Of being an Intern

So, I am sure there are much more terrible things in the world. I however don’t have cable and never read the news, so I have no idea the sheer magnitude of said terribleness. So all I have to complain about right now is being an intern in a creative position.

Currently, the position isn’t too bad. They treat me well enough, I don’t have any real set hours, and hell, I’m blogging when I should be working, so that says something. The main gripe I have, and I assume it travels well in to any creative job at any level is lack of creative control. Being an intern, I never expected to be the creative director of my own project, and I guess I’m still not, but I think I have come up with a harder task.

I’m currently editing party footage from a Bat-Mitzvah and I’m personally in charge of picking music to go along with someone’s personal memories. Isn’t that great? I’ve got so much responsibility and I just started! No, it’s not great, in any way. It’s actually the worst thing that could ever happen to me (today).

The original instructions I got when I asked what kind of music to use was “Use something super popular but something you can stand”. For me, this is a oxymoron of monumental proportions. How can something be popular without being mind-numbingly annoying? Even when I hear a song on the radio that I can bob my head to, I still get annoyed by it after 3 listens.

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a pretentious music snob. Not of the caliber of a record store owner or vinyl collector, but I must admit that I point my nose down at almost all commercial radio. I’m a terrible person, but it’s who I am, I can’t help it. This is only half of my anguish however, there is a serrated edge that is making this pop culture knife in my ear less tolerable. 

This afternoon I came back from lunch to find a note on my desk telling me that the music I chose was TOO SEXUAL AND TOO OBSCURE. If you guessed that I chose “Fuck the pain away” by Peaches, you are dead wrong. I would however agree that Peaches is far to sexual and obscure to represent a 13 year old girl’s big day. Any more guesses? 

If you’re like me you may have thought “Wait, isn’t sexuality the #1 topic in pop music, wouldn’t it be almost impossible to choose a pop song with non sexual lyrics?”. Apparently this is not the case, and the song I chose Metro Station’s “Shake It” (which by the way is in the top ten in both Canada and the U.S) is raunchy even by mainstream pop’s standards.

So now I’m stuck with 3 minutes of tightly edited video, which is now useless since I have to bring in a new song with a new beat. Listening to that garbage song for hours for nothing at all. I’ll admit the lyrics are a tiny bit sexually suggestive, referring to the removal of clothes, but for F’s sake, this is a ban led by Miley Cyrus’ brother, how bad can it be?

This is garbage! I am however not going to change it right away, as the lyric is barely anything to blush at, and I am 100% sure someone used a song a while back with the lyric “I’ll take you to the candy shop, I’ll let you lick the lollipop” and “Urr body in this bitch gettin’ tipsy”. How is that ANY BETTER?

Hopefully my next attempt using Justice’s D.A.N.C.E won’t offend so much.

Tags: anger, hannah montana, internship, justice, metro station, miley cyrus, music