For your information I don't like the music of Faith Hill. This kiss, this kiss, this fucking kiss! Okay girl we get it, now shut up. That said, the woman's music is ubiquitous. It has been playing in the background of my existence since what seems like forever. Nary a year of my college life has gone by without a sort of unprompted serenade from Faith herself. Her songs are played with tedious repetitious consistency in movie theaters, restaurants, malls, and radio stations all across mainstream America. Like the black plague in the middle ages, her music is unpleasant and difficult to avoid. Or at least all of this is how I once thought. But the thing is that over the years I've developed a sort of ironic appreciation for certain aspects of Faith Hill's music and persona. Now, I hate to use the word ironic simply because of its hipster connotations, but it's true. On a gut level songs like "The Way You Love Me" don't make my soul soar. OK, to be fair on a gut level I find most of Faith's stuff to be vaguely annoying at best.
And the reason why such whining is so delightful to me is, I think, because I'm a fan. I will illustrate what I mean by way of an example. OK, so a few years ago Faith Hill had a song entitled "All I Ever Wanted" that played at the end of a mediocre Katherine Heigl romcom called Life As We Know It. Both the movie and the song contained within basically offended every aesthetic sensibility I had. Everything that I held to be valuable in art and entertainment was obliterated by these crass commercial products.
And that, in its own weird way, was a great thing. If I didn't have stuff like Faith Hill's Breathe album to mark as the enemy it would make everything I like a little less valuable. It is commonly thought that the joy in fandom comes from heaping praises onto your favorite artifacts or creations. But I think another, equally essential, part of fandom involves marking and embracing things that offend your sensibilities. You can't really know what you like until you know what you dislike.
Sorry I'm just now commenting on this; I read a few days ago and am just now getting around to it!
ReplyDelete" her music is unpleasant and difficult to avoid." Wow- didn't know you hated her so much! I distinctly recall going downstairs in the Sears on State and purchasing that Breathe album- sonic bliss (or ear murder for you!!!)
I love that in a single post you can single-handedly deride both Faith, and by implication, Katherine Heigl. I am a dating robot.
I, as you know, am a fan but I loved this post because it gave another perspective on fandom. As people have said (more often than not to criticize me) we define ourselves not by what we like, but by what we dislike.
"But I think another, equally essential, part of fandom involves marking and embracing things that offend your sensibilities. You can't really know what you like until you know what you dislike." That is so true!
BTW don't worry about the font on your header- the title is still clear. It helped changing the color to yello
ReplyDeleteOf course I don't hate Faith as much as I say in the post, I was (a) exaggerating for comic and dramatic effect and (b) using over-dramatics simply because it's fun. My more honest feeling about Faith Hill would be ambivalence, but that's not fun to write about. I actually have This Kiss (yes, which I make fun of in my post) on my iTunes and think its a fun mindless pop song. And yeah, I still have that CD that I bought on a dare at the Sears of "Brad's Stroller" fame and I have such fond memories of our Windows Movie Maker "The Way You Love Me" slideshow!!!! "Bringing Out the Elvis" is still awful though, even if it's existence coupled with its awfulness makes it an amazing artifact (I'm sure you'll get what I mean).
ReplyDeleteI was mostly inspired to write this post based on conversations I had at the theater when Life as We Know it came out! I am a dating robot!! Best part of Killers. I hate the "Katherine Heigl" movies that seemed to be cranked out every few years (The Ugly Truth being the worst of the bunch, of course!!), but I don't mind Heigl as an actress and I'd wish she'd pick better roles! She has perfected the romcom persona, but she's just in crappy movies.
"As people have said (more often than not to criticize me) we define ourselves not by what we like, but by what we dislike." - how is that a criticism of you?
Thanks a lot for the feedback on the blog title! Don't apologize for not commenting right away - I am way busy right now and I expect you are too. I consider it very cool to have not just a loyal reader but a loyal commenter as well. Thanks Señor Lobo!