We used to call them “gopher” songs, because when one came on you’d immediately “go fer” the knob. We got pretty fast! We could change J Giles’ Freeze Frame before the camera sounds quit.
As I’ve mellowed with age and been worn down by endless years having being unable to silence them every time, I now have only two left: The aforementioned Freeze Frame, and Paradise By The Dash board Light.
Why I don’t complain about new gopher tunes is that I never listen to the stations that play them. But they exist. Anything with Auto Tune, starting with Believe. That would be on the list.
In the early 80’s the stations that we listened to adopted this “block party weekend” format, where they would play three songs by the same band. It was so repetitious that we could usually guess the songs, in order, and also we developed an inner clock that knew what it was time for a block of, say, Aerosmith. Again.
iTunes has saved me from never hearing a gopher tune at home.
Literally any singer who uses autotune. I long for the days when singers had the talent to stay on pitch without the use of electronic devices. If you need that much help, you should have chosen a different career.
Don’t hear him much anymore but Shawn Mendes had me reaching for the dial. The warble he would put in the notes made me think of Jim Brewer’s goat boy every… single… time.
Helen Reddy. I used to call her Aunt Helen because to me, she sounded like someone’s aunt who decided to get up and sing “one of those songs you kids think are so great” at a wedding reception. It didn’t help that I couldn’t stand “I Am Woman.” (“But I’m still an embryo/with a long, long way to go…”) In a similar vein, I hated the song “War.” (“HUH! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!”) There were so many great anti-war songs. This wasn’t one of them, but Edwin Starr’s voice was OK.
As for more recent singers, there are songs I don’t like, e.g.“Blurred Lines,” but off-hand, I can’t think of anyone whose voice I can’t stand.
Man, aint that the truth. I never listen to “Classic Rock” stations ( thanks XM, and Pandora ) because I can’t stand that. A band like Queen with their one-of-a-kind sound and rich library is done an injustice when radio stations just play pretty much exclusively ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions’ back to back.
I would go exactly the other way around myself. Though his morose, fairly monotone voice does fit his lyrics. His songwriting, though, is absolutely stellar, and I remember as a teenager just fawning over his lyrics, which is something I pretty much never do, being drawn to music first and not giving a damn about lyrics. Who else name drops John Keats, William Butler Yates, and Oscar Wilde all in the same song?
There’s another style that it seems every woman who isn’t doing “breathy little girl” is doing. I can’t really describe it. It’s a kind of forced affect that sounds very unnatural and unpleasant.
Oh yeah. The 80s, the 80s and beyond. It’s uncanny: they tout certain bands as a come-on and you can guess almost 100 percent of what the songs will be. Top 40 my ass: it’s more like 4. The times I’m exposed to the rut that is “classic rock” radio, where I’m visiting or with people who are tuned to it, is that they really don’t seem to care to listen to the music being played as much as they just kinda’ sorta’ like having the soundtrack of their relative youth in the background. “How soothing…it’s 1977 forever!”
Yeah, iTunes, Pandora, satellite radio, and my CD collection keeps me sane.
As a former radio DJ, there have been many voices that have annoyed me over the years, and many of them have already been mentioned. Among contemporary performers, however, it has to be Kelly Clarkson, hands down. She doesn’t sing. She screeches.
Really? (Re: Kelly Clarkson) She has a hell of a voice! Her collection of covers shows off some amazing vocal chops and range. The Fake Plastic Trees cover is quite nice; I like the original Radiohead version with Yorke, of course, and it doesn’t eclipse that, but it shows her range and versatility.
