Sounds of Summer (I)

Yes, I'm back.

The weather has cooled enough for my computer to generally behave itself, there is nothing worth watching on television (possibly the best thing about the Commonwealth Games is how they've cleared other shows out of the way), and most importantly, a free night has appeared in the middle of an otherwise mad and hectic 3-week period and my brain is not so fried that I can't make use of the opportunity.

But don't push it. If the previous paragraph contained any grammatical errors, I don't want to know.

Many ideas for posts have fallen by the wayside over the last couple of months, but the music ones seem intent on hanging around. I have at least five in my mental list that probably won't leave me alone until I write them. So here goes.

Summer ended here a few weeks ago. I don't especially pay any more attention to the latest music at any particular time of year, but during summer there were two songs that made a deep impression, and they both came from unexpected sources.

The first of them came, in a roundabout way, from a 'reality' TV show.

At least, I think that's how people categorise Idol, although it doesn't have all that much to do with reality. Primarily because any new singer trying to make it isn't likely to get more than one song in front of an audience before being passed over like yesterday's bread. Getting to come back week after week is something that most young singers can only dream about.

But the thing I want to say here is, I'll never be able to regard Idol as worthless. The overall quality of the contestants in the Australian version seems to be getting better each time. In the 3rd season I thought that all of the top six singers could carve a decent career out for themselves if they tried hard and made good choices.

And the American version gave us Kelly Clarkson.

The first time I heard her, I hadn't even heard of Idol so I had no bias one way or the other. What I heard was a fairly good singer with a pop tune (Miss Independent) that was catchier than most. Since then I'd heard some average songs, one really catchy one (Since U Been Gone), but nothing bad and nothing to alter my opinion that she won a contest because she was talented, not just by being the most popular girl in class. The girl can sing.

This summer, she found the song to put that talent to good use. Because of You got my attention on the radio because I could hear the conviction and the passion behind the voice. Here was someone who believed that what she was singing meant something. And she was singing a well-crafted tune that rose and fell and reached a definite climax.

There was a period of a few weeks around Christmas where Because of You was close to the most-played song on the radio here. Time and again I heard it in the car, and I'd usually turn it up to hear that strong, committed voice. The thing was, I never quite grasped all of the words. The chorus registered clearly. The verses, well... I actually think I did know the majority of the words, but I didn't put them all together and I think I was more focused on the shape of the musical line. I'm like that.

Then I saw the video. I've hinted before at the power of videos. I don't know whether all musicians realise that power, because I've seen some downright awful examples that have discouraged me from listening to the song they accompany. But a good video brings great benefits.

The video of Because of You somehow made every word of the song register like a hammer blow. I heard everything. I understood what it meant. And when Kelly shed a tear on my television screen at the end of it, so did I. I can't remember ever doing that before. It happened again the second time I saw the video, only a couple of hours later.

Now I hear every word without the need for pictures to remind me. Each time I hear the song (which isn't so often now, the radio has 'moved on'), I marvel at the fact that it's written and performed by someone who might never have had her talent discovered if it wasn't for our obsession with observing other people's lives instead of living our own.

At least she's used the opportunity well.

[Stay tuned for the even longer story of the other song from summer, which has been an obsession of mine for 3 months now and shows no signs of outstaying its welcome.]