» music Underbellie

irritating earworms or, my most overplayed songs of all time

You know you want it, except seriously, not any more. Please stop.

Before having kids I thought if I ever did whelp a few pups my musical life would, in a sense, be over: I’d be forced to listen to babbling baby fare. Turns out no, not so much. My kids like grownup music just fine, and I don’t have to bring Rafi or Barney or whomever into my home unbidden. Yet there is a dark side to the communal family iPod: my children have seriously put a dent in my appreciation of several previously-enjoyed artists, songs, and albums: Los Campesinos, Jazmine Sullivan’s “Fearless” album, Justin Timberlake, and the Mamma Mia soundtrack, to name a few. They simply have played the death out of this stuff.

Of course, a larger force in pop music killjoy is the Pop Music Industrial Complex itself. Even with an uber-hipster musician husband and our lifestyle free of television and pop-radio, the stuff is out in the ether of modern life. I find myself exposed to songs enough that the constant exposure itself ruins something I perhaps could have enjoyed were it not so relentlessly rammed into my inner ear. Oddly, what constitutes a Permanent Overplay vs. a temporary one is something I can’t quite define. Some popular songs move on peacefully enough into my nostalgic lexicon, and can be heard again without an inner groan (examples: INXS’s “Devil Inside”, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, The Wallflower’s “One Headlight”, Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, and Shakira’s “La Tortura”). Conversely, “My Most Overplayed Songs Of All Time” are not to be confused with songs and artists played ubermuch that I never particularly enjoyed in the first place, like say Ted Nugent or Lady Gaga. And songs that will never get old, ever, because they are just awesome songs (example: Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack”, The Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden”, and Patti LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade”).

Yet there are some decent enough songs I just never, ever want to hear again. Like:

Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl”
Ah, when this one comes on I break my wrist trying to change the channel or click the “skip” button on my Rhapsody player. What is it about Mr. Morrison’s drink-and-druggy-yet-accessible jazz/blues club style that gets him so much play? Because “Wild Nights” and “Moondance” suffer from serious excellent-yet-overused malaise.

Notable moments: the send-up by Armand Assante and Sheilyn Fenn in spoof-movie Fatal Instinct.

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”
Seriously, is anyone not sick of this song? I liked it once at some party in the afternoon after I’d had a beer and while a cute boy was flirting with me. I’ve heard the damn thing so much since that it’s gone in the dastardly files of Southern Rape Rock, and there it resides to rot.

Notable moments: My younger brother looks exactly like a young Artimus Pyle (funny!). Artimus is/was the drummer who survived the plane crash but was later charged with sexual battery against two little girls (oh… not funny!).

Free’s “All Right Now”
The one radio mainstay in the area I’ve spent most my life we have a classic rock radio station – KDUX out of Aberdeen. They play this song about once an hour.

Notable moments: was almost redeemed based on a short scene in the film American Beauty.

Any 90′s Brian Adams
This includes “Everything I Do (I Do For You)” and “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman” and “Laydeez Love Sensitive Men With Sensitive 90′s Coiffure”. I understand if people find this stuff romantic but if some dude played this song or dedicated it to me he could pretty much guarantee some non-sex, forever. The hell of a thing is, of course, I’m mostly a Brian Adams fan, especially the 80s Adams. So. Whoops.

Live’s “Lightening Crashes”
Wow. Seriously. Shut up. The lyric about a placenta splatting on the floor was particularly annoying. And the video. And the hokey-sounding guitar strum at the beginning. And: everything.

Abba’s “Dancing Queen”
An excellent, joyous song, and I still – depending on my mood – can start to cry upon hearing it (I enjoyed both movies Muriel’s Wedding and Mamma Mia, which heavily feature this track). Heck, “Dancing Queen” was pretty much my wedding song in that it was played and danced to right after vows (we have a home video of my dad shaking his bony ass exuberantly). But: just too much.

Notable moments: Well, if you like Abba, the film Mamma Mia was a lot of fun. Plus, it’s about horny old people. FTW.

Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run”
Ye gods I love this song – enough that I want to screech any radio play to a halt. Because I am this close to having heard it too many times at whick.

Listen to instead: “Thunder Road”, “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out”. Actually, there is nothing wrong with a full rotation of the source album “Born To Run” which I have on vinyl [brag] and retains all its charm.

John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Small Town” and “Little Pink Houses”
I have heard these so many times it is impossible to know if my childhood self really enjoyed them or not. < shudder! > And yes, I am aware that the artist’s current moniker is just-plain Mellencamp today, having left the Cougar behind in ’91. I will say, the way, way, way too many times I have heard these tunes are almost made up for by the crunchy-guitar balm of “Hurts So Good”, which although thoroughly redneck-fare is still a great song.

Pink’s “Get The Party Started” and “Don’t Let Me Get Me”
Yeah. Just: no. Pink is awesome tho’.

The Eagles’ “Hotel California”
If I had a time machine, after I did all the cool time-machine stuff and hopefully didn’t screw things up too bad, I’d make it an extra magic time machine by first erasing my memory of the Eagles, then going back to the year before I was born to hear this song for the first time. I imagine it was kind of awesomeness at the time. Dang.

The Gypsy Kings do a fun version of this in The Big Lebowski – just another dose of awesome in a very awesome film.

The B-52s’ “Love Shack”
This is an incredibly fun song! & features a bit of personal esteem from me as it’s the only one I’ve ever karaoke’d! And it was in a group so it kind of doesn’t count! Nevertheless I have heard it too, too, too many times! Damn!

Jet’s “Look What You’ve Done”
You know what, I would have found this song kind of winsomely pretty and sad (yes, I’m aware someone’s depressed Toy Poodle must have written the inane lyrics). Because I really do listen to some pantywaisted stuff occasionally and really enjoy it. But? By the time I first heard the tune it was roundly mocked by those who’d really, really over-heard it. So: thanks again, pop music machine.

LL Cool J.’s “Doin’ It”
You know who’s a talented artist, decent actor, and sexy, sexy man? L.L. Cool J., that’s who. Still, I had enough of him in a handful of months from college thanks to this song which is about, guess what, screwing and how much fun it is (yawn!). For some reason “Mama Said Knock You Out” doesn’t bother me, though it likely received more radio play five years previous. Odd.

Mentioned:

Billy Fisher / Artimus Pyle

KDUX

“10 Overplayed Songs on Classic Radio” at glidemagazine.com

American Beauty “Out of weed” on YouTube

Fatal Instinct (1993)

Mamma Mia (2008)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

* photo courtesy of The Doctr on Flickr

Tagged music

the limitations of “color-blind and fancy-free”, an 80′s music video treatise

So, Sophie, should you get into that guy's car outside the club? Absolutely! Wait! No. Uh... Do what you feel.

I love what my mom brings in assisting my husband and I in parenting our kids. What she’s bringing mostly lately is Billy Ocean. In the last week whenever I go over to pick up my children after a playdate, she and the kids are singing to or watching the video of his hit single “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car”.

I’m a fan of several of Billy Ocean’s songs (okay, especially “Loverboy”, and although I love belting that one out I feel compelled to point out that is a bad 80′s video decision in an era of very bad videos). “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” makes me laugh a little, though, because it’s a perfect example of my now-and-then mixtapes containing deliciously and unintentionally creepy pop music* – you know, a seemingly cheerful or romantic tune that, if you listen closely, actually features chillingly stalker-like lyrics. Other songs of Mr. Ocean’s qualify, by the way (see below). And tangentially: my current favorite and recently-discovered honoree in this fake genre is Dusty Springfield’s “I’ll Try Anything” (“I want you so much inside / I’m throwin’ away all my conscience and pride!“).**

Back to the aforementioned song: last night in my mother’s living room my seven year old daughter, after about the eighth consecutive listen to this catchy tune, approached my mother and asked, “Grandma? How come in this video there’s a white woman, and she gets into a black man’s car?” My mom responded, “Well, why not?” and Sophie stalled. Then I said, “Sophie, if I’m correct in what I hear you’ve observed, I will say it’s true that many people date within their race, but that doesn’t mean everyone does, or that you have to.” My daughter nodded, watching me. “Besides,” I added, “I don’t think that woman was a ‘white woman’, she looked like a light-skinned black woman to me.” At this my daughter said, “Ooohhhh…” in that whole, I’m-getting-the-picture way she has.

And that was a window of opportunity, out of the blue, to talk a bit about the complexities of race in today’s America. After our handful of sentences Sophie’s curiosity was sated while for a few additional moments my mind raced over several subjects: the differences in portrayals of light-skinned vs. dark-skinned black women in television and film, Paper Bag Parties, colorism, the Jezebel stereotype, and “brightening creams” among a handful of other less-formed thoughts. But it was 11:30 at night, we were coming off a party, and the kid had already ran into the kitchen to grab up a slice of pound cake.

Of course, discussions on race, sex, gender, homophobia, and social justice take place regularly in my household (as well as discussions on cooking, cleaning, eating, trees, fish, polygons, scotch-tape under a microscope, iPod holders built out of Legos, you get the idea); but the “big issues” discussions are mostly conversations between my husband and I. The kids overhear most of this, if they decide to listen in, and partake when they feel they have a point to make. They sometimes look over my shoulder at what I’m reading (or writing), and not a movie viewing goes by (we don’t own a television) that Ralph and I aren’t either off-handedly or seriously discussing, say, the White Savior elements in a storyline, or the mansplaining Arrogant Scientist in our beloved old B-movies, or the tropes of mincing silly gay man and the menacing lesbian (no really, these things are still alive and well in so many films!)

So it’s not that I’m saying social subjects only come up this handful of precious times, like last night. What I will say is, it’s a rare and lovely opportunity when the kid herself discovers something about the world – something seemingly understated and normative to our peer group even – and asks about it. Her mind is open in that moment and she is ready for a piece of the puzzle; such a gift, considering how much else she absorbs without being fully conscious of it (and some of these socially atmospheric messages are decidedly not-so-great). My mother’s response (“Why shouldn’t white and black people date one another?”) was a correct one; however, what I know my daughter had perceived was that the world is often not a Sesame Street-esque mix of people all getting along and mixing their crayon sets together; so I think, in that light, my response was a correct one as well – especially given previous and pending family choices deliberately seeking anti-racist goals.

I’m impressed by my seven year old daughter, who notices all sorts of things about the behavior of people in the world. As any reader of my blog or personal friend of the family will know, she is very intuitive and perceives subtleties, which will serve her well in her life. Because maybe a thing I fear greatly is to accidentally pass on a “colorblind” ideology – like that espoused by so many others I know and, to some extent, my own family of origin (Oh my gosh! I could talk about the liberal and “colorblind” white family so much! Like how they will repeatedly say the same little things like, “You know, these are called ‘Brazil nuts’ – people USED to call them n**-toes, but we don’t do that any more” and “So-and-so, our black friend“, with that special way they’d say the phrase that is eerily like that special way they say “homosexual”. As in, “I am pointing out the race/sexuality of this person in a way that tells you I’m such a Special Progressive Person for being okay with their race/sexuality”). So anyway, the “colorblind” upbringing, you know, “the world is full of people of all colors of the rainbow, and we all live together happily, wheeee!” I find this sort of thing profoundly lacking (although well-intentioned and partially valid, blah blah), especially when raising a child who has a mind and a heart, and can see deeply – but not always interpret what she sees.

As someone she seeks for guidelines – sometimes quite directly – I don’t want to mess up, but neither do I want to worry too much about being the Perfect Parent in any of these surprise child-initiated conversations – because I have to believe I influence her every day, even when we’re not directly discussing a social issue. But if she asks, I’m not going to piss on her leg and tell her it’s raining, either.

I owe her better than that.