Eek! Pop Music At 3am.

I'm currently trying to finish off editing this video for ZM Waikato: it's actually a rather large job - lots of footage to scrawl through to edit into a nice 11-12 minute presentation of O' Week for the Zm website. I'd probably be about two weeks away from actually finishing if my computer would actually do it's job and not crash every time i try and edit a new clip - i have a feeling the problem is something to do with the rather large size of the project which is probably requiring too much processing power for what my meagre PC can actually provide.

Anyways, getting to the point of the title in the blog, "Eek! Pop Music At 3am." Most of the video i'm editing has to be covered up with music - two songs to be exact - as the sound - as one would expect from a roving handycam amongst the rabble of drunken students - is particularly wishy washy, and so I have to use music that: would most likely appear on ZM radio, is aimed at the target group of ZM's listeners, and is in some way relevant. Being that Orientation Week is basically an excuse for new students to get a serious "drink on" before the important study begins, the obvious drinking songs sprung to mind: Bliss, One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer, Jesus I Was Evil, Dirty Deeds, Sweet Child O' Mine, Welcome To The Jungle and countless others that I'm sure you've found yourself drinking to before. However, and as I'm sure you'd probably have figured out by now, ZM's target audience, their particular format, is in no way similar to the "rocking" of my fave drinking songs, and so I find myself looking at ZM's website and in particular the "Top 20 Countdown" which looks like this.

1			(--)	3oh!3 - Don't Trust Me
2			(+1)	Flo Rida - Right Round
3			(+1)	Evermore - Hey Boys & Girls
4			(-2)	A.R. Rahman & The Pussycat dolls - Jai Ho
5			(+3)	Midnight Youth - All On Our Own
6			(-1)	Smashproof feat Gin Wigmore - Brother
7			(+5)	Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You
8			(-2)	Ladyhawke - My Delerium
9			(+4)	Basshunter - Angel In The Night
10			(-1)	Taylor Swift - Love Story
11			(-1)	Dane Rumble - Always Be Here
12			(-5)	Metro Station - Seventeen Forever
13			(-2)	Kid Cudi - Day And Night
14			(+1)	Lady Gaga - Lovegame
15			(-1)	Kings Of Leon - Revelry
16			(+1)	The Fray - You Found Me
17			(+1)	Ciara feat Justin Timberlake - Love And Sex And Magic
18			(-2)	Fall Out Boy - She's My Winona
19			(RE)	Beyonce - Halo
20			(--)	Britney Spears - If You Seek Amy

Now, I'm what you'd describe as a music lover, a music aficionado - if you will - and from looking at the Top 20 I'm only really aware, or at least have heard of, ten of the names on the list, some I would describe describe as a plague on the musical landscape: Fall Out Boy, Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson and Smashmouth - ew, just plain ew - and some i would describe as passable mediocrity: Beyonce, Kings Of Leon and - not actually on this list but further down the ZM page - Green Day and The Killers. Now I'm not bad mouthing ZM, I want to make that absolutely clear, as I do remember a time not so long ago when ZM, The Rock, Channel Z, Hauraki, and Mai Fm were my everday diet of music - my carbs if you will. But I will say that after around three hours of searching for suitable music, and listening to more U2-esque Kings Of Leon then one should at three a.m, I'm starting to get rather depressed at the state of music and my ears can handle no more Killers - their earlier stuff is ok but the latest album is awful - no more Beyonce - "Crazy In Love" has its merits - no more Green Day - Dookie was a great album but the more recent stuff is a little trite isn't it - and no more Kings Of Leon, no more pop, no more songs about bitches and hos, flash cars, jewellery, and how lost I would be without my "babby daddy."

Then just when I've written off humanity completely I look on CDwow - my favorite site for finding what's new and what's coming out - and find "Doves" have released a new album, "Kingdom of Rust," after two or three years of relative nothing since the incredible "Some Cities". "Kingdom of Rust" is well worth tracking down by whatever means possible to you - it's a superb album.

Here's a clip of why you should get into Doves if you haven't already - check out the drum solo at the end.



And here's them performing one of their new songs on Later... with Jools Holland - I wish that show was still on.



In other news, Bob Dylan has a new album called, "Together Through Life," coming out in a week, it'll be an anti-climax i know - but you never know. The Eels have a new album called "Hombre Lobo" due in June, along with Sonic Youth's new album "The Eternal."

Overall I guess the world of music isn't falling apart completely; all we need to do is get rid of Bono, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dog, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Natasha Beddingfield, Daniel Beddingfield, Daniel Powter, Lady Gaga, Pink, Fergie, Maroon 5, the rest of U2, Paul McCartney, and Chris Martin - then the world wouldn't seem so bad.