Off The Charts...Literally

This morning, I watched VH1's top 20 video countdown. Just for S & G, as I like to say. I'm so out of touch with what's actually on today's contemporary music stations that I was curious how many artists I would know.

It was not pretty.

Yeah, sure there were some pretty awful entries by people I'd heard of like a duet by Beyonce' and Shakira (quite forgettable) and a horrible song by Gwen Stefani and some hip-hop guy (ewww). There was Idol winner Carrie Underwood's very Reba McIntire song "When He Cheats" (or something like that) and Idol loser's Chris Daughtry and his band's Creed rip-off in first place. I wasn't all that knocked out. Only one song out of the twenty really knocked my socks off and the band has done it before.

The Killers (below) and "Read My Mind." They show me some glimmer of hope that good, melodic rock and roll isn't dead just yet. It's only sleeping. Thankfully, bands like them and Snow Patrol, O.K. Go, among a few others are still putting out some catchy, haunting tunes.

In the meantime, I'll keep enjoying my own eclectic tastes in the car every day for my regular commute --- whether it's The Who, Elvis Costello, Dixie Chicks or Bobby Darrin. Yeah, I'm a weird one but I'd kinda like to keep it that way.