I am embaressed to admit it, but I like Shakira - and not in the way that most men usually think about Shakira.  No, it's not the rock hard abs and belly dancing that impresses me.  Instead, I actually like her music. (For the record, I also like chick flicks, but I am not metro)  My wife left the cd playing in the car and I skipped forward a few songs to the bonus tracks.  They are live, acoustic versions that threw me off at first.  I never realized the extent to which they synthetically mix her radio-friendly songs.  When singing live, her voice is wild, with the constant switching of registers and missing of notes. 

This is not rare for me. I tend to gravitate toward artists who have very little vocal talent.  I like Tom Waits, though he has the voice of a stoned trucker.  I enjoy Eric Clapton even while he mumbles his way through choruses.  My favorite band is Counting Crows, whose lead singer, Adam Duritz, sounds whiny and grainy to most people.  Even if he almost belches out his music, I love the heavy sound of Louis Armstrong.  My list of artists grows worse: Robbie Roberson from The Band, Bob Dylan (perhaps the most notorious), Sufjan Stevens, Stevie Nicks.  None of those artists have what would be described as a beautiful voice. 

For this reason, I am not fond of most independent music.  It's not that they fail to sound good, but that they sound too good.  It is like staring into a candy-coated Thomas Kincaide landscape when I would rather gaze into the wild surrealistic world of a Salvador Dali.  I like when something is distinct and creative, even when it may not seem "good." 

I guess that's part of why my soul rails so hard against standardized education.  It's why I can relate to Mr. Keating when he has students rip out the introduction to the poetry book. It's why I can't believe that passing the AIMS test is the ultimate measure of an education.  It's because I can't imagine how our world would be if Picaso chose to paint within the lines; if Einstein had kept his mouth shut in school; if Gates had chosen to go to finish college like he was "supposed to," or if Gabriel Garcia Marquez had stuck to standard prose of his newspaper job. 

 

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