I’ve been playing records ever since I was about five or six years old and I got my own portable mini-record player in a red plastic case. At that age, I even learned to work my parents’ massive console hi-fi stereo better than they did.
From the day that we got our first holiday music album, I have viscerally hated medleys. In that case, it was a Christmas medley — “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and so on — but that hate applies to all medleys — Broadway showtune medleys, variety show pop song medleys, every kind of medley.
I don’t know what it is exactly about them that bothers me, but I notice that my irritation is at its peak right at the transition between one work and another.
Damn it, a song should be started, played, and finished, and then there should be a new start. Works that were not composed originally as a unit ought not to be jammed together in a goddamn medley. Who’s with me?
Fountains of Wayne usually do a “Super 70s” medley in concert, which is a real hoot. Last time they they strung together Do You Feel Like We Do, Twilight Zone, The Breakup Song, Mad World, Carry On, and Jet.
The Who’s live version of* My Generation* got morphed into a medley of songs and tossed off riffs which was a highlight of the set.
Well, a medley should never be two (or more) whole songs. I mean, I get your ire if it’s set up that way (although they are still sometimes fun to sing). But just regular short medleys are awesome.
So much of my knowledge of music comes from having to sing medleys in the end of the year show-choir (a concert choir the rest of the year). We’re talking 10 - 20 songs per piece. And it’s awesome.
My only exposure to medleys is from award shows. I’m okay with them.
Snippets, not medleys, but I’ll admit to sitting through infomercials for 50’s and 60’s rock 'n roll, classical music, and classic country. It comes with having a short attention span, I guess.
But if it is two or more long songs together, then that’s not really terribly different than the songs being played separately. I assume the annoying part (for ppl who hate them) is that it’s a lot of short songs and that they’d prefer to hear long songs rather than a medley.
I don’t like 'em. They tend to take one verse and a refrain and crunch them all together with other bits of songs. It’s irritating.
Several years ago, a bunch of metal bands did “tributes” to other bands in medley form. Metallica did a Motorhead medly, Motorhead did a Metallica medley, and King Diamond did something or other. It was annoying, even though I like all those bands.
2011 Carols for a Cure has the cast of La Cage Aux Foiles intertwinning We Need a Little Christmas with The Best of Times. It is truly amazing how well they did it.
Yeah, I didn’t think of the Weird Al type thing. That, I can take because it’s done as a joke.
BitT, Freudian Slit has the answer to your comment. I dislike them because they chop up bits of songs. When I hear a song I like, I want to hear it from start to finish, not just a segment of it that blends into something else, especially if that something else is not something I particularly like.
This is particularly bad for holiday music, because there are some songs that I love and some I hate, hate, hate (“Little Drummer Boy,” I’m giving you the stink-eye.)
I dislike medleys because it feels like the performer(s) are tired of a couple of early hits but realize the fans want to hear them. They very quickly perform a verse from each song with an awkward interlude, merely as a required element of their show, not a tribute to their fans. I realize they may be sick of those songs but there’s something to be said about sucking up and going the extra mile for those fans who bought the tickets and went to all the trouble of going to a live show to support their music. Rant ended.
