TV watching makes people stupid...

I'm not a fan of television. It seems to me that these days television's only purpose is to make people stupid and to point out just how stupid we are becoming (exhibit A. Reality TV). When I was in High School I used to watch TV and go so far as to plan evenings around it. I was obsessed with FRIENDS and Daria. I would spend whole Sundays watching Road Rules marathons, and of course there was My So Called Life.

Oh MTV!

When I got to college and moved away I used to get FRIENDS sent to me because dubbed TV sucks. But I still watched MTV (or listened to it anyway). MTV helped me learn and understand the vernacular of two different societies. I don't know what I would have done had it not been for MTV Latinoamerica and MTV Deutschland!

Anyway, the one thing that I've become addicted to over the years in all my TV listening is the commercials and not even the commercials per se but the songs chosen for the commercials. I've been known to leave the TV on for hours just so I can listen to the 30 second clip of a song.

Years ago when I was in Hamburg there was this Vodafone commercial that had the song Bohemiam Like You by The Dandy Warhols. I LOVED THAT SONG! except that I didn't know who sang it...so for weeks I just watched out for the commercial. Then one day, I went to a store and they played the song. Needless to say by the end of the day the song had been downloaded and had been recorded into a MiniDisc (yes that was before iPod but it's in my iPod now).

I thought about this because the other day I saw a commercial I hadn't seen in a really long time. It was an Estee Lauder commercial I used to love listening to when I lived in NYC. It's the one for Pleasures with Love Profusion by Madonna being played in the background. I love that song too. It's also in my iPod.

But I have to admit, it's not the same to listen to the songs as it is to listen to the songs in the commercials. It may be because I like to associate songs with things or experiences, which I often do, but either way the song loses meaning when it's not a part of something bigger...music is meant to be played as the soundtrack of our lives.