WHAT MY THEME SONG SAYS ABOUT ME: The OC

Phantom Planet was just this band trying to get by. They had a debut record on Geffen in 1998 and their drummer was in a breakout star in a Wes Anderson movie. They kept trying, and low and behold- a piano driven ballad that most people found whiny seemed to perfectly compliment to teen angst.

"California" lent some credibility to a teen drama. Teen drama's are always looking to scavenge credibility. Paula Cole had a break out single and best new artist Grammy, and then turned her whiny ballad into a teen drama theme song. Phantom Planet had somewhat a cred in a non-successful artistic sense, and turned their whiny song into an one. "Right back where we started from" is such a quintessential vague line about nothing that of course teens will eat that up.

The OC really was about making teens eat out of their hands. Fox shows in general are known to give their audience what they want. Married with Children was loved by schmucks, The Simpsons panders to their nerds, Prison Break kept prison breakin'. Glee. The OC had- hot guys, hot girls, single parents, guns, indie music, spiderman references, a setting where the hot guys and girls could wear swimsuits. Having 'California' as their theme song was saying "hey, this song makes us look like we give a fuck". It worked. I usually hate things in equivalence to how much people misguidedly loved something- and I really hated The OC.

I can't be all that mad. I love making fun of this song by singing it. I mean, I don't have to add anything, this song is really funny. I mean putting that much emotion into the syllables of an already been done word like 'California'- that's funny. Some people like it, apparantly a lot of peolpe did- but I liked in my own cynical way.

It's vague and doesn't need to make sense, aka The Simpsons Did it.

Here's another Knot's Landing set to that theme song:

Here's some assholes being assholes set to the song:

Here's some asshole singing it while his mom films it:

Here's some assholes who think they're gonna make it singing it:

And finally, here's a kid singing it to a Target gift card:

Hustlers get your guns.