What happened to car music?

I have little to no trouble in admitting that I am not really down with the kids. I do not listen to the latest chart topping hits as most of the music is really not for me. I mean that in both senses of the phrase, it isn't for me because I don't like it, and it isn't aimed at me. When Lily Allen is singing she is not thinking about an almost middle aged person.

That's fine, I am cool with that. Given I might not have heard the latest greatest thing to come out of the mouth of some factory produced starlet, it does seem to me that there is a whole genre of songs that has disappeared. Where are the songs about cars? Cars have gotten a lot better, but the music about them has gone. Vanished.

Pure and simple - a guy singing about his car. Bragging about how good it is. Nothing earth shattering there. it seems it was big in the 60s and even into the 70s to talk about how cool your car is.

Another example by Deep Purple.

I am never quite sure what I think of Deep Purple. They are one of those bands whenever I hear them I think that I quite like them, but I never seek out their music. Their greatest hits albums are brilliant, some of their actual albums tend to disappear into a progtastic guitar and organ fest. Perhaps that is what puts me off them a little bit, the organ. Does an organ have a place in hard rock? Not sure, it is not bad , but organ solos? maybe not. Still Deep purple are good. Deepest Purple is a good 'Best Of' to have.

So I started looking around for more modern songs about cars. It is hard, they are certainly not in the mainstream. As with so many other things in life, you need to turn to Sir Mix-A-Lot for the answer to your questions:

That is a fairly ordinary song, but the genius of it is to get all of the car names into the rap so seamlessly. Seems Baby Got Back was a bigger hit than we all thought. Most of those cars are actually his according to the sites talking about it.

Rob Zombie emerges as an unlikely saviour?

I have posted about Rob Zombie before, I think that he is a genius, but that is not a great car song as far as things go.

So why have the car songs disappeared from our musical lexicon? People drive more than ever and there is little doubt that man's (sorry ladies it is a guy thing isn't it) love of the auto has if anything, increased. I think that it has to have something to do with the increasingly disposable nature of our relationship to the world. We no longer seem to cherish our relationship with the machines that we have. Especially with cars. Cars have become another tool for us to use. Not an object of deeper emotions. As our roads have become more clogged, much more stringently policed, it seems we take less and less enjoyment in our driving experiences.

This is a great pity. Depending on the kind of person you are, one of the great experiences of life is the road trip. A long drive through the countryside. Music blaring with cool tunes and following the road to where it takes you. As I have said before I grew up in Australia and there is a lot of space over there. You put tunes on and drive through the desert ,comparatively speaking , ok scrubland then. I wonder why a desert seems to be cooler to me. I guess there is the element of it being unpopulated.

So what is the best driving song?

Golden Earring are somewhat ironically Dutch. Not a great place for driving, Holland. Still a great song to listen to whilst driving. I am going to do a playlist blog about driving I think.

What do you like to listen to whilst driving?