Please, Don't Let Her Cry

I don’t know why, but when Hootie and the Blowfish came out, I made it a personal goal to never hear one of their songs in its entirety.  It was partly disdain for the band, partly a  weirdly misguided loyalty towards Dave Matthews Band (who I thought were superior at the time), and partly I thought it would make me unique.  Surely, I thought with the number of times “Let Her Cry” was played on the radio at any given point in time, it would take a concentrated effort to avoid ever hearing the whole song in its entirety.  My friends in high school also took a vested interest in this personal challenge.  Many of them thought it would be impossible to avoid this alterna-pop phenomenon, though many of them wanted to see me succeed.

As the band grew in popularity and, consequently, radio play, this challenge I had constructed for myself grew more and more conspicuous in my daily life.  The radio was easy enough; I could just change the station – forcibly climbing into the front seat, if that’s what it took.  Muzak was worse.  I would be walking through the mall, hear the first verse of “Let Her Cry,” and I knew I only had two or three minutes to find a store to duck into that had different muzak.  I would be standing in a check-out line at a convenience store and, if the song was nearing completion, just have to abandon my purchases and leave.  One time I was in a dressing room at American Eagle when the song came on, and it was a close call, but I did manage to get dressed and out of the store before I heard the whole song.

I forget when I eventually lost this challenge, but I do know it happened, and I remember feeling a quiet, interior sense of disappointment when I found myself forced to listen to the entire song despite my best efforts.  Were they really that bad?  No, of course not.  But what did it mean that it was impossible to avoid this band?  I felt as though this band had been forced into my listening repertoire against my will, that no matter what, the music industry was going to make me consider the merits of their new product.

On the flip side, I’m glad I came to terms with this before Britney Spears.