Swedish radio is a bit of an anomaly to me. Not only is the programming quite different from how it is in the states (stations that play songs our mainstream stations would never play, somewhat strange assortments of music on one station, or lots of radio hits from 15 or so years ago next to new Ke$ha tracks), but what struck me as totally bizarre was the fact that the songs don’t censor the lyrics.
Just yesterday, the song “She Hates Me” by Puddle of Mudd came on the radio, and I noticed that the word “fuck” was neither silenced or bleeped out. I asked Linda about this; apparently no one really seems to care what words are used or what topics are broached in music with English lyrics. People can get away with just about anything. It’s only when these things are in Swedish that people might express some kind of outrage. I understand this point of view, but it just makes me think of how censored and oversensitive the American public media acts. All I have to do is point to Weezer’s “Hashpipe”, the clean version of which had lyrics that said the word “Huuuu-pipe”. So ridiculous.
While I’m on the topic of music, one thing that’s nice is that Linda and Magnus seem to have pretty awesome taste in music. They’re also turned me on to Spotify, which I’d heard of before but never been able to use, as it isn’t yet available in the United States. And while I’m typically skeptical of new musical gadgets or applications (because what can offer me what I don’t already have), I am pretty stoked on Spotify. The playlist building and sharing function is awesome, and streaming music I don’t even have totally rules. I like it so much, I’m even considering paying for it. That’s really saying something, for me. Thus far, I’ve made a playlist on their computer, of two hours of some of my favourite songs. Yesterday, I also made a gbg playlist, which is artists from Gothenburg. I already have a couple more in mind, as well…
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