Bugs Be The Bunny

Everyone has their kids in cars stories. Parents drive their kids around, listening to their nutty conversations with friends and singing the wrong lyrics to every song on the radio. Here’s mine…

Last week we happened upon a catchy summer tune (in November, mind you) by Nelly. Ride Wit Me debuted in 2004. There aren’t many words to this almost twelve-year-old song but the chorus is shouted numerous times in the background…

“Must Be the Money!”

This goes on for a few bars and I hear my son singing away…

“Bugs Be the Bunny!”

I know this it is nowhere near as funny to read. It was one of those had to be there moments, but one I will always smile about. He is so innocent and his frame of reference, endearing. I am thankful he makes up his own words. There are few songs on the radio these days that I want him to sing along to.

Since the Beatles hit the tarmac, every generation thinks the music that comes after theirs is crap. I’m no different. Except in my case, it happens to be true.

I understand disliking music because of its message, or decibel level. I have never cared for thrash metal but I don’t begrudge those that do. I lived through the 80’s watching Dee Snyder address Capital Hill claiming the PMRC was a form of censorship. It all seemed like a big soap opera to me. I think I was twelve at the time.

I blame 1999 Britney Spears and that damn schoolgirl video for the end of good music as we know it. It was that moment music started its slow death becoming the cleavage competition many female singers succumbed to decades ago. Many have voluntarily given up the true power of their voices for the illusionary power of their bodies. I am talking about mainstream pop music, mind you. I can appreciate a good pop song if the melody is good. I can overlook a few lines about sex and sex and more sex but now in my early forties, trying to raise a boy into a good man, I’m done. I love to dance just as much as the next PTO mama. I admit I have a handful of Pitbull songs on my playlist. Pitbull is a great entertainer and very popular but I can no longer overlook insulting and degrading lyrics for the sake of a good dance beat.

I heard a song the other day and thought, now there’s a good song, I guess music isn’t dead. Turns out, it was Michael Jackson’s Love Never Felt So Good. So music isn’t dead, you just have to be dead to have a good song. That’s harsh. There are a few that I cling to: Adele, you had me at hello…is it any surprise she sold three million copies of her new collection in the first week? People are clamoring for good music. We’ve gone too long without it.

I read the other day that mainstream music is now being recorded at a frequency to facilitate agitation in the human brain. Why, you may ask? The short answer is, it makes money. Email me if you want to discuss the long answer. Now knowing that, I choose to listen to music that makes me feel better about things, not worse.

Kirtan is a genre of music incorporating chanting and mantras of a devotional nature. If you want music that feeds your soul, I urge you to listen to some Jai-Jagdeesh or Sirgun Kuar or please please, Gurunam Singh. The man hits a spot long forgotten in today’s music. I used to get my musical bliss from my first love, Bon Jovi. That love affair’s been going on for thirty years. Jon, will you ever reconcile with Richie??

I get it, music from our impressionable years instantly takes us back to the days when our whole life stretched before us with endless possibility. Yet we only could see a day ahead as far as making plans was concerned. When music is good, it connects us to something greater than ourselves. It connects us to the greater part of ourselves. We may swoon over the person singing the song but it is more than their appearance we are attracted to. We are drawn to the powerful feelings they and their music ignite within us. That is the secret to all attraction. We recognize a part of ourselves that we have forgotten.

Music is a vehicle to connect to our souls. What kind of vehicle do you want to Ride in?