. Most times, even the sucky bands put on a good performance so I try to catch the show each week and while there have been some interesting choices this year, nothing has hit me as hard as Usher's recent run through of his smash "Love in This Club." I had just read about the song that same day in Entertainment Weekly (my source) and was intrigued by the sound of it, mostly because it's a song about getting busy in a club and not caring who is watching. It's like the unofficial theme song for Swinger Nation. The song did not disappoint, it's a modern soul masterpiece and well deserved it's top spot on the singles chart, plus the dancing was insanely choreographed and included a pop and lock drum breakdown which seemed to defy physics. NBC seems to scour online video posting sites, especially YouTube, to remove all videos of SNL performances but they don't post them on their site either so it's very hard to rewatch your favorites and it's incredibly frustrating. Thankfully, other sites have stepped up to fill the gaps. Enjoy these videos while you can before NBC's brain police find and eliminate them.

Usher - "Love in This Club"
[LIVE] Love In This Club Feat. Young Jeezy / Usher -On SNL- -