Roslyn is Pushy/Down with my XM Radio

My friend Roslyn is a pushy woman.  We were hanging out at an annual gathering this weekend and she learned that both my kids are now in preschool and immediately accused me of being a layabout whore who neglects this blog for no good reason since the kids are no longer such a drain on my time.  I weakly protested with excuses of laundry and a house that looks like poor and messy university students squat in it, but she was forceful and unyielding.  So here I am.  To tell you the truth, I thought it had been like, a year since I last posted but it was in fact only about 5 months...not to say that's a good thing for a blog, but compared to what it was in my head, I'm quite impressed with myself though Roslyn clearly is not.

So let's get to it, shall we?  The subject I would like to discuss today is radio music.  I hate listening to the radio.  I hate the ads, I hate the poor sound quality, and I hate about a third of the songs that come on.  Enter XM Radio.  We got a "free" 3 month trial when we bought our pimpin' minivan back in October, and it expired in January.  I never planned to keep it, because you have to pay for it and I'm cheap about random things, plus I usually just listen to show tunes on my iPod.  But then there was a crucial period in December when the iPod went on the blink and I started putting on XM Radio to have something to listen to.  

XM Radio was a revelation.  A revelation!  Did you know that it has no ads? It makes sense, because they charge a subscription, but it never really occurred to me how wonderful ad-less radio could be.  The sound quality was lovely, none of that grainy radio sound, and there are tons of channels...there's even a dedicated show tunes channel!  And for the first time in ages, I was listening to current music.  Prior to this, I still thought Britney was current.  I'd be all, "Hit me baby one more time!" and then be reminded that that song came out 13 years ago.  And that I hated it.

So now I'm all down with it.  I listen to David Guetta and Nicki Minaj and Gym Class Heroes.  I consistently skip over Justin Bieber because I can't stand that Boyfriend song.  And of course, there's the current number 1 hit in most of the Hits One countdown on channel 2: One Direction and their disgusting song "What Makes You Beautiful".

I hate this song.  I hate it so much.  It's a terrible song.

I like the melody, the tune is catchy and the beat makes me want to bop.  But the lyrics are abhorrent.  Since the first time I heard it, it has made me wince with its sledgehammer grossness. 

You're insecure

Don't know what for

You're turning heads when you walk through the door

And later:

Baby you light up my world like nobody else

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed

The way you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell

You don't know oh oh

You don't know you're beautiful

And of course:

I don't know why

You're being shy

And turn away when I look in your ey-ey-eyes

Why do we have a song that celebrates insecurity in young girls?  Why is it hot when someone is rude enough not to look at you when you're talking to them?  Since when was it romantic to sing songs about someone with low self esteem and no sense of their own worth?

I can see how a song talking about how a girl is lovely because she's not vain and nasty might be acceptable.  But if I were this girl, I wouldn't love it if someone wrote a song for me and it started with them baldly stating that I'm insecure.  That's not much of a turn on.  Also, I've been told by the 13-year-old girl who comes over to play with the kids while I make dinner that One Direction are dreamy hunky.  If I had a daughter I would hate for her to think that the way to land a hunky dreamboat would be to display a lack of self-confidence while frequently flipping her hair to overwhelm those around her while smiling at the ground to show how she doesn't know she's beautiful.  Does this picture gross anyone else out?

Hate this song.  XM Radio, please stop playing it.

Roslyn, chill out for awhile okay?