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Eurovision Cataclysm
May 19th, 2006 at 22:44
I’m getting slightly worried about my taste in music, and what better time is there to talk about music than when every other blog on the internet will be doing the same?
Publically, I claim that my musical disposition extends as far as punk (Bad Religion, Propagandhi etc) and “whatever Rage Against the Machine are”.
As regular readers of this blog may know, and what new readers won’t care about is that I seem to grudgingly like the awful RATM-sans-politics-and-rap Audioslave. Worse still, I like Hip-Hop. Previously, I’ve tried to pass this off as liking hip-hop in the pseudo-ironic “comedy” sense. In other words, DJ Format. I’ve also tried to disguise the fact I look hip-hop by calling it Jazz-Funk, which Warsawpack just about fall into. Unfortunately, this guise sort of falls apart because I also like the bitchin’ hip-hop “beats” of Sage Francis.
This worries me as not only is it a continuation of a cycle that’s happend before- I used to say “bitchin’” and “ace” in an ironic sense but they’ve worked their way into my everyday vocabulary. Aside from the risk of adopting hip-hop language like referring to my (mum’s) car as my “ride” and calling my friends “homies”, what unnerves me is that I currently like EUROVISION in an “ironic” way.
No, not the network of European broadcasters who share common resources and pool satellite feeds and so on- I hate that. I mean the annual song contest!
My current reasoning for like the Eurovision song contest is this:
- I like seeing the different European broadcasters work together, and seeing how poor the East European chromakey is.
- Some of the songs are so bad that they’re hilarious.
- I get to talk to my dutch friend on MSN about a TV event we can enjoy together, live.
I don’t think I’m old enough to cite enjoying Terry Wogan’s commentary yet, although I remember last years being quite good. Watching, erm, the semi-final on BBC Three last night (the remote, erm, fell on the floor and the channel changed, honest), I did enjoy Paddy O’Connell’s commentary- and he’s just about cool enough for me to admit to this.
The danger as I see it is that I might gradually go from enjoying the crappiness of the entries and the slightly-xenophobic “laughing at those stupid foreigners” angle, to genuinely enjoying the music. The Turkish entry a few years ago was a ska/punk song, and it was surprisingly good (by Eurovision standards)- I think I was vaguely tempted to vote for it. This year, two entries have particularly stood out for me. And yes, it’s the predictable ones. Finland’s heavy metal song and Lithuania’s “We are the winners of Eurovision” song. The Finnish song is disturbingly close to something I might consider possibly listening to out of choice maybe. And I like the Lithuanian entry for reasons I can’t articulate. They’re certainly better than Ian Huntley and his schoolgirl sidekicks.
And is this a slippery slope? If I’m identifying with popular culture in so much as being able to make light conversation about music, could I end up being enthusiastic about Big Brother and having some social skillz? Could I end up posting blog entries speculating on which two celebrities are going to win Celebrity Love Island? (I assume that two people must win… I mean, surely? Love Island suggests a couple?)
I think I’m going to enjoy Saturday night’s TV. Christ, even Doctor Who’s populist so I can’t act elitist by liking sci-fi. I’m clearly just a prole like the rest of you scum.
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