Anyway, I recently discovered the Top Five list maker on Living Social, which means I have yet ANOTHER way to talk about my interests and hobbies in list format. More specifically, I have another way to express my hate for various topics – something I’ve been doing a whole HECK of a lot recently.Now, I’m not by nature completely hateful (I blame years of exposure to Full House and Family Matters for that). But the things that I LOVE are pretty scarce, so I tend to guard them a bit more carefully. So it’s especially tragic when something I love turns to something I hate.
Nowhere does the transformation from beloved to atrocious occur more than in the music industry. I recently compiled a list of five songs I used to love but now HATE on Living Social, but I think I need to go into a bit more detail on some of them. So here we go:
Daniel Powter, “Bad Day”
Why I liked it: When the song first started getting attention back in 2005, I was drawing near the end of my LDS mission. Now, mission work is HARD, and, during the summer, it can be even harder (I’m just going to say “pretty girls and white pants” and leave it at that).
To reach the church house where most of our mission activities took place, we had to climb up two flights of stairs right past a hardware/electronics store, which usually had the radio going. At the time, the Black-Eyed Peas were still considered a “big deal” (thank goodness THOSE days seem to be behind us now!), so I mostly heard the song “Shut Up” over and over. And over. And over. And over and over and overandoverandoverandoverandover…
However, one day, after a long morning out in the sun (with a white shirt and tie on, I’ll have you know) I heard a chill song with some laid back, melodic piano and lyrics that really resonated with how I was feeling at the time. I kept the song on mental file and looked it up when I got back home to the USA, only to find that the song hadn’t really been released yet. Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” become something like my own secret song.
What happened next: Well, the song made it pretty big now, didn’t it? So now I get to hear “Bad Day” over and over. And over. And over. And over and over and overandoverandoverandoverandover…
Finger Eleven, “Paralyzer”
Why I liked it: I work at a cardiologist’s office, sitting in the lobby next to the phone. I’m there the entire day, even during my lunch breaks. The only real distraction I have from the monotony (other than Facebook, of course) is whatever’s playing on the radio. Most days, I leave the radio station on one of those bland, adult-contemporary stations that play songs that were popular and inoffensive five years ago. Man, I HATE those stations!
On days when there are no patients in the clinic that might get offended by the occasional guitar solo, I switch the radio over to a more upbeat station. On one such occasion, I happened to hear a pretty killer guitar riff and some raw, gritty vocals that spoke to the dance-floor animal living deep in my chest. Finger Eleven’s “Paralyzer” was my antidote for the adult-contemporary blues.
What happened next: Well, I started to really listen to the song when it came on the radio in my car. Turns out I can’t really hear the radio that well when I’m at work. The guitar riff (while still pretty cool) is about the only decent musicality in the whole song. The vocals have that same stale, packaged harshness to them that bands like Nickelback and Creed have. Oh, and my internal party animal got rabies, so I had to put it down.
Santana and Rob Thomas, “Smooth”
Why I liked it: I know they’re about as close to “bubblegum” as alternative music gets, but I love Matchbox 20. Most of that is due to Rob Thomas’s vocals. His voice annoys a ton of people. Screw them – I love it.
Put those vocals together with Carlos Santana’s guitar skills and you’ve got a song that the teenage me could really enjoy while driving down the street. Turns out people made fun of you if you listened to The Backstreet Boys and Savage Garden, but not so much Santana.
What happened next: Remember what I said about adult contemporary radio? Guess where you’re most likely to hear “Smooth” nowadays.
All-American Rejects, “Gives You Hell”
Why I liked it: I think I’ve dealt with this song in writing before. “Gives You Hell” hit the airwaves pretty much right after I’d broken up with a girl, which is pretty awesome. During a breakup, there’s almost this sense of competition: both you and your ex try to prove to all your mutual friends that you are stronger than the other. A song like “Gives You Hell” creates the illusion that you’re winning that argument. Not only are you still happy and doing fine, but you’ve got an enormous squad of tone-deaf football players backing you up.
What happened next: “Gives You Hell” suffers from being an incredibly catchy song. Let me explain: the song is catchy INSTEAD of being well-written. Once the fun bounciness of the song loses its appeal, you’re left with a song for frat-boys to play loudly over their Halo tournaments. And, well, I suck at Halo.
Sara Bareilles, “Love Song”
Why I liked it: I can credit my college roommate, Brandon, for exposure to a lot of quirky little songs and videos that I don’t think I’d have ever found on my own. “Love Song” is one of these. The song felt just indie enough that I could like it as a nonconformist college student, yet mainstream enough that I could… well, like it. For real like it.
What happened next: I bought the whole Sara Bareilles album and gave it a listen. The songs are all pretty good, but Sara… well, she doesn’t seem to LIKE men much. She’s definitely a bit of a hater – not Alanis Morissette, but still. Eventually, I just got uncomfortable listening to a woman sing about how much she doesn’t need me in her life and how much I screwed her up.
“Gravity,” however, is still an amazing song. Argue with me and I will beat your face right off your skull.
2 comments:
If "Love Song" is the song that I am thinking of then I think you should no that it was written to her label. Otherwise this is a really interesting post. You still like "Black Parade?"
I'm sorry, what did you say? I could only think about that candy bar at the top . . .
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