“Everyone Was Singing the Same Song, and I Had No Idea What It Was”

A friend of mine said this to me this weekend, describing a recent, fateful trip to a lame bar in Ft. Wayne, which he embarked upon under the dangerously vague group rubric of “seeing some band.”  First, what a completely alienating and bizarre, not to mention chastening, feeling for a music geek (which he most certainly is) to have.  I know being faced with my own limitations in that way–not to mention the related inability to have fun at that bar, and rock out to that band with everyone else–would make me uncomfortable and irritable.  Of course, it also instantly became the perfect anecdotal explanation for my current relationship with, and general understanding of, modern (hell, most not-modern/not-”hip”) country music more generally.  Sort of like what happens in the movies.  I learn nothing.