Hey, hey, you, you, 我不喜欢你的 Avril.

During another late-night conversation last night with my middle cousin, the topic of differences between American and Chinese music came up. When he mentioned American bands that Chinese kids listen to now, I was cringed when I heard names like Avril Lavigne and Simple Plan. Suffice it to say that lyrics such as “I don’t like your girlfriend / I think you need a new one” aren’t sparking too many intellectual discussions in American living rooms – or Chinese ones, even if she insists on poorly pronouncing the chorus in Mandarin.

Eventually, it was revealed that my cousin thought that American music was, well…, crude. To demonstrate his point, he played an mp3 on his Sony PSP (an American song that I hadn’t heard before), which contained what he believed to be some disreputable, disquieting lyrics. Turns out that the offending phrase was: “On Wednesday, we’ll be making love” (or something to that nature).

Well, hell, if that was so offensive, I had an entire arsenal of songs on my desktop sure to horrify him. I started with “Buttons” and proceeded to play “Back That Ass Up.” Another of my cousin’s complaints about contemporary American music (especially urban/hip hop) had been that lyrics aren’t clearly pronounced, much to the chagrin of people who are learning English as a second language. I must admit that I have no idea what Juvenile is saying in “Back That Ass Up” in about 90% of the song, starting with the very first line. (“Got you working with… an ashtray?” Ah, this person must work in custodial services.)

But my cousin definitely had a point. Taking a look at the Billboard Top 20, I couldn’t find any particular song with lyrics deeper than a kiddie pool. (And to clarify, I mean one of those above-ground ones made of blue plastic with strangely printed cartoon animals.) And this is precisely why we have indie music.