A brief note, there is mention of suicidality in this episode.

I'm going to go egghead for just a minute. Here, bear with me, semantics. Semantics is the

study of how the meaning of words and terms are used and how that usage evolves. So how we decide what words mean, how that changes, and how

that meaning is guided by the usage of those words. This isn't graduate school. Don't take notes.

But I wanted to put out the term semantics. Before I use the term, dad rock, because related. Dad rock can mean music

liked by dads, old dads, or young dads, or middle dads. It can mean music that sounds

like dads are making it. It can mean music that feels a generation older than what you

yourself are or listen to regularly. It can also

mean music, I think, that has a sadness to it, a world weariness, a wistfulness to it, a sense

of having been knocked around by life a little. Dad rock is very important to me. I'm a dad. I love music. I've been in

dad bands playing dad rock. I have attended concerts by Wilco and the National and the Hold Steady.

But there is no official registry of Dad Rock. Is the Steve Miller band in that classification? Pixies, M.J.

Lenderman, Amy Mann? Answers vary. What is a constant, however, is how people use music, not just

dad rock, but music, to imbue their life with meaning, always have, whether that's through

dad rock or death metal or Wagner operas, people feel understood by musicians, musicians

they've never met. They can feel empowered by that feeling of being understood to personally

define themselves and evolve

that definition, much like the semantic use of the term dadband. Sometimes music can be a vehicle

to take you to a truer version of yourself. It's depressmode. Wait, is Depeesh mode a dad band? Shrug. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're

here. Ooh, you know who else? I've seen live a lot. Old 97s. And in solo performance,

their frontman, Rhett Miller. Here's Rhett now.

Nico Stratus is the author of The Dad Rock that made me a woman.

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