Sunday June 29, 2003

The end is near... I'm going Dixie

The day I moved in with my first college roommate, I had fierce, panicky urges to hop in my car and go back home. I wanted out as soon as I got to my dorm room. I wasn't homesick... no, I couldn't wait to get the heck out of my house. Rather, I was sickened by the site of a Dixie Chicks magnet on my new roomie's refridgerator.

Let me explain.

Growing up, I got exposed to many, many different kinds of music. Punk, hip hop, techno, rock, pop, classical, and yes, country. I liked almost every style I heard, except for that last one. I hate country music. I hate everything about country music. I hate the way it sounds, I hate the way country musicians dress, I hate that darn accent. As far as I'm concerned, Toby Keith and Garth Brooks may very well be demons in disguise.

I hate country.

My first roomie and I got along amazingly well, considering the fact that she was a Dixie Chicks diva and I was an MxPx maniac. I think we influenced each other somewhat. By the end of the year, she was shopping at Hot Topic, and I was listening to the Chicks without cringing. I still wasn't a fan, though, and my hatred of all things country remained in tact.

And then came Stephanie.

My last roomie, who couldn't be any more different than myself (unless we were of different species) was also a Chicks fan. And she loved them. And she listened to them. And she worked on me. And now I'm downloading Long Time Gone, I bet, with her approval. Hmmmph. I don't know how this happened. Maybe it's the Chicks' resistance to pro-war pressure that has so impressed me, but some of their songs just sound a lot better to me now.

This is weird.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not letting go of my anti-country punk passion. At least, not in the full sense. I still hate cowboy hats, southern accents, and country twang. I don't like apple pie either... *gasp,* but I just like some songs. Just some individual songs by one particular group, who has grown on me a little bit over the past couple of years. I just can't believe they're country.

Another sign of the apocolypse.