In eleventh grade when I wrote for my high school newspaper I got screwed into writing an article about our Battle of the Bands. I had serious interests in being a music journalist which were largely fueled by the movie Almost Famous and Sarah Lewitinn. This was not how I intended to pursue those interests. Unfolding almost exactly as I pictured it would, I described a completely uninspired high school band as metal. I really wanted to describe them as nu metal, but I was trying to be kind. The morning the papers were delivered, I got approached by this “band’s” “frontman” in fourth period Russian History and informed, in the most indignant tone possible, that they were not metal, but in fact proto-punk-seventh-wave-prog-rock.
From this second on, I have never wanted to be a music journalist. I figured if high school bands were this big of assholes, any musician that ever received a shred of positive reinforcement must be a fucking nightmare. The genuinely famous and/or talented seem to (confusingly) be nicer and less delusional, but God knows you’re going to be dealing with this Satanic middle group most of the time.
So that’s why I hate writing about music.
But,
Last night in my continued Buzzfeed Video YouTube binge, I got recommended this music video. I almost never click on recommended music, because it is almost always a thirteen year old girl singing country music with heavy Christian imagery, and I WILL NOT BE TRICKED AGAIN THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRLS, but this drew me in:
Holy shit I am fucking in love with this girl. She instantly reminded me of music’s power to creep you the fuck out. I felt like I was a teenager watching the music videos Chris Cunningham directed for Aphex Twin, or the screeching descent into chaos that is Veruca Salt’s Shimmer Like a Girl, with a dash of Jamie Lee Curtis’s weird, sexualized virgin in Halloween. I had forgotten how much I missed that feeling.
I can’t help but think this is what all those black-lipstick, upside down cross loving, pseudo-junkie teens are going for, but Meg Myers actually delivers. With music. In a pair of sneakers.
I feel the same way about music journalism. After interviewing all walks of life during my magazine writing stint at Fort Campbell, I definitely recall the musicians being the most sensitive and arrogant. I remember interviewing the same guy for another article one time. He rudely said to me, “I guess you’re going to use the quotes you like.”
You’re an excellent writer though and better than a lot of these so-called music journalists out there. I enjoy reading your blog, and I’m sure others do as well. TEAM CAT FIGHT FOR LIFE!
Thanks dude! I really needed some… positivity haha. I love your blog and your new name is SO CUTE! I don’t know how you remember half this stuff in such vivid detail. It’s also like, the scariest thing to read ever. To see the dates you listed and be like WTF 2003?!?! I don’t even like looking at a year with two zeros in it, it’s so spooky.
You’re welcome and thank you! I feel like it’s a throwback and advantage of being an INFJ personality. I’ll forget my password to a work account, but I can still recall the time we referred to Sugarcult as Sugar Nuts!