Hoodwinked!

I feel REALLY dumb. Not that this is a remarkable or unusual occurrence for me. But lately I feel dumb whenever I open up iTunes. And it's really a shame because iTunes is usually such a happy place for me.

It all started about a week ago. We were driving in the car when a new song popped up on the radio. I immediately fell in love--not exactly the deep and lasting love that I have for Viva La Vida, but a comfortable, new infatuation that made me feel like dancing. Also, Piper squawked from the back that she LIKED this song, so it had to be good. I listened intently to find out what and who it was ("American Boy" by Estelle featuring Kanye West) and as soon as I got home I googled it. I watched it a few times on YouTube (yes, I found, I'm still loving it!) and then discovered it on the Billboard charts. It's been out a lllooonnnggg time, but I'm not beating myself up too much for being so behind the times. I'm the mother of preschoolers, for crying out loud. One can only be so hip with so great an impediment to free time! I'm just glad I found it. Any song that name checks my girl Gladys Knight and her Pips rocks. Plus, Miss Estelle is basically just begging to go on trips the whole song, so we have a lot in common. I decided to be a big spender, skip the Michael Scotting it stage, and make an immediate iTunes purchase.

I typed in what I was looking for in the window of the iTunes store and it led me to a list filled with Estelle songs. The first entry was "American Boy" and it had the little dashes that indicated it was the most popular song in her cache. Without looking very carefully, I hit the "BUY NOW" button. I remember feeling extremely irritated by the "are you sure you want to buy this" box (yes, I'm sure, I thought in my haste), but I quickly clicked past it and soon I was listening to what I thought was my new favorite song.

I listened to it about two times before the sinking feeling came. The rapper sounded kind of like Kanye (I have both "Golddigger" and "Stronger" memorized, so I should know, right?), but something was a little off. After another listen, I was certain it was somebody just pretending to be Kanye. I went back to YouTube and found the video again. I listened to that a few times. Maybe this Estelle person used a couple of different rappers? But all too soon I realized that the female singer didn't sound right on my purchased tune either. I started looking more carefully at the song and then the word popped out at me. It was really, really tiny, but there none the less. "Tribute," it said. The song I got was "American Boy--TRIBUTE to Estelle and Kanye West." Not "American Boy BY Estelle and Kanye West." I looked down at the cheesy artwork featuring neon flowers and music notes in the bottom left corner of the screen. Duh. I don't think Kanye would appear on an album entitled "Pop Picks." So there is 99 cents I will never get back. Oh, well. At least I was fooled by imitators trying to sound EXACTLY like the original and not Kids Bop 14 or something. Still, how do I get the real thing on my iPod or onto a CD for my car? And how can my self-esteem recover after falling for such a blatant fake?

I had to immediately go buy the New Kids on the Block single to try make myself feel better after that one. Obviously, aging boy bands aren't the cure-all I hoped them to be because it's still bothering me. Tribute. Pop Picks. D'oh.