Pop music never ever hits a recession

It's a strange time to love music.

I'm not smart enough to wax on about the implications of the nation's current economic situation. But I am dumb enough to think that strapping on a guitar and hitting the road seems like as good a career option as any at this point.

Take note I said think about it.

I don't like Dylan or Kerouac near enough to actually try it.

These are just the things you romanticize when none of your friends have jobs one of them wants to join the Army and lying around listening to pop songs seems like the most logical response to recession.

Shiny guitars and vocal harmonies are the only things seeing a surge in stock these days.

I've got a whole year more to contemplate my impending introduction to the real world but if I've learned anything turning to my record collection for career advice isn't going to get me too far.

It's a fun way to suspend reality though.

You know" maybe I could be a ""Paperback Writer"" or an ""Astronaut"" or" God forbid" a ""Hairdresser on Fire"" — Morissey's always good for life advice.

A friend of mine told me the other week that the problem with being a ""music geek"" — his words" not mine — is that the best record you've ever heard is always the next one you're going to listen to.

That's a depressing thought for a broke college kid with no real source of income.

I know what you're saying: get a job you privileged entitled prick.

I hear you. I'm trying.

But for now I'll keep diving through crates of records going to rock shows and generally existing in a fantasy world where Pavement and Otis Redding trade house band duties every few days depending on my mood.

And hey that's been my job for the past year: editing Diversions. I find records I like and convince myself that someone out there values my opinion.

If that's not a blatant disregard for reality I don't know what is.

Now I don't have any delusions that my endorsement has sold anyone any records but it's been a lot of fun.

My time in these pages however has (un)fortunately run its course.

I'll spend the next year actually doing my school work and preparing myself as best I can to go out and hunt for a job that probably doesn't have rattling off Chapel Hill's 10 best bands at any given moment as a requirement. Although I'm not opposed to Merge throwing some of that Spoon or Arcade Fire money my way.

That seems as much a fantasy as anything else though.

No matter though. None of those worries need be addressed until after the Diversions Party on Friday May 1 at Local 506.

I've spent a good chunk of the semester putting it together and three of my favorite bands are playing.

Sure some of you might have exams the next morning but don't let that slow you down.

Let's all just dance around and put off the real world together.

That's what music's for after all.


Contact Jamie Williams at jameswe@email.unc.edu.