FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: GetOffMyBone on August 30, 2007, 01:53:49 PM
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What I want from you in this thread is to name some awful gimmicks in music. You'll get the idea of what I mean after my first example.
There is one gimmick that is really terrible that seems to be a recent trend since the beginning of the new millennium. It's rock songs having back up vocals that sound like they've been run through a synthesizer (or more accurately a cell phone) to add contrast to the lead vocals (or some kind of kickback to the 80's, I don't know!). The best example of this would have to be that "Stacy's Mom" song that was very popular a couple years ago. (EDIT: HERE IS THE SONG IN QUESTION IN TERRIBLE VIDEO FORM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V_rXTp1yBU) I'm pretty sure that crudfest Nickleback has done it too, but I don't have the strength to listen to them to find examples. How does anything think this is a good idea? I'm not saying that these songs would be any better without this nuance, but it's really the rotted out cherry on an already spoiled sundae*.
Another thing I use to hate is when songs included the count off in the final cuts of songs. Though there are quite a few songs that I like that do it and it doesn't really effect the actual song. It's just been done to death!
UPDATE: I thought of another one. I dislike it when in rap songs they introduce the next rapper in the middle of the song. I don't care with the NWA does it. That is SUPER BOWL SHUFFLE kinds of corny.
I don't know. Maybe this topic is too confusing. Maybe I'm just a nitpicky snob about stuff like this. Help me out Friends of Tom! One of you has to really hate The Wall of Sound.
*or in Sarah's case: Rocky Road
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- Every hip hop skit ever made that didn't involve Prince Paul (and most that did)
- Any album where track #1 is an "Intro" or somehow not an actual song.
- Clinic's old surgial get-ups. Also, Clinic in general.
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Hey! I like Clinic. I also like Fountains of Wayne. Let's fight!
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-How about the vocals through a megaphone, speaker, or telephone.
-or those albums with about 15 - 30 minutes of silence for the hidden track. Yeah I'm talking to you New Pornographers and your live CD
-or the "studio banter" that might be included
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I can't stand the current crop of digital vocoder effects on the LEAD vocals. I guess Cher is the one that made it famous with her Do You Believe in Love After Love thing, but now it's all over the damn place. Country songs, R&B, Daft Punk (okay, well, at least they're supposed to be Robots or something...).
Does a lyrical crutch count as a music gimmick? People ticking off street names to add some kind of generic, site-specific "poignancy" to their shmaltzy songs really drives me up the wall. "At Alvarado and Glendale, they're selling Tacos and Second Chances..." or some such garbage.
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Amplifiers.
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New timers who dress up like old timers and play new timey music. I'm talking to you, Decemberists
I can't figure out if they're frustrated music nerds who really want to do drama, or drama nerds who wanted a larger audience.
Plus: Didn't HR start that whole singing over the phone thing with "Sacred Love" off of "I against I" ? maybe it should have ended with him as well.
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- Bands playing tiny instruments and screwing w/ depth perception to make themselves look like giants
- those new, show-offy nunchuck drumsticks I keep seeing.
- Long keyboard solos while the rest of the band dons safety jackets and reflective vests and lays concrete outside the club.
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New timers who dress up like old timers and play new timey music. I'm talking to you, Decemberists
I can't figure out if they're frustrated music nerds who really want to do drama, or drama nerds who wanted a larger audience.
Plus: Didn't HR start that whole singing over the phone thing with "Sacred Love" off of "I against I" ? maybe it should have ended with him as well.
Yes!! You are my favorite first-time poster.
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New timers who dress up like old timers and play new timey music. I'm talking to you, Decemberists
I can't figure out if they're frustrated music nerds who really want to do drama, or drama nerds who wanted a larger audience.
Plus: Didn't HR start that whole singing over the phone thing with "Sacred Love" off of "I against I" ? maybe it should have ended with him as well.
Yes!! You are my favorite first-time poster.
Except that the whole thing with "Sacred Love" was (supposedly) that he was ACTUALLY phoning his vocals in (not "phoning his vocals in") because he was IN JAIL!! You can't front on that.
Plus, before HR, Paul McCartney did that canned/telephone/megaphone vocal thing whenever he was in "ragtime" mode, and it was used effectively AFTER HR, by...
hm...
uhhh...
O.k. - maybe Phantom Hugger's right - it probably should've ended with him.
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New timers who dress up like old timers and play new timey music. I'm talking to you, Decemberists
I can't figure out if they're frustrated music nerds who really want to do drama, or drama nerds who wanted a larger audience.
Plus: Didn't HR start that whole singing over the phone thing with "Sacred Love" off of "I against I" ? maybe it should have ended with him as well.
Yes!! You are my favorite first-time poster.
Except that the whole thing with "Sacred Love" was (supposedly) that he was ACTUALLY phoning his vocals in (not "phoning his vocals in") because he was IN JAIL!! You can't front on that.
Plus, before HR, Paul McCartney did that canned/telephone/megaphone vocal thing whenever he was in "ragtime" mode, and it was used effectively AFTER HR, by...
hm...
uhhh...
O.k. - maybe Phantom Hugger's right - it probably should've ended with him.
Flash and the Pan used that effect well in "Hey St. Peter" as well as XTC in "Respectable Street" but yeah, they both predated Sacred Love.
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I hate it when a good song has extended periods of creaking, or wind blowing, or some other subtle sound before the song starts. If you're going to use that shit to create ambiance, please put it on the end of the previous track so that I can get to the hook.
I'm looking at you, The Antlers.
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I got the #1. It's the thing that finally killed pop music for me... FOREVER!
When Michael Bivins had the groups he produced SAY THE NAMES OF THE OTHER GROUPS HE PRODUCED IN THE SONGS!
It made me want to end music...
FOREVER
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-How about the vocals through a megaphone, speaker, or telephone.
I happen to really like the Starlight Mints and also the Flaming Lips.
ALSO, I like the Decemberists. And Tom Waits. Do I have tirrible taste in music? Stan, please don't say yis.
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-How about the vocals through a megaphone, speaker, or telephone.
I happen to really like the Starlight Mints and also the Flaming Lips.
off topic:
you should move to Oklahoma. the Mints played a free show here last Thursday and I live down the street from Wayne Coyne (he's supposed to have ridiculous halloween parties)
further off topic:
The Starlight Mints own this little 50 person club in Norman called the Opolis that they have some cool bands (for Oklahoma) come through like the Hold Steady, etc... The only decorations in this little room are three 6'x6' portrait style headshots of their cats. It's great.
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New timers who dress up like old timers and play new timey music. I'm talking to you, Decemberists
I can't figure out if they're frustrated music nerds who really want to do drama, or drama nerds who wanted a larger audience.
Plus: Didn't HR start that whole singing over the phone thing with "Sacred Love" off of "I against I" ? maybe it should have ended with him as well.
Yes!! You are my favorite first-time poster.
Except that the whole thing with "Sacred Love" was (supposedly) that he was ACTUALLY phoning his vocals in (not "phoning his vocals in") because he was IN JAIL!! You can't front on that.
Plus, before HR, Paul McCartney did that canned/telephone/megaphone vocal thing whenever he was in "ragtime" mode, and it was used effectively AFTER HR, by...
hm...
uhhh...
O.k. - maybe Phantom Hugger's right - it probably should've ended with him.
Flash and the Pan used that effect well in "Hey St. Peter" as well as XTC in "Respectable Street" but yeah, they both predated Sacred Love.
I'm not sure if this counts, but the final track on this album seems to use the phone-effect at the start. I do believe it is quite killer. Released in 1992.
(http://kickthebobo.com//circa-now%21.jpg)
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Rappers doing the phone/canned/walkie talkie/intercom/drive-thru/whatever thing can be pretty cool:
Biggie Smalls in "Warning"
the police radio in LL Cool J's "I'm Bad"
various 90's-era Beastie Boys tracks
Lil Wayne ordering a new kitchen countertop (mixtape)
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Lil Wayne ordering a new kitchen countertop (mixtape)
That's awesome. Hook a girl up with an mp3, yo.
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I hate when bands put siren sound effects in songs. If I'm in the car, I always think for a split second that I need to pull over to let the police cars/firetrucks/ambulances go by. It's dangerous!
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I agree kobekwan, they should just say "wee-ooh-wee-ooh," à la R. Kelly.
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I hate when bands put siren sound effects in songs. If I'm in the car, I always think for a split second that I need to pull over to let the police cars/firetrucks/ambulances go by. It's dangerous!
I'm ashamed to say "Summer in the City" has tricked me more than once into thinking some asshole was honking at me.
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I hate when bands put siren sound effects in songs. If I'm in the car, I always think for a split second that I need to pull over to let the police cars/firetrucks/ambulances go by. It's dangerous!
I'm ashamed to say "Summer in the City" has tricked me more than once into thinking some asshole was honking at me.
Wasn't there a Curb Your Enthusiasm where something like that happened? Can't remember the song, though. Wasn't "Summer in the City".
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I hate when bands put siren sound effects in songs. If I'm in the car, I always think for a split second that I need to pull over to let the police cars/firetrucks/ambulances go by. It's dangerous!
That's why Welcome to the Jungle caused my dad to throw my Appetite for Destruction tape out of the car when I was 11.
At least that's what he said.
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Could be he just had good taste. I recently threw my son's copy of a Jon Butler CD out the window because it was "interfering with my driving." Or at least that's what I said. What it was really interfering with was what little tad of goodwill I still have towards the human race.
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Could be he just had good taste. I recently threw my son's copy of a Jon Butler CD out the window because it was "interfering with my driving." Or at least that's what I said. What it was really interfering with was what little tad of goodwill I still have towards the human race.
Dave, based on your last.fm stats, I am pretty sure I would throw most of your CDs and records and cassettes out the window. Love you! :-* :-* :-*
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Yah, I know, my musical tastes are probably closer to Breckman's than Scharping's. Good thing for both of them they don't have to hang out with me.
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I hate when bands put siren sound effects in songs. If I'm in the car, I always think for a split second that I need to pull over to let the police cars/firetrucks/ambulances go by. It's dangerous!
I take it you can't listen to the Best Show podcast in car then :(
Also, I don't mind it in rap music or the actual effect at all. I just think it is awful sounding as back up vocals in rock music.
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Could be he just had good taste. I recently threw my son's copy of a Jon Butler CD out the window because it was "interfering with my driving." Or at least that's what I said. What it was really interfering with was what little tad of goodwill I still have towards the human race.
Save The Children.
(http://kickthebobo.com//johnbutler.jpg)
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-How about the vocals through a megaphone, speaker, or telephone.
-or those albums with about 15 - 30 minutes of silence for the hidden track. Yeah I'm talking to you New Pornographers and your live CD
-or the "studio banter" that might be included
Studio banter is almost always stupid, I think. But vocals through a phone or speaker, sometimes I like it. Like that Sonic Youth cover of that old Carpenters song I can't remember the name of -- "don't you remember you told me you loved me baybayyyy..." etc.
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"Superstar"
I like the phone effect as used by The Makeup on their cover of Hey Joe.
"Hey Joe, where are you?"
"...I'm in Mexico"
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I hate when bands put siren sound effects in songs. If I'm in the car, I always think for a split second that I need to pull over to let the police cars/firetrucks/ambulances go by. It's dangerous!
A friend of mine recorded his voicemail message on the street, so not only is there a buncha ambient loudness, the whole thing starts with a horn honking. Scares the living crap out of me. He doesn't deserve to have messages left for him. Am I right people.