Came across this video earlier today :
Obviously, with a title like that, I had to check it out.
I mean, what kind of bad media fan would I be if I didn’t?
And so here’s some comments I came up with while watching it :
Discovering I am not the only person who finds Ob-la-di annoying feels good. But finding out people HATE it and think it is the WORST Beatles song leaves me feeling very weird. It’s nowhere near THAT bad. It’s just a tad obnoxious.
*blink* Sussudio? That harmless bit of fluff? What the intentional fuck? It’s a silly pop song but that’s its only crime.
Don’t Worry Be Happy, I get. The song is still annoyingly perky,. But at the time, it caught such massive hate because it seemed to epitomize the very specific kind of vapid, empty-headed positivity that made people hate on the Care Bears. I know I hate the song at the time for those reasons. And you have to admit, despite being this hyper-intelligent music professor who lectures at the Julliard *for fun*, McFerrin sounds like a total idiot in the song.
They are totally right that MacArthur Park is one of the absolute worst songs ever. It is so incredibly over-dramatic, cheesy, punishingly hand-wringingly earnest, fake, and overproduced. It’s so bad, in fact, that it stands out as a fascinating mystery as to how something like it could be made. Because truly bad art transcends mere incompetence and instead embodies reverse genius. Just as powerful as regular genius, but in the opposite direction. Like The Room.
Here’s some more entries from the Wikipedia article in question.
Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. Serious what the intended fuck here again. I guess people thought it was too earnest and obvious? Dude, it’s a song about racial harmony by two of the greatest songwriters ever. Chill.
We Built This City by Starship. Not the first time I have seen this song catch hate and I still don’t get it. It’s not even obnoxious. A little too bright, I guess?
But then there’s this genuine gem of awfulness, and I say that as a connoisseur :
Finally, one I consider to be genuinely awful besides MacArthur Park. And I am not saying it’s MacArthur Park bad – few things are.
But holy shit, is Agadoo bad. And on so many levels. It’s trite, repetitive, catchy in the worst possible way, cheap, badly produced, sung by two blond robot clones with nothing between their ears but wind, and those are the ugliest giant fruit musician costumes I have ever seen.
And that’s saying something.
But what makes it truly dastardly is that you can totally imagine it being a huge hit with idiots. It’s like the Achy Breaky Heart of evil vacation resort songs.
And being the perverse mofo I am, I thus consider it a valuable find. I’m glad I came across it. It stands out as one of the worst of the worst and for that, I salute it and whatever evil forces spawned it.
Way to go, guys. You really lowered the bar.
What else. There’s What’s Up by Four Non Blondes.
That’s this song, in case you don’t recognize the title :
Love that song. The haters can go fuck themselves sideways in a hurricane.
Nookie by Limp Bizkit. I get it. I like this song despite Durst’s whiny fucking vocals and lyrics. This from the band that brought us Break Something? Sheesh.
Who Let The Dogs Out? by Baha Men. Yeah, ditto. Yes, I know being barked at all time when the song was everywhere was rough on the nerves, and it certainly gives one the impression it’s a stupid, mindless song, but I now find it to be a rockin’ summer dance tune with loads of energy and spirit.
That’s enough for now. I will share my theories as to why some songs attract this kind of hate in the second half.
More after the break.
Additional content regarding music
First, why some seemingly harmless songs get enormous hate :
One factor : perkiness. Perkiness irritates cranky people. I know this because I used to be one of those people. But then I realized the world needs all the perking up it can get and there is a vast difference between what is morally wrong and what is merely very annoying to me personally.
So for the most part, I let perky people and things perk away unmolested unless there is actual harm involved.
Many people do not draw this distinction, however, and the profession of critic attracts exactly the kind of cranky person prone to hyperbole that will take great pleasure in crapping all over the annoyingly upbeat item du jour.
As for whether bad music is getting worse, no it is not, Alfo Media. It just seems worse because it’s more recent and you are still sick of some of its tropes.
Those older song’s like O-Bla-Di seem harmless to us now because we now encounter them completely free of historical context and can judge them on their own merits.
I’ve said before that its possible that no art can truly be evaluated objectively until it is completely and totally obsolete.
Plus, the sweeping tide of history winnows out all but the greatest songs of an era, causing the phenomenon of people thinking all the music of an era was great because all the music they remember and/or know of from that era is great.
And obviously the average song of today is going to pale in comparison versus the very best of bygone days.
So no, music is not getting worse. Neither the good stuff or the bad stuff is any better or worse than the stuff of yesteryear.
It might be less to your liking, but that’s a far cry from being objectively worse. After all, the older you get, the larger your trove of music (or whatever) you really like gets, and the more you narrow in on what exactly you like in things.
Every new thing therefore has to compete against all your favorite things and the older you get, the stiffer the competition gets, until new things don’t stand a chance.
And just like that, boom, mind closed, guess what, you’re old.
The only way I know to combat this is to judge everything on its own merits and not by how it compares to everything else you love.
That way liking a new thing never feels like I am “betraying” an old thing and I can continue to expand my mind and my tastes ad infinitum.
Or at least until I get too damned old to give a shit any more.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.