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What I really hate about some music

When I listen to music, there are four things that I really bothers me and was wondering if there are others who feel the same way about songs just as strongly as I do. I don't like feeling this way but when I hear these things, I just want to turn the music off and I'm not sure why the song writer doesn't realize he probably has a dud and not a hit. Here they are:

1. When a song writer finds a catchy phrase and the singer repeats the line three times in a row and then a stanza later, here it comes again repeated all three times and this just keeps going on and on.

2. Very similar to the above, a writer writes a real good line of music and then makes the whole song a repeat or variation of this line of music and has no imagination to add a little something in-between.

3. Singers who can't really sing well and think they can but get such really great score of music behind them that if a really good singer sang the song it would be wonderful to listen to. Please understand that carrying a tune to me doesn't make a good singer and I'm not talking about karoke singers here either.

4. Rhyming in a melody.... Please you can predict what the next line of the song is going to be before it is sang because it rhymes with the last line just sang...

128x128frankmc195
sns
3,003 posts
 

Ah yes, the fake sunshine message, you know its fake because they have to repeat, repeat, repeat. Real sunshine comes through with subtle reference to nice and beautiful things.

 

Repetition comes from lazy writing, attempts to get hit record, hit one over the head with message. It all works in reverse for me, I rebel against message.

cd318
2,636 posts
 

@sns

Ah yes, the fake sunshine message, you know its fake because they have to repeat, repeat, repeat. Real sunshine comes through with subtle reference to nice and beautiful things.

 

Repetition comes from lazy writing, attempts to get hit record, hit one over the head with message. It all works in reverse for me, I rebel against message.

 

 

You’re not the only one, but unfortunately we’re in the tiny minority.

Trite like Don’t Worry, Be Happy often sells in the millions by catering to an audience who simply don’t have the time or energy to focus on much past the song title, or its cynically exploitative intent.

It’s probably just as well too if you catch some of the lyrics that even young children are sometimes being exposed to nowadays, especially in popular dance hits.

Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA was far from trite, but nevertheless it was arguably another misconstrued megahit record.

 

On the other hand, perhaps we’re just being pedantic in typical audiophile style? Perhaps there’s a case for the listener interpreting music in any way they want to?

Fair enough, just as long as they don’t do it in public.

larsman's avatar
larsman
1,805 posts
 

A good counter to 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' is 'Stabbed In The Face' by Wolf Eyes. 

tylermunns
600 posts
 

Repetition doesn’t bother me in the least.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat.  No one here seems to be lamenting I-IV-V chord progressions or the I-VI-IV-V chord progressions or the several chord progressions we’ve heard a trillion times over, countless songs that not only regurgitate those beyond-cliched chord progressions but base their entire songs, start-to-finish, on this primitive sequence.  I like Hank Williams just as much as I like Trout Mask Replica, just for different reasons. 

Lyrically, not everybody can be Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen.  Not every song’s value is based exclusively on either the lyrics or exclusively the music.  If I song’s music is satisfying, I don’t care if they say the same thing over and over again.  
There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

bob540
405 posts
 

The Yes, some really good examples of annoying music. One that realky an wl women seem to like, is Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart”. I only heart it sometimes on radio and it irks me every time. Talk about lazy song-writing!

Then there is Michael Jackson’s “Bad” that he repeats and repeats. Andy Rooney on “Sixty Minutes” did a piece about how bad “Bad” is. 😊

People mentioned “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, which I agree is annoying. A similar song is Pharrell Williams’ “I’m Happy”. OK, a catchy tune the first few times you hear it but after that I started making up my own lyrics (“ Because life’s crappy,”)

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