Whiney-Song Wednesday

Let me start by saying that I fully understand the need for a good cathartic make-me-wanna-cry song from time to time. I think it's good for the soul to let out your emotions on occasion.

If that can happen in the car, when you're driving and no one is around, who will argue with that?

But here's the deal: Most of the songs that elicit that kind of reaction from me are NOT whiney songs. They are not the songs wherein the singer is moaning about being left behind. Or being wronged. Or going on and on and on about some perceived badness.

When I hear one of those songs - you know the kind, where the singer only has about three lines to sing about losing someone and sings those same lines over and over for four minutes - all I want to do is yell at the radio. Why do those people not just get over themselves, write a new freakin' lyric, and move on?

For me, it's the songs that are out of the blue that make my emotions churn. The songs with the intelligent turns of phrase that surprise you with their heart. They are the ones that make me want to sing along - on both happy and sad times. Sure, they could be from Broadway, but they could also be country, or pop, or almost any other genre.

Perhaps it's the difference between poetry and simply rhyming words on a page. Anyone can make sad rhyme with mad, had, sad, mad, sad, add, and bad. But not everyone can take "orange" and blend it with the right amounts of emotion to make it suddenly rhyme with the entire dictionary.