OK I understand that I'm not always on top form with the latest trends. I'm not into local fashion or local movies, I rarely watch the news and I don't read those trashy gossip magazines that tell you which singer is sleeping with which movie star. But when it comes to music, I always thought I was pretty clued-up. Until I hit university, of course.
Suddenly I'm hearing all these odd band names that I've never heard of before...and yet everyone else seems to know exactly who the band is! More than that, everyone knows their latest album, the lyrics to all their songs, when the band began, where the lead singer got married and all those pointless facts that only really come in handy when playing Trivial Pursuit. And here I sit, quietly blushing in my corner, unwilling to admit that I'd never heard of Liquid Deep before university. Or Zebra and Giraffe. Or even Goldfish (that one I am particularly embarrassed about). And once I'd heard their music, I didn't understand what all the fuss was about. I mean sure, each band has one or two good songs (examples are Oxymoron by Zebra and Giraffe, or whatever Goldfish song it was that my brother played on his phone for me) but why do people get so excited about these bands? Is it just because they're local? Or because they're playing live at Rhodes?
I have a strong suspicion that most of the Rhodents don't actually know these bands. But when posters start to go up around campus, students rush home to search Wikipedia for the latest 'facts', download the latest album and memorise the lyrics so that they can appear as cool as their friends. I can even go so far as to extend this theory and say: Rhodes is full of undercover hipsters. What is a hipster, you ask? Hah! I may not know who these bands are, but at least I know what a hipster is :P seriously though, a hipster is usually someone who likes to 'break away from the commercial trends' and listen to strange, local and unknown bands with names like Kill All Nerds and The Bittersweet Yetis (yes I made those up. But I kid you not, I have heard stranger band names). In fact, a good way to explain hipster-dom is through a joke...
Q: How many hipsters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: It's an obscure number. You've probably never heard of it.
Gettit?
So you might be asking why I am posting such a rant today. Well, apparently the Union (see Rhodent Slang) is hosting a performance by Plush. I've seen numerous Rhodes students posting excited statuses about how Plush is playing here, and how excited they are. My first thought was: who the eff is Plush? Naturally I rushed to Wikipedia and downloaded their album.
OK no, I didn't. I looked it up on Wikipedia for the sake of this post, but it was too much effort to try to download their music. My point IS, Plush is not quite as obscure as some of the other bands that have passed through the hallowed halls of Rhodes campus, and is thus a band I will have to add to the list of "Things I was embarrassed about not knowing". Not that I'm going to buy a ticket to go and watch them, of course. I have no doubt that they'll be very good. But I'm quite content to plod happily along through my playlists of MCR, the Beatles, Nickelback (yes! I listen to them! Deal with it), Jason Mraz, New Found Glory, Secondhand Serenade and numerous other commercial bands frequently played on the radio. I pride myself on not conforming to the non-conformist ways of the hipster! I am a non-conformist by not conforming to the non-conformists! Thus I am a conformist to the world and a non-conformist to the typical ways of Rhodes!
Confused? Yeah, me too.
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