Move Over, Katrina and the Waves

I am a very judgmental person when it comes to music. I either hate a song or I love it. Right away. Within a few bars. However, as Jennifer can attest, I will also hate something the first time I hear it, only to love it on the second or third listening (remember "Tug of War," Jen?).

So what is it that pulls me toward a particular song? It can't be the lyrics because half the time I can't understand what the singer is saying. Once I like the song I learn the lyrics. I think for me, it initially is the music, the melody, the chord progression. The way the verses go into the chorus and how the chorus goes into the bridge. I think there must be certain progressions that just really hit an "emotional" chord with me. Take, for instance, the band I am currently in love with...

So I'm watching another teen drama last night (Wildfire, if anyone cares. Stop snickering.) and I hear a song that immediately just makes me smile. At the end of the episode, they reveal the artist as The Graham Colton Band. So off I go to iTunes, because that is simply how I spend my time. And I find their CD "Drive" and listen to each of the 30-second snippets. And within the first few bars I knew I would buy this CD because every single song is good. Every song just makes me smile. They are "good-time feeling" songs, as Jen and I used to call certain tunes. They are the ones that make you want to drive down a long highway in a red convertible. The ones you blast on your ridiculously large boombox while you eat ice cream on the basketball court at your college apartment under an autumn sun. There are so many songs that I immediately identify with this feeling. And The Graham Colton Band is the latest band to produce good-time feeling music to add to the soundtrack of my life.

Jen, let's take the Gremlin and hit the open road! :)