Avoiding the "slow but mean" genre

Ian likes to have me put the radio on FM in the car, and press "Scan" until he hears a station he thinks he might like. Then, as if by remote control, he has me select the station of his choice. This often results in hip-hop or country or especially-tacky pop - basically anything but what I would normally want to play...

But sometimes he changes his mind, as in this critique of a song he had selected; he said he wanted "something that's fast but not mean. This one's slow but mean."

(May, 2009)