I don’t know if this question would be better suited for the Cafe or not, but here goes:
Every now and then I will be reading a review for a movie, song, CD, whatever. The reviewer will sometimes describe it as having a “train wreck” ending. Sometimes I will see threads in CS which use this phrase. I tried to look up the phrase but did not see how it was defined in terms of its overall usage. I Googled this phrase and was hoping to determine its usage from the context of how it was used in various articles. While I read several examples, I was unable to arrive at anything conclusive enough from them to satisfy my query.
My original WAG was that it refers to a movie (or book) that starts out good but then suddenly turns bad. I thought this was a good definition, but then someone in another review described a song as having a “train wreck” ending, which shot my WAG to hell since I couldn’t really see how my previous impression could apply here.
I know it may sound like something a guy in his thirties should know, but I’ve only relatively recently seen this phrase used (my mother wasn’t familiar with it, either). This question has been bugging me for days, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I always got the impression that the term “train wreck” refers to an utterly complete and total disaster. For example, the movie “Battlefield Earth” was called a “train wreck” because the quality of the work wasn’t just merely bad but completely wretched from start to finish. Also, the personal lives of Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson have been referred to as “train wrecks” because they are so above and beyond normal tragedy that they become sick jokes.
As for what exactly a “train wreck ending” to a song or movie is, my guess is that your original assumption is right (i.e., it’s something that starts off adequately but collapses in the end to such a degree that you’re stunned by the awfulness). However, another guess would be that the ending is so excessively loud, dramatic, and/or bombastic that it artistically overwhelms what went on before it. (This might be a stupid question but the critic did dislike the song?)
Well, AFAIK, I’ve used the term “train wreck” to describe music with two intents.
On a single track. The track would begin as a normal track, but at the end, it essentially shuts down. You’ve either got artists who can’t keep it together for the whole track, or someone being artsy/funny/etc and turning the end of a track into a grating discordant bit followed by an abrupt end.
In a live mixed set of electronica. The failure of a DJ to correctly beat-, pitch-, tone-, or phrase-match the tracks he is trying to mix. It’s an awful sounding mashup, with two completely seperate beats running around each other like hyperactive two year olds dancing on bass drums. A trademark of overhyped commercial DJs like Oakenfold, Keoki, VanDkye, etc.
That’s just how I’ve used them, and I haven’t reveiwed music since my days in college radio. Some other critic out there may use them to mean a complete different thing. Music is subjective.
In my circle of amateur musician friends, a song we’re playing together has a train wreck ending when it gets all discombobulated–no coordination on when and how it finishes. For example, one person has played a final chord, another is in the middle of an ending sequence, and someone else has started another verse.
It can also be a train wreck (ending aside) if there’s confusion and disorientation about who plays what and when in the course of the song. This can include forgotten lyrics, misunderstanding about whose turn to play a break, lack of clarity as to whether the break includes the A part, the B part, or both, etc. It’s not about the artistic merits of the endeavor, but about the mechanics of doing it.
Judging from the review, I think “train-wreck ending” means the last part of the song is loud and discordant–just like a train wreck. Rather than refering to something that takes a sudden and steep nosedive in terms of quality toward the end, this represents a more literal use of the term.
FWIW, I have only heard the term in conjunction with movies, probably because I have not read a review of an album in at least twenty-five years. In movies I have always taken it as a horrible attempt to resolve plot threads, the most case being having all the characters killed off in a train wreck. This does end the story, but gives no sense of closure.
I recall just this device in Irwin Allen’s The Swarm, with the characters in one sub plot (was it Fred MacMurray?) involving a romantic triangle amongst some senior citizens all dying in a bee-related train crash.