SquawkRadio

Yes, that’s right.  I’m a 30-something-year-old woman (cough cough...shut up Xtina!) who is coming out of the closet to admit that I adore P!NK!  I first fell in love with her music for one simple reason--the girl can sing.  In a music industry where pop stars are manufactured from every pretty girl who ever appeared in a Disney movie or hosted her own Nickelodeon show, P!NK is the genuine article--talented, smart, brash and bold enough to get in your face if she has something important to say.  She acknowledges this paradox in Don’t Let Me Get Me from MISSUNDAZTOOD:  (Hey, I said she could sing, not spell!)

“L.A. told me
You’ll be a pop star
All you have to change
Is everything you are

Tired of being compared
To damn Britney Spears
She’s so pretty
That just ain’t me.”

She revisited the subject with Stupid Girls on her most recent CD I’M NOT DEAD.  The song was accompanied by a hilarious video of P!NK mocking her less talented contemporaries by writhing all over the sudsy hood of a car a la national brain trust Paris Hilton.  MISSUNDAZTOOD is the only CD aside from the hallowed BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: THE MUSICAL that ever stayed in my car CD player for an entire year without me ever getting sick of it. 

Part of P!NK’s charm is her diversity.  She sings pop laced with a sly wit and self-deprecating humor.  She sings soul.  She rocks like a latter-day Joan Jett on songs like Humble Neighborhood from TRY THIS and Numb from MISSUNDAZTOOD.  And she can break your heart with songs like Family Portrait from MISSUNDAZSTOOD, which has to be the most honest account I’ve ever heard of what’s it’s like for a frightened child to wake up in the middle of the night to the sounds of breaking glass and her parents screaming at each other.  When we lost our 20-year-old nephew to an accidental drug overdose in August, there was very little that could give me comfort but P!NK’S song Who Knew (written for a dear friend of hers who died from an overdose three years ago) gave my anguish both a voice and a melody. 

I’ve always been a sucker for smart, angry young women who have something genuine to say and refuse to take any crap off of anybody.  (Alannis Morissette anyone?) They remind me of what it’s like to be racing down the road at seventeen with the windows down and the stereo blasting.  But P!NK is even more fun than Alannis because she knows when to wink at her own foibles and ours. 

(DISCLAIMER:  P!NK’s CDs TRY THIS and I’M NOT DEAD contain some profanity.  I buy the edited versions for myself and my niece but it’s still not too hard to figure out what’s missing.  The good news is that she doesn’t use profanity frequently or gratuitously.  So if you like your swearing to have the delicious resonance and eloquence of a good Elizabeth Bevarly rant, then it may not bother you.  And have no fear--our resident music expert Liz will return next week after her sprained finger heals!  It was an honor to sit in her chair this week )

Any other P!NK fans out there?  Have you ever surprised yourself or your family by discovering an unlikely singer or group?  Do we have any grandmas out there who listen to Evanescence or Kid Rock?