More conflicted than sad, really.
As some people might know, I was homeschooled in a rather Christian home for 9 grades, starting at the 4th. During this time, my entire musical library -- and in fact, everything I voluntarily listened to -- was Christian music of varying degrees. In 2004, when I gots the internets for reals, I began my musical education of anything that hadn't fit into those categories. While I had only really listened to Christian music -- besides TV show themes, and whatever was playing over mall sound systems -- I had listened to a very large variety of what was out there for Christian music. To geek-like proportions.
Everything I have learned since then has been self-education. I listen to public radio, which is mostly talk, so I am often at least 5 steps behind on what is mainstream. Nothing is overplayed to me, because I am never exposed to it very much. My interactions with pop music have mostly been from the perspective of "some of these songs are busy enough for my taste". I can enjoy, say, Lady Gaga, but I can't exactly LOVE it. I can rock out to it, but yeah, no.
I've also been listening to dubstep for a few months now, and not actually taking the time to go back and listen to the originals.
Last night I finally listened to some of the original songs by Dev. I was expecting it to be somewhat like Ke$ha and Uffie, another party girl who has good producers. And... yeah, she's another party girl with good producers. Except that I love her songs. And not in the way I enjoy most pop songs. Generally, it takes more intellectual stimulation, or a busier track for me to LOVE songs*, but damn if she doesn't pull me in. Then I saw interviews with her, and saw that I liked her as a person.
I'm turning into somewhat of a fanboy, and I am very conflicted about this. I usually don't anticipate CD releases anymore, but I am excited to see what her album is going to be like...
* I, for instance, love Disturbia by Rhianna