lisarea

I was just thinking about this as a result of another thread where someone was talking about genres that made their butt itch. I was tempted to make a list of my 'favorite music' that included only things I like that everyone else seems to hate. But that'd derail the original thread. So here's a new one.

What music do you like that everyone, or a majority of people, hate?

I've got a few things I can use that'll pretty effectively clear a room:

Flossie + the Unicorns. I think they call this 'twee.' It's a horrible, screeching kind of music, really, with little cartoon animal voices singing remarkably inane, cartoonish songs about the sort of thing you'd imagine that little cartoon animals would sing songs about. I can make my son furious just by singing, "I am DJ Cardboard, a veterinarian!" There is no rational reason for me not to hate this, but I don't. I actually listen to it of my own free will sometimes, and I do not know why.

The Music Tapes, First Imaginary Symphony for Nomad. This was the only album by the Music Tapes, I think. It's a little story about how spies came from outer space as televisions by channeling a mad scientist to 'invent' them, and how the experiment failed miserably when people started watching the TVs instead of the TVs being able to watch them, and the mad scientist's son ends up playing the role of a martyr. The songs are amateurish and awkward, but I LOVE this CD, and the story is ultimately so sad and compelling, the delivery gives it a real pathos. Out of context, the individual songs are mostly just OK, though.

Klaus Nomi. This guy was a freak. He did this weird sort of proto-electronica disco or something like that, and would segue into this strange, almost passable soprano from time to time. He used to wear these molded plastic suits or something, and you can tell this from listening to him. His repetoire ranged from actual arias, to a very bizarre cowboy song in which he actually says "Yahoo" in his very thick German accent, to a cover of Lou Christie's "Lightning Strikes." People either love him, or cover their ears and scream "STOP THAT!" I love him.

Slim Whitman. OK. I don't actually like him. I hate his arrangements, his songs are profoundly stupid, but damn, can that guy do some weirdass yodeling stuff. I think what finally brought me around to Slim was the time he sang on one of Andy Kaufman's specials or something, and the whole time, Andy was standing behind him, off to the side a little, just looking freaked out. It really drove home the absurdity that is Slim Whitman, and it innoculated me to it so that not only can I tolerate him, but I actually enjoy it.

Al Jolson. I have to be careful to remember never to bring Al Jolson CDs to listen to at work. I think this is another Slim Whitman thing. I don't so much enjoy it for any real musical value, but for the sheer over-the-topness of it. He actually pretends to CRY or something during songs like Mammy and Danny Boy, making his voice all wobbly. It sort of reminds me of The Cramps' "Lonesome Town," with the melodramatic choking and sobbing and all, with the exception that I think Jolson was serious.

I've got some other "bad" music, too, including stuff like Yma Sumac, but I don't actually enjoy it. It would be valid to ask me why I have it, but I don't know the answer. I figure that I either sleepwalk, or am a frequent victim of 'reverse robbers.'

So, please, let me know I'm not alone in liking stuff that sucks. What do you love that nobody else does?

mecca777

The Nice, "Ars Longa Vita Brevis"

For some reason I can tolerate exposure to this. It's awful, awful, stuff. The worst kind of prog, with lyrics like "Ars Longa Vita Brevis/Life is too short to paint a kiss/So sing a picture, paint a song/Take it home and bang your gong"... evil. The whole thing sounds like a parody by a BBC radio comedy troupe, and it features an extended keyboard jam by Keith Emerson on a theme from Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. In spite of this catalogue of ill-disguised fusion (pardon my French), many prog fans seem to consider it essential. Every other person I've ever met runs screaming.

Straight Hate

The Dillinger Escape Plan: best fundy repellant ever.

Mediancat

I saw a song literally clear a room once.

At a college party, room packed with maybe 25-30 dancers, one song ended; the next song was Phil Collins' version of "You Can't Hurry Love."

You'd have thought there'd been a bomb scare. Within fifteen seconds the only people left in the room were me and the DJ.

Within another fifteen seconds, the DJ switched songs, but the mood had been pretty much killed.

Rob aka Mediancat

August Spies

I think teh follwing bands would clear people out much quicker:

The Locust
Daughters
Pig Destroyer
Arab on Radar (cause they suck)
Discordinance Axis.


enjoy.

Hedwig

Yanni.

I personally can't stand him but I have seen him clear out a room.

lisarea

I used to work with this stupid, obnoxious woman who had dedicated her cubicle to Yanni. I'd never heard of him before that, but all I needed to know was contained in those soft-focused, sensitive 70s guy pictures plastered all over her walls.

Maybe she was just trying to keep people out of her cubicle.

Arvel Joffi

Barenaked Ladies.

I know I run like hell when this...music is played.

Acinom

I think it was Phillip Glass that we listened to one day in Music 46. Modern composer, thoroughly repetitive. Had to listen to one note being hit on the piano in common time for 10 minutes. argh...

Yeah, that'll clear a room, and send everyone listening into a coma.

Monkeybot

For me, Blink 182 usually does it, with Alanis Morrisette coming in a close second. (I actually don't have much against her as an artist or whatever -- it's mainly just her voice that just grates on my brain)