Someone's Got To Love Them, I Suppose...

On weekday mornings, my routine is well considered and rehearsed. Currently, it begins with my alarm going off about an hour before I need to get up, mostly because it's January and it's still dark when I get up, and my brain will simply refuse to acknowledge any possibility that it isn't 2am with at least three more hours of Z's before I need to rise. Therefore, I spend that hour before I get up constantly pressing "snooze", which I know is a stupid idea but at the time, I'm usually so tired that I've got a better chance of working out the answer to the Middle Eastern Conflict than I have of figuring this fact out. Anyway, many people tend to read the papers at this time, as do I. However bearing in mind that it's 2012 and not 1972, "reading the papers" to me consists of checking Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and whatnot on my phone for about 10 minutes in bed. Finally, after the epic battle between the recognition that I need to actually get out of bed and the comfort of being toasty warm while in bed, I proceed to the shower in a manner that might convince any onlookers that the zombie invasion has begun. Only once copious amounts of tea have been ingested with so much sugar that I should be classed as a level 3 explosive do I start to resemble a human and I can get on with my day.


However, whatever the event, whether it's going to work, going on holiday, going to Tesco's or going round the bend, I will always always always have an MP3 player going in the car instead of Radio 1. Honestly, I have more time for a spot of torture than I do Radio 1! I used to work in an office that had Radio 1 on constantly, and trust me, there's only so many times that you can listen to the same song before you start rocking in your seat and proclaiming yourself Emperor Penguin of Finland. This, coupled with the fact that I simply cannot listen to many of the presenters (the big guy in the mornings seemingly was raised without any comedic timing, and comrade Jo Wiley seems to love absolutely every band on earth equally) and to make worse the fact that they play the same five songs endlessly, they don't ever play anything else! I've never heard a classic 80's smasher, some awesome ska tunes or a single heavy power chord that wasn't in the top 10. This becomes wearisome, so I refuse to listen. Instead, my eye-fone (and previously my eye-pod) provide the musical escape in my car. That way, I don't have to listen to someone devoid of all funny, the same song stuck on repeat, nor a news service that thinks some celeb's public burp is higher in the priority list than the latest scientific discovery.

Problem is, this tends to leave me totally out of the loop when it comes to new music. As much as I enjoy rockin' out to Silverchair or Pearl Jam on my commute, I'm left dazed and confused when someone talks about a Nicky Minaj or some Justin Biebers. This is awkward for me, because I'm nowhere near being considered old, yet the art of being utterly confused at the noises that come from Radio 1 and declaring that the music of yesteryear being superior and "real" bear all the hallmarks of no longer "getting it". See, I don't see age as the ultimate definer of being "old". Instead, it's when you find that a small group of teenagers sitting around causes you to become unnecessarily jumpy, or when you can't remember the last time you watched TV while laying on the floor, mostly because you're scared that you won't be able to get back up again. Anyway, I digress. Having not experienced what a Biebers is, I consulted the internets. Turns out he's a Canadian singist who will either drive you wild with frustration or infatuation, depending on whether you are a 14 year old girl or not. However, the opinion was pretty much universal among my friends. I won't type what they said, but let's put it this way; it's the sort of thing that will make you go "such a tw...uuuuuummmm, so how's the weather" if he walked into the room. That's right, it wasn't nice.

Thing is, despite his recorded work being the sole reason why AutoTune is still being used, he can actually sing on his own. He's not my cup of tea, musically, but then again I'm not a screaming 14 year old girl. For this same reason, I don't like JLS. However, I don't get why it seems to be the done thing to whinge about any of them, really. For example, I don't like JLS. I don't like Bieber. I don't like Nicky Minaj or what looks like her wig. I don't like Twilight. Duh, they're not made with me in mind! They're made for totally different people, and yet it's a wonder why I don't get them. If you're 13 and prone to saying OMG-LOL-ROFL, or describe something as ""hilar", or someone as "jel" or "reem" then you'll probably listen to something like Nirvana or Aerosmith with the face you make when you step in someone else's freshly chewed gum. Some of the jokes are priceless, such as "Kim Kardashian's 72 day wedding: still a better love story that Twilight", but I don't get the bile that some people have about them.  If you like it, cool. If it's clearly not meant for you, calm down about it. Someone else probably likes it.

Except for getting up while it's still dark. I don't think there's anyone who enjoys that. Nor can I think of anything else which quite deserves the label: "first world problem".

Apart from that moment after you've dragged yourself downstairs and poured a bowl of cereal without checking if you have any milk. And you don't.


(Images credited to Graur Codrin and Freedigitalphotos.net)

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