Chiwawa "Don't Wanna Talk"

I had this really strange, funny, illuminating experience early this week. It was thought-provoking---professionally, societally, politically, humanistically.

It started out simply enough, with the most mundane of events.

I got an email from a band, requesting that we play their music.

How many of these do I receive a week? Dozens. Maybe dozens and dozens.

Some are very specific and interesting to me. Like, earlier this week, I got a message from someone that I speak to frequently at Sony, letting me know that a Bruce Springsteen song is on the way.

Equally as common, is to get an email from someone I’ve never heard of, and has likely never heard of me. Some artists will just get an email list of hundreds of radio station program directors, and indiscriminately send out a blast.

Let me tell you, if you’re in a band, this is a waste of your time. When I get one of these, I know that this band has no idea what our station sounds like, and they have no idea whether or not they’re appropriate for our station. It’s really, truly like a piece of junk mail, asking if I want my shingles power-washed, enough though I live in a brick home. And it generally gets treated the same way.

I deleted it, and didn’t think too much about it, other than to have a thought flit past my brain that CHIWAWA is a terrible band name.

Until a reply email arrived in my box.

“Please remove me from your mailing list.”

Some program director, somewhere in middle America responded to the initial email, and somehow I got copied on it.

“Remove me from this list, thanks,” came another one, a few seconds later.

“Unsubscribe, please.” “Remove me from your list.” “Take me of this list.”

And another, and another. I had twenty emails within 3 or 4 minutes.

“If someone else wants to be removed, just reply to Chiwawa. By ‘replying all,’ everyone on the list gets the same message,” some thoughtful programmer wrote.

“Enough…stop hitting ‘reply all.’ Serious this is annoying,” came a plea from a Canadian DJ.

And that’s when it occurred to me (and probably a few other folks on the list) that people weren’t hitting “Reply All.”

“Y'all are sending this request out to EVERYONE on the list -- please stop! You probably want to send it to fanbase@chiwawafanclub.com for it to be effective. Make sure you do NOT send it to radio@chiwawafanclub.com or we'll all keep getting your individual remove requests. The remove address is not usually the same one as you receive it from, FYI.”

Ah, now someone was making sense. There is one email address, that copies everyone on the list. So all you have to do is NOT reply to that email.

But not everyone had figured this out, and as the number of emails in our boxes crested the 50 plus mark, the responses started getting testy.

“QUIT HITTING "REPLY TO ALL". I'm not interested in having my email box filled up with 1000 of y'all's "me too"s. If you want to get off the list, great. Email them directly and don't make the rest of us suffer. Jeezus ...”

“HEY DICKHEADS!! No need to reply all you’re killing the in folder of my e-mail!”

“CHIWAWA is indeed a really stupid name, which means it’s a good fit for the band represented by this poorly planned and executed email list.”

“Do not ever send e-mail to this address again. We will never play your music.”

“Chiwawa is the shittiest band ever. What a dumb name and you should thank your manager for getting every PD in America to NOT play your music.”

Within 3 hours of the initial email, someone had set up a “I hate CHIWAWA” Facebook group, with 50 member and counting.

When the conversation hit this boiling point, I had to take a step back and ask, Really?

Really? Did this ruin your day? Did you throw out your back having to lift 100 emails into your Junk folder? Is sending some accidental spam the crime of the year? Does it merit a lifetime ban from radio programmers?

I’ve been thinking a lot about our tone in America. Politically. And culturally. How quick we are these days to go straight to the nuclear option.

It’s not enough to present a superior case, the opposition must be destroyed in the process. Our sporting tone has gone from “Let’s Win” to “Humiliate the other team, because we hate them.”

Whether it’s bands and programmers, or liberals and conservatives, or Yankees and Red Sox, we’re all part of the same game, but we’ve stopped acting like it.

When the conversation is ruled by the angriest voices, when you go straight to your angriest voice, the greater purpose is blinded.

You lose the joy of playing ball, the honor of participating in the great creation of democracy, or the chance to discover for yourself whether or not you like some band.

I want to write a little bit more about the moderate voice, and my new allegiance to it, in some other blog post. Maybe on some other blog.

But I can start with a moderate action.

I went to Youtube, and I listened to CHIWAWA to decided for myself if they were any good.

Meh.

The video is low-budget cool. I can’t say I’m into the music.