A question of taste

[benhall.1]

So I read on the interwebs about this "worst song ever". That would be this one.

I really like it. What's wrong with it? Alternatively, what's wrong with me?

btw, I'm hardly advertising this thing - it has, as they say, 'gone viral' and has been viewed now more than 21 million times. And that's not counting the other places it's appeared, and the fact that it's already No 54 worldwide on iTunes. Wow! Not bad for a 13 year old.

Dammit ... I've got it going round in my head now ...

[dwest]

I watched it with the sound off, it's not bothering me a bit.

[mutepointe]

OK, I just watched it. I liked it too. If I heard it on the radio, I wouldn't switch stations. I know nothing about this song so my guess on why it made the worst song is because it's just looks and sounds manufactured. Like a whole music production company got together while the creative forces were away and they said, "Let's make a video and show them." or the owner of the company asked the technicians to make a video with his daughter as the star and she used the text from her Facebook page as script. The marketing department of this company really has their finger on the pulse of what sells.

[emmline]

Well, you are not alone. My daughter, home on Spring break, is also spouting that earworm. Actually, both the daughters at home are. You and they are undoubtedly joined by countless others in the web-connected world.

But is it empirically worse than (for example) such 70s dreck as Seasons in the Sun or Billy Don't be a Hero?

Or, for that matter, any number of offerings from the digitally tampered vocals of Britney Spears et al?

Here's what daughter #3 pointed out about the song's "badness":
Mostly the lyrics, actually. Now almost 21 years old, she is certain that even at 13 she would have been quick to note the lameness of such lines as "gotta eat cereal," "gotta make my mind up, which seat can I take," and "Tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards..."

Then, there's the bit of cognitive dissonance you're forced into when viewing the video which makes you ask "In what jurisdiction would you find 6 thirteen year olds driving a convertible?"
You also might note the awkwardness displayed by several of the main singer's "friends." Not that this is uncommon in 13 year olds, but we're accustomed to the more polished or show-biz jaded ones being used in productions.

So, worst song ever? Not possible. But, due to various of its attributes it's drawn lots of attention and laughs. If it were really the worst song ever, I don't think it could possibly trend so high.

[I.D.10-t]

A bunch of self absorbed teeny boppers that think the worst ever could be owned by them. All advertising is good, and this "viral" manufactured piece will sell well.
Is Friday worse than this? Or Classic Shatner?
Was Bob Denver's video just something of the times or truly bad?

And then there is Science to the rescue. (listen to the MP3)

The above Friday tune is not my cup of tea.
This tune is what i would conciser 3 to four times removed from natural. Synthetic, sampled, auto tuned, lyrics that say nothing, it seems to be made by a committee with an emotionless vessel as it's delivery system. It just doesn't have enough (depth?) to be truly bad either.

Over playing cannot make the song itself bad, and poor remakes are often "bad" because of the knowledge that there is a much better version. In my opinion, a truly horrible song is done in earnest, original, and painful to the point of needing to stop the tune before it is over.

[benhall.1]

Interesting stuff, chasps (for people of something other than my exact cultural background - age, location, sex and previous history - chasps translates as "like chaps, only including chapesses as well").

It is viral. It is manufactured. I like to think I don't fall for anything like that. So why do I this time, even though it's fairly transparent? And the words about Satruday coming after Friday and so on just come across to me as very like yer average 13 year old. I can - just about - remember what it was like to be 13. And my pals and I were simple souls - all we lived for was the weekend and having some 'fun' with our mates. We had no clue what 'fun' was. I think it consisted solely in the combination of it being the weekend and our being with our mates. This song hit that spot for me, even though it looks fairly obviously like it was written by adults cynically exploiting early teenage energy and simplicity.

All of which leads me to ask the question: do I like it out of purely imagined nostalgia for the, possibly illusory, simplicity of bygone youth?

[I'm being contemplative here, folks, not maudlin. I think ...]

[benhall.1]

I've just listened to I.D.10-t's clips. I've actually listened to the whole of Melamid and Soldier's offering before - I think it's really funny. But today I had to turn the thing off. I had to turn all of them off. I'd never seen that Bob Denver one before - gobsmackingly bad. Amazing. Shatner is just plain embarrassing, and the hot dogs thing is just too nasty. I'm a sensitive flower.

[I.D.10-t]

I think that as we learn more about our natural tendencies it will be easier to manufacture "good" music. Songs to tunes that sound pleasant, are not offensive, get stuck in the head and interact with the rhythms of our heartbeat and breathing. I just don't think that it will ever have the depth to create "great" (or truly horrible) music. I think for that you need to make some decisions that would stray outside of what the bell curve of statistics suggests. Add to that the age where a song is reduced to a 10 second sound bite or a ring tone, it becomes the soundtrack to the video game of life.

For some odd reason Friday had the feel of talking in empty euphemisms to me.

Oddly enough, Komar & Melamid and David Soldier has much in common with popular music. It is assembled according to people's preferences, polling helped to discover it, it was assembled from parts, and then released. I find it almost like a commentary on pop music itself. The absurdity of the piece gives me a chuckle.

[Nanohedron]

Synthetic, sampled, auto tuned, lyrics that say nothing, it seems to be made by a committee with an emotionless vessel as it's delivery system.

It's a pure example of the genre, whatever it's called. I admit it's somehow initially catchy, but on the other hand I couldn't listen even to the halfpoint.

(Strictly from a music-crafting standpoint, here, and largely ignoring the sociological elements which are probably more significant in what popularity the vid itself has as a whole) Mainly for me, there's nothing in the singing I would call "melody", but rather using monotone voice as essentially a rhythm instrument, with the accompaniment doing the heavy lifting to lend dimension (without which accompaniment there would be none) to the chanting, which is what it really is: chanting, not singing. Which is fine, but, c'mon. Everyone and his/her dog are doing this already, and have been for quite some time. It's too easy an out, and it's tired. It hasn't been novel since the 1980s, IIRC, and that hoariness is wasted, for its time on Earth has gained it nothing special to teach us. But it is what it is and you can dance to it, and that's really the point, I think. It's probably why it's lasted so: it's unchallenging, bland, and a cheap buzz, like box wine. Of course a metronome would do as well, but this is better.

What IS perhaps novel are the lyrics in the sense that they are samplings from messages on internet social media like Twitter or Facebook, and that is of course very au courant. But there's still no work/craftsmanship involved, as I count it, unless cutting and pasting together a collage may be called work/craftsmanship.

The good thing, I suppose, is that in going this route a songwriter/tunewright doesn't have to be a good one to get the job done. Sorry if I've offended anyone; I just find it odd that this vid has generated so much attention, because it's not remarkable to me. Perhaps all the sound and fury is because people are finally figuring out that they're getting bored with it, but haven't been able to put their finger on why. If that's true, it took long enough, for my money. It's not so much that I mind it, but that there's so *bleep*ing much of it, and I don't think its ubiquity is because it's "good", but because it just has the good fortune to be inherently rhythmically catchy, and comparatively dead-easy to pull off.

[I.D.10-t]

Mainly for me, there's nothing in the singing I would call "melody", but rather using monotone voice as essentially a rhythm instrument...

Strange, one of the things I was struck with was how the "beat" didn't seem right. I might have missed it but it seemed to have no stress, accent, dynamics, something that would make it more than a droning thump. Of the little rap music that I do listen to, for the most part the singing is limited in the number of notes, but the rhythm is more involved and not one dimensional.

[Nanohedron]

Mainly for me, there's nothing in the singing I would call "melody", but rather using monotone voice as essentially a rhythm instrument...

Strange, one of the things I was struck with was how the "beat" didn't seem right. I might have missed it but it seemed to have no stress, accent, dynamics, something that would make it more than a droning thump. Of the little rap music that I do listen to, for the most part the singing is limited in the number of notes, but the rhythm is more involved and not one dimensional.

In that "rhythm is simply the timing of the musical sounds and silences" (Wiki) even a droning thump is rhythm. It doesn't have to be interesting. Thus, anyway, my use of the word. When people hear a steady even beat and say "It has no rhythm," I count that a misuse of the word, although I understand they intend to mean interest or complexity. Technically it would be more accurate to say, "The rhythm is boring (or undeveloped, or one-dimensional, what have you)." But take away the interesting elements, and you're still left with a steady beat if everyone's on their game. Otherwise you couldn't dance to the rhythm (beat, same thing), boring or not.

To me, the only difference between rhythm and beat is that the former is a Greek word and the latter native English. From there, in terms of common use we do speak of "rhythmic elements", not "beat elements", which is just a convention, but may account for the confusion.

All of which leads me to ask the question: do I like it out of purely imagined nostalgia for the, possibly illusory, simplicity of bygone youth?

If you have only the audio and no vid to give it sharper social context, would it hit you the same?

[Innocent Bystander]

She looks quite pretty. She reminded me a bit of Penelope Cruz. Maybe she'll look like that when she's grown up a bit. The lyrics are vacuous. On the other hand, it doesn't have a pounding bass like (for instance) Flogging Molly. That's in it's favour, for me. Not something I'd choose to listen to.
There's a lot of hits on Memebase about it, but they tend to surf the zeitgeist. It's only actual if it's on TV and buzzing around the internet. They don't have to like it. The only have to comment on it.
Meanwhile, in unrelated news, Kate and Corwen were on Harry Hill's TV Burp.

[benhall.1]

benhall.1 wrote:
All of which leads me to ask the question: do I like it out of purely imagined nostalgia for the, possibly illusory, simplicity of bygone youth?

If you have only the audio and no vid to give it sharper social context, would it hit you the same?

Do you know, I think it would? The voices are, despite the electronic 'treatment', recognisably young. And the lyrics couldn't really belong to an older age group. Well, I don't think so, anyway.

[Nanohedron]

benhall.1 wrote:
All of which leads me to ask the question: do I like it out of purely imagined nostalgia for the, possibly illusory, simplicity of bygone youth?

If you have only the audio and no vid to give it sharper social context, would it hit you the same?

Do you know, I think it would? The voices are, despite the electronic 'treatment', recognisably young. And the lyrics couldn't really belong to an older age group. Well, I don't think so, anyway.

Then I would say that the possibility has weight, in that you have raised it yourself. Nothing wrong with that.

[benhall.1]

Then I would say that the possibility has weight, in that you have raised it yourself. Nothing wrong with that.

Who are you saying has weight? Have you been keeping tabs on me?