#28 - Detroit Music

While there are many aspects about living in Michigan that I love, one of the things that bothers me is the amount of musicians that I hate who come from around here. I mean, Detroit is Motown, so we've got that going for us. However, most of the radio stations I listen to don't play Motown. The Detroit acts I hear are ones that I hated when I first heard them. But because they are from around these parts, the radio stations play them all the damn time! For instance:

Kid Rock - seriously, this Sweet Home Alabama/Werewolves of London mash-up - really, do you like it that much, people? I mean, the Bawitdaba, or whatever it was called, had its moments, but you just knew he was peaking with that. Then he gives us "I know it stinks in here, 'cause I'm the s***" debacle, the thing with Sheryl Crowe where they do that weird computer thing with his voice, and heaven forbid the "Cowboy Baybay" POS. Now, I hear this Sweet Home Alabama All Summer Long song at least twice a day, and I spend maybe 20 minutes listening to the radio every day. I get it - he is a hometown boy, and people seem to like his stuff. Carrie even has friends who find him attractive. (Seriously?) But it just isn't my cup of tea. Yet I have to hear it all the damn time!

Eminem - well, I really liked Lose Yourself. And that's about it. I haven't really listened to his albums, but Stan was a debacle, the cleaning out my closet song was actually really bad, and all his catchy stuff for the radio plays like pop to me. I don't get the appeal, but really I do like the one song by him. I just don't care to listen to him bitch about his mom and his wife and his kid and his uncle or something or whatever - I get it, things sucked. But when someone writes a book about a tragedy in their life, they don't keep harping on the same shit on every subsequent book! Do more stuff like Lose Yourself! No more of this "nowadays everybody wants to talk" stuff. But, needless to say every channel loves him up here. Even the one that proudly boasts that they don't play rap.

Ted Nugent - really, no respect on a personal level for this guy. I mean, have your political beliefs and all, but don't say stupid shit. Have some sort of class and intelligence when voicing yourself politically, don't just be closed minded and freaky. As for his music, well, if the radio stations played the Damn Yankees, then we would be good. Seriously - he is great on Come Again. But the one Ted Nugent song that they play on the radio that I hear at least once a week is this gawd awful "Fred Bear". Apparently this is a real guy, not just some bear, and he is a personal friend of Nugent, so I can respect that. But I am just not a fan of the song. I wonder if I would like it if I didn't hear it all the time, but whatever. I just can't stand the guy.

Bob Seger - OK - this is the toughest. Seriously, dude went to Pioneer High School here in Ann Arbor. Down on Main Street is a song about Main Street Ann Arbor. He is my hometown. Yet, when I was growing up, I always joked that I tried to live in a Seger-free zone, because I hated his stuff. So I am torn here, because I have such a degree of civic pride here in A2 that I have never had anywhere else, so when someone sings about my town - I don't know. I am just saying, why couldn't Radiohead be from Ann Arbor?

Hey - at least we have Detroit Rock City and Motown and Jack White to fall back on. I am probably forgetting someone significant, but whatever - it just seems like every musician that I hate ends up being from around here. Whatever - the sample size is too small. Yeah, that's it.