I'm woefully unhip: a brief foray into Hit Radio

So for the past few days during drive time I've been listening to hit radio. I admit, it's because it's pledge time on NPR and well, I suck and have only sent them money once.

Anyway, it's been quite a while since I listened to commercial radio and man, there's even less music played during drive time than I ever remember. I have heard a lot of talk, and of course a lot of commercials. From a quick google on radio formats, this station, "Mix 93.3" probably falls into the "Contemporary Hit Radio" format (what used to be Top 40). The talk is mostly good-natured banter about TV shows, celebrity news, etc. This is at least bearable because it doesn't revolve around prank phone calls or other mean-spirited nonsense. Yes I'm a cranky bastard but I don't like listening to cruel radio... go figure.

I do enjoy a dose of slick pop music every once in a while. "There are worse things than pop music," I always say. OK, in truth I'm an absolute sucker for it. But in my non-scientific study of morning and afternoon drive time over the past 3 days, probably a total of 120 minutes, I have mostly been denied my bubblegum fix. I have heard seven songs, total. Not seven different songs, mind you. What I've heard is three songs once each and one song four times.

I can't believe I'm about to analyze these, but here are the songs I heard once apiece (I admit I had to do some googling to get the song titles and artist names):

"Grillz," Nelly. A hip hop ode to the jewelry in Mr. Nelly's dental work. It's entertaining enough to hear... once.

"Unwritten," Natasha Bedingfield. A very catchy song with a positive vibe. Ayla (the unusually tall basketball-playing straight-A-student) sang this on Idol a week before getting voted off by the C students of America. I actually like this and could probably hear this a number of times before getting tired of it.

"My Humps," Black Eyed Peas. I'd previously heard a few seconds of this in a phone commercial. A female rapper/singer describes the attractive qualities of her "hump(s)" and "lady lumps," the gifts they bring and her struggle dealing with the apparently unwanted non-gift-related attention she receives from men as a result.

Finally, the song I've heard four times is "SOS" by Rihanna. It's built on top of a sample from Soft Cell's "Tainted Love." Even though I've heard it four times (and now have repeated that fact three times) I couldn't begin to tell you what it's about. Something about needing to be rescued from something. From what the DJs say I get the feeling this song is probably all about the dancing in the video.

Thankfully, pledge week is almost over and I will soon take my deadbeat ass back to NPR.