Fish on a SoapBox

During the week, I park on the 4th floor of my office underground parking garage. Being that close to the core of the earth is warm, to say the least, but the worst part is that there is limited radio and phone reception. Being a radio listener, it's fairly annoying, but there is one particular station that I can still get in the garage. So I switch to that station for 5 minutes when I'm entering the garage in the morning and listen for the 5 minutes it takes me to leave in the evening.

Leaving last Thursday, I just left that station on because there was a particularly dance-ish kind of song that came on. Since I always sing along, I started to listen to the words and was in shock to hear this:

'Cause we all just wanna be big rock stars
Live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars
The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap
We'll all stay skinny cause we just won't eat
And we'll hang out in the coolest bars
In the VIP with the movie stars
Every good gold digger's gonna wind up there
Every Playboy bunny with her bleach blonde hair
We'll get you anything with that evil smile
Everybody's got a drug dealer on speed dial
well..Hey hey I wanna be a rock star

Now I appreciate a good beat as much as the next girl, but HEY, HEY -- where did we shed the basics on the climb up the billboard charts? The worst part is that this is a pretty catchy tune. So before you know it, we (and I'm including the kids who make up the general listening audience) are all whistling a ditty about the drug dealer on speed dial without really thinking about what is swirling around in that noggin.

But everyone tells me that I can't fight the radio stations. Too many of us are calloused to the lyrics or are willing to overlook them for a "good" song. The fight against lyrics is a fight of moral versus freedom, where there are no agreed-upon standards. Fighting the music industry and those who promote it is like trying to change the course of a strong river that has dug its path slowly over time. It's virtually impossible.

So I just won't listen to that station anymore. If I can't change the course of the river, I can be the Salmon.

And there's something very refreshing about the splish-splash sound of water that I now hear for 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes in the evening.