Did I just buy a song from Hanah Montana?

Oh dear lord.  I have a song from Miley Cyrus on my computer.  And not only did I put it on my computer... I bought it.

As I talked a bit back in my "I Love Music" post, I like all kinds of music.  But in general I don't like music because it's popular... which means I don't like much top 40s pop.  So the last thing I ever thought I would be listening to over and over again is a song by Miley Cyrus.

Well... not exactly by Miley.  Let's be clear, she didn't write this song... at least not alone.  The song was written collectively by  Mike L. Williams II, Pierre Ramon Slaughter, Timothy Thomas and Theron Thomas (known collectively as Rock City), Cyrus, Douglas Davis and Ricky Walters.  But it WAS written FOR Miley.  The song is titled "We Can't Stop" and the lyrics are about a house party and include such deep lines as:

"It's our party we can do what we want (no drama)

It's our party we can say what we want (Mike will made)

It's our party we can love who we want"

and

"To my home girls here with the big butt

Shaking it like we at a strip club

Remember only God can judge ya"

I'm not generally into lyrics... but damn.  Does this 20 year old girl mean to tell me that not only can I do what I want at my party, but I can also say what I want as well as loving who I want?  Wow... I hadn't ever thought of that before.  Thank God she told me that.  

Before I go on, here is the song that I"m making fun of:

This is the over produced, no soul having, hateful teeny bopper music that I haven't liked for a long LONG time.  I think the last time I liked a song like this Madonna was singing it.   I won't hold it against anybody for enjoying this type of music... so long as you like it for the music and not just because it's popular.  

Now how did I come to buy this song?  Well... it involves NPR.  That's right, National Public Radio.  I was heading from the prison to a local pharmacy to pick up an prescription and in all honestly I was focusing on smoking.  You see I can't smoke on the prison's grounds, so any opportunity I get to break up a shift with a trip outside of the prison I jump at it and light up.  Well the radio was tuned into NPR and "All Things Considered" was on.  They were talking about some artist or another and I only perked up when the music started.  It was really good.  I figured it was some 50's doo wop group's anniversary and they were talking about it.  

So I grooved to the music and when the interview came back I gave it more attention (yeah... the cig was done leaving me room to focus on something other than the nicotine goodness).  Much to my surprise this wasn't some old doo wop singer or producer... this was some guy taking modern pop songs and 're-imagining' them.  The song they had just played was Miley Cyrus' smash hit (the actually used those words... 'Smash Hit') "We Can't Stop".  

I didn't have time to research this music at that time but while watching football this afternoon I pulled up the All Things Considered website and found the interview.  From there I was formaly introduced to Postmodern Jukebox, and found the song that had made me smile...

That's him on the piano.  Scott Bradlee.  I won't even try to sum up what he's all about... instead I'll just copy the last few lines in his 'about' post:

"I want to contribute to the pop music lexicon in the best way that I can.  I want to encourage others to push the boundaries of genres, and give them the tools to do so.  Together, I want to create an alternate universe of popular song."

I believe this is an alternate universe I could live in for quite awhile.  Check out his other songs and you'll find such songs as Selena Gomez's "Come and Get It", Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", Daft Punk's "Get Lucky"  Macklemore's "Thrift Shop" and other songs turned into music gold.