The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.
Thursday March 12, 2015
Today under my shoddy microscope: terrible music and churches that claim to be “diverse.”
Matt and Kim are terrible and so is GO 96
I made the mistake of trying GO 96, the new radio station in the Twin Cities, for a second time (not counting Twins games which I’m absolutely distraught are on such a monstrosity). I don’t like complaining, or being negative towards things people like, but oh my God, after about 10 seconds my jaw actually dropped at how terrible it was.
They were playing the Matt and Kim "song" “Get It.” The hook is terrible and obnoxious, the lyrics are worse (“at one a.m. let’s make mistakes/at one a.m. when we cut the brakes/at one a.m./goddam goddam”), and the music is awful and abrasive in an indie-meets-the-Black-Eyed-Peas sort of way. I tried to listen to it to research for this article but only got about a minute and a half into it.
Is music really coming to a combination of the worst an indie station like the Current plays and the cheesy adult oriented rock of Cities 97? It’s a sort of music that I didn’t even know existed and now I wish I didn’t. Keep that sort of stupid shit in the clubs where people are too messed up to realize how terrible it is.
The non-diversity of the diversity crowd
“We value our inclusivity—whether you are young, old, gay, straight, single, married, partnered, all walks of life and all backgrounds and cultures—we welcome you!” Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, sees a church with this slogan on the way to his local Starbucks every morning. As a blog he wrote recently explains, though, studies show that mainline churches that claim diversity are actually less diverse in their actual congregation when compared to national numbers (and even the numbers for Catholic and Pentecostal parishes).
His idea is that the community aspect of local Catholic churches, in which people from the neighborhood get together no matter what they are, is what creates a diversity that the mainline (non-denominational) churches don’t necessarily have. He might be on to something but he doesn’t touch on what I’ve noticed most about these “inclusive” churches: that if you don’t agree with their views, usually political, the last thing they want to do is “include” you. Many of these churches do good things, and are filled with loving people, but the “all are welcome” emphasis is often simply a political maneuver meant to pander to white liberal guilt. Which non-white people can sniff out, which is why they stay away from such places that they know would simply pander to them.
Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He is also a contributor for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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