Musical Musings… Annoying Repetition
The posts where I bitch about music never seem to go over too well, but since people aren’t always in the car with me when some annoying song comes on (and I often forget to bring it up later), I now have this forum to gripe. And gripe I will (my apologies if you don’t care, but press on because you may agree).
The theme for this short list is Annoying Repetition. Before you get in an uproar saying all music is repetitive, I’m talking more about the hooks that cycle throughout the song and seem to go nowhere fast. They feel incomplete and prod at the mind and soul and I’m being melodramatic. Songs can be super-repetitive and work. Take Green Day’s Brain Stew as a positive example.
But some songs set out to destroy ear drums. Mobile’s The Killer is the latest entry into the mix, and what ultimately prompted this disdainful account. (To note: I would have embedded the video if Universal wasn’t a bunch of douchenozzles.) Aside from the whining, winding musical arrangement, the “yeah-yeah’s” dispersed in the track make me think of Bono on “South Park” as he walks through a poor village singing “hello-hello” and “yeah-yeah” (it’s his special brand of helping).
I know there are other recent examples like Britney Spears’ Womanizer or tATu’s All the Things She Said, but they’re radio pop and to call it crap is an understatement. On the other hand, these kinds of songs are programmed to be catchy and get stuck in your head, and they do it quite well. Just the mere mention of the titles might cause earworms.
Before I go, I have two other odd entries: a couple songs of yesteryear that when I catch wind of them, they spiral me into a rage. One is John Mellencamp’s Wild Night and the other is 24 Gone’s Girl of Colours (video below). At least Shana Zadrick is in the Coug’s video. Too bad I didn’t know about her in the 90’s (I was in love with Laetitia Casta at the time.)