Cliched songs...

Cafe Society
1

Around these parts, I’m becoming a bit ticked off at local rock stations who play ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ every single time the word GRUNGE is mentioned. Which got me thinking, what other songs have been wrung of meaning in being overplayed?

Not necessarily radio airplay…just songs that have been overused to evoke a specific ‘mood.’

Here goes…

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” - Nirvana (Ooooooh, alternative!)
“Born in the USA” - Springsteen (You’d think CCR’s ‘Fortunate Son’ would get used more - it’s certainly a lot less ambiguous.)
“Every Breath You Take” - Police (We get that it’s really a stalker song, k?)
“Don’t Stop Believing” - Journey (Decent song elevated to self-help mantra? I don’t get it.)
“Imagine” - John Lennon
“Smoke On The Water” - Deep Purple
and
“Highway To Hell” - AC DC
and
“Born To Be Wild” - Steppenwolf (All three, for same reason.)
“Freebird” - Skynrd (The redneck “Stairway To Heaven?”…probably costs less to license, at least. :smiley: )
“Proud To Be An American” - (Lee Greenwood?)

2

We are the Champions-Queen.

3

Like A Virgin–Madonna

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun–Cyndi Lauper

4

How Soon is Now by The Smiths.

5

There must be some rule that at least one commercial must feature “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves at all times.

6

“What a Wonderful World” – Louis Armstrong (used to evoke an “aww, that’s sweet” emotion in the listeners).

7

Also at athletic events:

To get the crowd into it: Gary Glitter’s masterpiece of lyric complexity, Rock and Roll Part 2

To get the cheerleaders/dance team and fans to interact: YMCA (with accompanying gestures to spell the title)

Special mention: I once attended a college basketball tournament on a day eight teams competed, and at least half of the schools’ bands treated the fans to Proud Mary

8

I hate to point it out because I like the song, but every poignant TV moment in recent memory is accompanied by one of various versions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”.

9

How many radio stations across the country kick off their Friday night party programming by playing “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang?

10

And their friday morning programming by playing “Everybody’s working for the weekend” or the one I hate “Bang the Drum All Day”.

11

Or used ironically. Examples include Bowling for Columbine and the trailer for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

12

I know “Born In The USA” isn’t lyrically ambiguous, but weren’t the Republicans using it for a while in their campaigns? Only quoting the chorus, of course…

More:

“I Feel Good” - James Brown (Generic song about…well, you know)
“We Are Family” - Sister Sledge
“Stayin’ Alive” - Bee Gees (There must be better disco songs than this…or at least other ones.)
“One” - U2 (From sad breakup/death song to obligatory wedding love song through endless repetition…(!) )
“Wipeout” - The Ventures
“Cars” - Gary Numan (Sure sells a lot of cars, for a dystopian ode to agorophobia)
“Sweet Home Alabama” - Lynrd Skynrd (Oddly enough, KFC is now using this in their commercials.)