At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, here’s a lyric from Switchfoot’s new album NOTHING IS SOUND that’s got me thinking. The verbose vagueness of this lyric leaves room for the listener to interpret through his/her own lense on life at the moment. And it inspires me to talk pretty and use big words like “verbose”. Check out “Happy Is A Yuppie” word and share what it means to you at the moment by leaving a comment down below.
Everyone dies
Everyone loves a fight
Nothing is sound
Nothing is right side right
Evening comes, when the sun goes down in red
Nothing is cool
When will all the fighting end
When will all the fighting end
Happy is a yuppie word
Nothing in the world could fail me now
It’s empty as an argument
I’m running down a life that won’t cash out (cash out)
Everything fails
Everything runs it’s course
A time and a place, for all of this loving war
Everyone buys, everyone’s gotta price, and nothing is new
When will all the failures rise
When will all the failures rise, rise!
Happy is a yuppie word
Nothing in the world could fail me now
It’s empty as an argument
I’m running down a life that won’t cash out
Happy is a yuppie word
Blessed is the man who’s lost it all
Happy is a yuppie word (word)
Looking for an orphanage
I’m looking for a bridge I can’t burn down
I don’t believe the emptiness
I’m looking for the kingdom coming down
Everything is meaningless
I want more than simple cash can buy
Happy is a yuppie word
Happy is a yuppie word
Happy is a yuppie word
Happy is a yuppie,
Nothing is sound
Nothing is sound
Nothing is sound
Nothing is sound
Nothing is sound
Nothing is sound
Nothing is sound
Happy is a yuppie word
Nothing in the world could fail me now
Happy is a yuppy word (word)
So calm down, yeah!
”Obviously no single album is going to satisfy everyone’s musical tastes, but rock can be especially tricky. Go too far with sophistication, and you lose the average listener. Make it too simplistic, and people will say it lacks substance. Too hard, it becomes metal; too soft, it’s suddenly considered pop. Look back through the history of rock and you’ll find that the bands with tremendous cross-demographical success—the Coldplays, U2s, and Beatles of the world—fulfill Goldilocks’s proverbial “just right.” In short, it’s a balancing act.
This is partly why everyone from teeny-boppers to middle-aged rock fanatics has recently fallen for Switchfoot. It was just over two years ago when they released The Beautiful Letdown and toured the club circuit, as fans quietly hoped for a mainstream breakthrough. After selling 2.5 million copies, the Southern California band officially arrived, going from a smart garage rock band to one of the most popular bands in music today. Now the question is, will they go the distance?”
-From Russ Breimeier’s review of Switchfoot’s “Nothing is Sound” released yesterday. Now on iTunes and in good music stores everywhere
Do you agree?
From my seat near the bottom of the Christian Music food chain, I’m witnessing what I can only describe as a swelling rebellion by those in the Christina Music industry against one another - especially against radio and retail. Artists, being inherently self-absorbed and whiny, lacking self-control and a volume knob, and the hardest hit financially when things don’t go their way, are the loudest and most venomous voices of the rebellion at the moment. I have not talked with an artist in the last year who is pleased with the current state of affairs in the industry and who doesn’t in some way blame radio for its woes. The artists are culled from all the major labels and a couple independents and their opinions range from livid or disinterested to saddened and leaving.
But radio isn’t the only face on the dart board. Artists, both successful and not, are increasingly engaged in the bashing of other artists seen as less than their ideal, of labels and radio stations seen as out to make money first and represent their Jesus second, and of retailers for screening CDs for the word “whore” while not applying the same this-might-offend filter to t-shirts and books because those products, unlike CDs, are sold with a return policy.
But artists aren’t the only one’s raising their voices and shaking their fists. Labels are angry at radio stations for not helping them sell records, and lots of them, better than they do. Radio stations, wielding most of the industry’s power at the moment, are pissed off at ungrateful labels and artists for complaining at all while station ratings and revenues continue to increase. Retailers are pissed off at artists for selling their wares on-line and at labels for selling them on iTunes and at radio stations for not playing more artists, which would help them sell more CDs.
Can’t we just get along?
Not right now. There seems to be some good coming from this tension. And so this fighting may be a necessary evil used to move us towards understanding and a better representation of Christ together. The animosity has gone on long enough in some of us that it has fizzled and turned into self-examination and a craving for peace.
The hold up to peace at the moment, in my opinion, might not be our differences, but instead what we have in common: a desire to be successful that at times outweighs our desire to be faithful. And the inability to pursue faithfulness at the possible expense of personal financial success.
So for my part in making in peace I’ll begin by confessing. I was mad at everyone, all of you, fans included, for more than a year - a wasted year I can’t get back. And my hostility made me say and do things I deeply regret today.
And I’m moving to step two of peace-making by entertaining all points of view, asking all parties what they want, what they’re mad about, why they do what they do and why they think the rest of us should do what we do. That’s a good place to start: listening, believing no side is all good or all bad (especially my own), believing everyone can teach me something. And they are.
There are many voices to hear in the rebellion at the moment. Many confident and brave people daring to say publicly what they are feeling and thinking about the strange mixing of commerce and faith. I’ll post links to them when I find them. Let’s listen together with a teachable mind, willing to appraise all points of view and judge ourselves first in light of them. Maybe with enough listening and self-examination we can stop being pissed and start getting better.
Here’s the first of many voices I hope to bring to SHLOG.COM’s many industry ears. This is not an endorsement of any point of view. If you work in the industry and have a different viewpoint, feel free to blog it or e-mail it for the rest of to hear. I promise to listen.
Peace,
Shaun
Half of WAY-FM’s West Palm Beach morning show comes clean with his take on the purpose of Christian radio and some spanking words for it’s critics. My tan friend Brant Hansen writes the following:
“I work at this radio station that plays CCM. We play “positive and encouraging” music. This turns off some of my more reflective friends (more than a dozen who read this thing, muchas smoochas...) when they hear this phrase. I love my friends. But honestly: What do you expect? Spurgeon? Aquinas?”
Read the rest of the Brant rant here. And then discuss amongst yourselves while I formulate a “positive and encouraging” response of my own.
Warning to all you country music loving SHLOGGERS: This is gonna sting a little.
Check out a recent rant over at RelevantMagazine.com about country music. They even take a swing at Music City itself. Here’s a taste:
“Country music used to have real men like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Lyle Lovett and Johnny Cash. These men you would actually believe grew up in the country and worked hard for a living. In the last 10 years country music has made a joke of itself, and if I were a country music artist, I would be embarrassed to be a part of it. These new country artists live in their mansions in Nashville, have never worked a day in their lives and sing about NASCAR, watermelons and women. The songs range from cheesy to cheesier, no one bothering to attempt anything that hasn’t been done before. It’s hard to tell one song from the other. The men sing in the same “speaking more than singing” voice trying to sound like they grew up on the ranch. It truly is a sad day for country music because there is no room for innovation, and unfortunately the Redneck Comedy Tour has had a direct effect on the market all too much. Now people think it’s somehow “cool” to be a hick (which I would define as “an unintelligent man or woman with no social graces and no desire to better themselves in any way or sometimes take a shower”). “
Off course it’s only fair to mention that Relevant Magazine is created and published by Floridians. Maybe the humidity has molded a few brain cells. Or maybe they’re right. What do you think?
