Lady Gaga "Applause"

My wife and I were waiting to meet some friends at a bar this weekend.  While our friends were extricating themselves from a different party to come join us, my wife and I had some time to sit in the bar, talk and listen.

We talked about serious things.  We talked about light things.  We talked about Christmas.  We talked about the kids.

The usual.

A local band was getting set up at one of end of the barroom.  But in the meantime, the PA system was rotating through a bevy of current pop hits.

I don't listen to too much pop music by choice.  I don't hate it necessarily.  It's just not my taste.

But I DO hear a least a sample of what's current, via my wife and kids.

While they don't like everything---they are discriminating---they like enough to make me feel like I am connected to the pop world so that I know who Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are, or what the fox say.

Some fun song would come on the PA and my wife would start grooving in her chair, a smile breaking out on her face.  It wouldn't necessarily stop the conversation or anything.  It was just a part of the scene and the mood.

Our friends showed up right around the time the band started playing.

The band's selections tended toward the heavier, moodier stuff, and both my wife and I noted a marked change from what the vibe in the room had been.

"What were they playing before?"

"Oh, you know, Pop stuff," I said.  "Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars and such."

My wife started cracking up.

"No they didn't."

Really?  I thought they did.

But no.  She ran through the 10 or so artists we HAD heard.  But Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars were not among them.

Basically, what she was calling me out on, was that to me, there isn't really any difference between hearing Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, and hearing Fun and Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake (whose songs we DID hear).

Admittedly, unless I have heard the song a few dozen times (via my wife), then sometimes hearing songs from these artists is like trying to tell squirrels apart.


Hear "Applause" on Youtube.


Hear "Locked Out Of Heaven" on Youtube.


Hear "Roar" on Youtube.