The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1010: Rock Explainer 4
A boy cannot become a man in the Satere-Mawe tribe of the Amazon rain forget until he can stand being stung by a swarm of bullet ants. They’re called that because it’s said their sting is as painful as being hit by an actual bullet. If the kid can handle it without shedding a single tear, then he is officially a man.
I can’t explain it and I’ll bet that no one in this tribe can, either. It’s just always been their thing, something that has always been done.
Let’s try something more modern…have you ever noticed that in any depiction of an iPhone or iPad, the time on the device used to be 9:42 am? Now, it’s 9:41. Why?
We need to go back to when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007. The first image of the iPhone appeared behind Jobs at 9:42 am. And for a while, that was the time shown in all ads. But when the iPad came out, the reveal happened at 9:41 am. From then on, it became a rule that the time displayed must be at 9:41 am.
The Apple Watch is an exception. The standard advertisement display time is 10:09 am. No one is sure why, although that’s the old Timex watch commercials always had the time as 1:51; 10:09 is the mirror image of that.
Now think about your car on the driver’s side. If your car has a standard transmission, the pedals from left to right go clutch, brake, and accelerator. If it’s an automatic, it’s the brake then the accelerator. That’s the way it is in every car made in the world today. It doesn’t matter which side the steering wheel is on. The pedals are always laid out the same from left to right.
But in the early days of the automobile, it wasn’t always this way. Sometimes the accelerator was in the middle. Sometimes it was on the left. And sometimes it was on the steering wheel.
The first car with the pedal layout we have today was probably a 1912 Cadillac. That spread throughout the company and then on through Chevrolet and other GM cars. From there, everyone eventually adopted that arrangement.
And since we’re in the car, let me explain your automatic transmission shifter. It goes park, reverse, neutral, drive, and low: PRNDL. That order was laid out in “US Department of Transportation Standard No. 102” which stated the order of gears on automatic transmissions must always be park-reverse-neutral-drive-low. And since America called the shots with the auto industry back then, this law became our universal standard.
There are so many things in this world that we just accept without bothering to look for an explanation. They’re there, it’s everywhere, it’s a simple truth of life. But why?
The world of music is filled with things, too. For example, why do we call a certain genre of music “heavy metal?” Who came up with the idea of paying to see a concert? Why would anyone use a toilet plunger together with a trumpet or a beer bottle on a guitar? Why is there music on the phone when we’re put on hold?
Let’s figure this all out. Welcome to another edition of The Rock Explainer.
Songs heard on this show:
- Time Carleton and Derrick Deal, Opus Number 1
- Blondie, Hanging on the Telephone
- Cake, The Distance
- Tragically Hip, Bobcaygeon
- Metallica, Enter Sandman
- Noel Gallagher, Wonderwall (Live)
- Foo Fighters, Times Like These (Acoustic)
- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Californication (Lossless version)
We have this playlist from Eric Wilhite.
The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:
- 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7pm
- Q107/Toronto – Sunday night at 9pm
- Live 88-5/Ottawa – Saturdays at 9am and Sundays at 6pm.
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday nights at 11pm
- FM96/London – Sunday nights at 8pm
- Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday nights at 11pm
- Sonic 102.9/Edmonton – Sunday at 8am and 8pm
- The Zone/Victoria – Sunday at 8am and 9pm
- The Fox/Vancouver – Sunday at 11pm
- Surge 105/Halifax – Sunday at 7pm
- WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown – Mon-Fri at 9pm
- We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.
