It's hard enough making a mix CD for your best friend, let alone someone you barely know.
And what if she doesn't speak English very well and her perception of American music is pretty much limited to the Backstreet Boys? Partly to expand my tutor Lucy's horizons and partly to test my own mix-making skills, I gave it a try.
Pop songs were out of the question; the point of this mix was to get her to listen to songs she wouldn't otherwise hear. But I couldn't get too indie either - she's definitely not ready for that. Yet, something in me held out for the possibility that at the snap of a finger, she'd start liking experimental music, pick up a guitar and start some sort of revolution. It could happen.
So I compromised: In the first half, I'd try to please her, and in the second half, I'd gradually get more and more "out there." I'm fairly confident she didn't make it all the way through Gnarls Barkley's "Transformers," but she wouldn't tell me exactly when she pulled the plug.
Apparently, my order of songs was well-planned because her favorite was track one: "Fight Test" by The Flaming Lips. All the other songs, she said, had too strong a beat, but this one had a pretty good melody.
Next on her list was a pleasant surprise - a song from the second half. I only put "Firewater" by Solos Unit on the B-side, because I wanted to show her something from my hometown in NC - and maybe to prove to myself that I'm not crazy for thinking it's the best song to come out this year (or at least the best HipHopNeoSoulR&BJassFusion one). Or, as the Chinese say, "very not bad." Score one for the underground.
Unfortunately, my hip-hop selections were too heavy for Lucy, who swore she loved the genre. I could understand her feelings until I remembered that I had intentionally put Common's "Faithful" and The Roots' "Complexity" on there because they are soft and pretty.
"Zhou Jie Lun (Jay Chou) is a pretty good rapper, and he's my favorite artist," she explained. I see...
The topic of conversation then logically moved to boy bands. Lucy explained how the most popular American acts in China are the Backstreet Boys and Westlife.
"Don't you mean *NSYNC?" I asked.
"Who are they?" was the reply. Shocking. It's easy to forget that China is still a developing country sometimes.
She asked me what I thought about BSB, and I quickly looked over my shoulder to see if there were any middle school boys around to make fun of me for hesitating. I put my hands up defensively and explained how, as a guy, I'm not allowed to like boy bands.
You're either in one or you hate them, I said. They get all the girls, and that's not cool. This apparently is not the case in China, where BSB is pretty universally popular. I guess it makes sense: If Jay Chou is a rapper, the BSB might as well be Metallica.
I feel a little guilty for making Lucy listen to Modest Mouse, the White Stripes and Nirvana. Sure, they are all pretty accessible in the States, but this girl actually told me she thought Jack Johnson's "Good People" was too heavy-sounding for her.
I guess it's time to make Lucy a mix she'll actually like. I can introduce her to *NSYNC, Alanis Morissette and No Doubt.
Perhaps China isn't ready to move past late-'90s radio hits just yet. I guess I can't really blame them; it's crazy to think about it, but that really was a defining era in American music. Take that, late 1960s.
Mike Adams is a junior majoring in international relations. He can be reached at michael_j.adams@tufts.edu.
