Are you look for songs that are really good but not catchy, or really catchy but not good?
Ace Frehley's "New York Groove" leaps to mind. Also virtually every song by the Steve Miller Band in 1973 or later, particularly "Cool Magic".
Are we still supposed to call Taylor Swift country music? Is that still a thing?
Yeah, that's a catchy song. What a fucking peculiar video. The not-so-much-with-the-blinking guy in the bear costume freaks me out.
Semi-OT I have spotify now and am making people recommend music. So far I have enjoyably been put onto Sigur Ros (yeah I know, everyone knows Sigur Ross except basically not me) and M Ward and Father John Misty and the Avett Brothers.
I find anything by Billy Joel incredibly catchy. But not in a way that has anything to do with not sucking.
You are opening Pandora's box here, heebs. Do you really want to be introduced to new songs which are guaranteed to get stuck in your head in awful ways?
Anyway, here's a dark horse candidate, Loud Sugar's "Funky Little Flower".
Weird: I have had an earworm of an old folk song that was used in a play by a friend of mine. Saw the play in 1998. Never looked up the lyrics until 2 days ago. The first hit was a listserv post by a guy whose handle was my real first name, asking for the lyrics. It was freaky. I had to look at it several times to make sure I hadn't drunkenly posted it one night. Turns out the fellow is from the magical make-believe land of Belgium, so I was in the clear. Still freaky though.
I find anything by Billy Joel incredibly catchy. But not in a way that has anything to do with not sucking.
No Doubt was good at that as well (though, TBH, I like some of there singles).
From my adolescence: The Impression That I Get
[I don't know that it particularly sucks, certainly not compared to Jewel, who was popular around the same time, but it came to mind and I hadn't thought of it in years, so there you go.]
post by a guy whose handle was my real first name/i>
Imagine how strange it would feel for Rob Halford if he ever read unfogged.
Semi-OT I have spotify now and am making people recommend music.
Would you like recommendation?
I find anything by Billy Joel incredibly catchy. But not in a way that has anything to do with not sucking.
So you're saying Billy Joel makes excellent background music?
No, the reverse. Billy Joel comes on in the background, and something in the back of my head wakes up and starts singing along. And then I'm annoyed and despise myself.
That something should just keep quiet and enjoy the Billy Joel I guess.
Just think how Christie Brinkley must feel when it happens to her.
As far as Billy Joel goes, the song that pisses me off is "A Matter of Trust". It seems like it took about two minutes to write. The lyrics are basically just a paragraph sung to a rigid melody that had already been concocted. Yet I find it incredibly appealing. What is this Broadway style songwriting wizardry that Billy Joel is one of the few people with access to?
I find lots of not-very-good pop catchy. It's hard to tell if some of it is good or not. There's a certain evil genius in creating really hooky songs. Katy Perry, or whatever.
The theme songs to Bakugan and Bey Blades: Metal Fusion.
Katy Perry I think doesn't necessarily suck. Or rather, she's hit and miss but when it's catchy, I genuinely like the song.
With NEVERNEVERNEVERNEVERNEVER I despise the song yet find it unbearably catchy.
It's hard to tell if some of it is good or not.
This is especially a problem with dancey europop in languages I don't understand! Like Şımarık by Tarkan and
Dragostea Din Tea by O-Zone.
9 Sure, though I have no idea if my tastes overlap much with you lot. The only thing I categorically don't want to listen to is dance pop/everythingcore.
For some reason I really have it in for Katy Perry. I just think she's the worst.
re: 19
Yeah, I know what you mean. Some of her stuff shades into the catchy-but-genuinely-terrible area, but some of it I'd happily put up as examples of evil-genius-bubblegum-pop.
Sure, though I have no idea if my tastes overlap much with you lot.
No idea. Based on your mention of the Avett Brothers I'd recommend my sort-of country and sort-of bluegrass mixes*. I'm quite pleased with both of those.
As far as things that I haven't blogged about my current recommendation is Soft Commands by Ken Stringfellow. I've been listening to it lately and I'm a fan.
There are some other albums mentioned here (my favorites from the previous decade along with some other suggestions in comments).
That's a start, let me know if any of those ideas look promising to you and I can target the recommendations better.
*[Note, at some point I'm going to take down my downloadable files for a couple weeks to encourage link-rot among people that have linked to them. So If you go there and the files aren't available that's why and you will be able to get the files by appending an "x" to the year in the URL (so /2010/ would become /2010x/)]
20: My sister! Tarkan's Kuzu Kuzu was the hit of the summer when I was in Turkey. I've been listening to the whole album in my car lately and the girls just have to deal with it. Mara's favorite Turkish song is Buda, which probably has semi-offensive culturally appropriating lyrics I can't understand enough to worry about boycotting or anything.
I messed up my Kuzu Kuzu link, alas. It's all about wanting to be treated like a wayward lamb by a shepherd who's going to be firm yet gentle or something like that.
"Save Me San Francisco" is both Train's worst song and Train's catchiest song, to these ears.
20: I love that song and the video is guaranteed to cheer me up. As will Come Marry Me
Train totally fits the OP for me, especially that 'Hey, Soul Sister' song.
This old punk club in Berlin used to have Turkish dance music on Sunday nights. Sunday afternoons they had the "tea dance," which was gay ballroom dancing. There would always be an hour or so of transition when you'd have gay men waltzing to stuff like Kuzu Kuzu.
The Taylor Swift song came on in the car one day right after a Katy Perry song, and I commented to my son that the girls who were writing "I'll love you forever" songs two years ago are now writing bitter break-up songs. Something about the look on his face -- first an uncertain frown, then wide-eyed horror -- made me laugh so hard I almost cried. For this reason, the Taylor Swift song makes me smile. I might feel differently about it if I didn't have that association, though.
Anyway, I vote for the Katy Perry song about Friday night. I hate it, hate it, hate it. But if I hear it, I'll find myself humming hours later. Gah. Worst song ever.
The Korean rap thing that everyone has a parody video of.
The theme songs to Bakugan and Bey Blades: Metal Fusion.
My kids could listen to the Ninjago theme song a hundred times in a row, every day.
Re the OP song, Internal rhymes in the title are a bad sign. Remember Achy Breaky Heart?
If that title weren't so kitchsy, that song wouldn't have gotten much hate, I swear. It's actually a mildly catchy, innocuous song.
Next you'll be accurately saying that "Living Loving Maid" is one of Led Zeppelin's worst songs.
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I don't know how many Ohio voters lurk here, but if you do vote in Ohio, you please pay attention to the Supreme Court Judges races. Party affiliations are not listed on the ballot, but the election is totally partisan. The choices are
Terrence O'Donnell (R) v. Mike Skindell (D)
Robert R. Cupp (R) vs. William M. O'Neill (D)
Sharon Kennedy (R) vs. Yvette McGee Brown (D)
The election is important because Ohio Supreme Court Justices not only accept campaign contributions; they are allowed to then rule on cases involving big contributors. The New York Times found that Terrence O'Donnell ruled in favor of his campaign contributors 91% of the time.
This cycle, at least one of the democrats, William O'Neill, running is refusing all campaign contributions.
Basically, the Republicans have a history of bribery here, and only the democrats have promised to change things.
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This cycle, at least one of the democrats, William O'Neill, running is refusing all campaign contributions.
And the State GOP is running an ad saying he "expressed sympathy for rapists"
There's a certain evil genius in creating really hooky songs. Katy Perry, or whatever.
Word. Taylor Swift, OTOH, I don't find catchy at all and her incessant crap is bringing disrepute on clan Swift.
I think "Jesus Take The Wheel" by Kelly Clarkson is atrocious on multiple levels and occasionally find myself humming it whilst driving.
Most discussions of music are subject to differing taste, but as it happens, I can scientifically demonstrate that LB is wrong about Billy Joel. (I believe that has been linked here before.)
No, I completely agree that Billy Joel sucks, and largely for the reasons given in the linked piece. I just find myself involuntarily singing along.
40: Oh my god, that song should really rot in hell for driving me crazy.
Next you'll be accurately saying that "Living Loving Maid" is one of Led Zeppelin's worst songs.
Aw, do we have to pick just one?
44: No, no we do not.
37: You are dead to me. Couldn't you interrupt one of the depressing threads with politics, instead of the one contentless, stress-free thread?
Chicago's "Twenty-five or six to four".
My weakness is sad country songs. Tammy Wynette, LeAnne Rimes, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty. This is distinct from flaky or great sad country like Kitty Wells or Porter Wagoner, these I also enjoy but don't feel embarassed for liking them.
And that teear in your beer type of wailing stinking of pop music is unbearable-- worse than Billy Joel, who writes catchy music that IME makes pretty women feel good, whatever his personal failings of character and reason. What's bothersome about him is that he's sort of a boomer spokes-singer, a near-contemporary Bing Crosby or Everly brothers type. The problem is the widely acknowledged role, not lazily-written lyrics for a pop song.
I've previously expressed my appreciation for Taylor Swift in general, but I agree that the song in the OP is terrible. When I first heard it I had the same thought as in 30.1.
I would also argue that every Train song falls in this category.
We saw some improv last night in which an audience suggestion of an historical event (1492) was turned into a musical. Fortunately, the melody for "Does Anybody Have a Map?" has proven to have more staying power than "Let's Slaughter the Indians." (Though the latter was quite catchy.)
I would have thought that TS would have been higher on the geek hierarchy. Furries? WTF?
Maybe she's trying to broaden her fan base.
Who directed the video? I bet there are those here who will now casually check to see whether similar costumes appear in the director's other videos.
40, 43: I say this only because I really don't like Carrie Underwood and I do like Kelly Clarkson, but "Jesus Take The Wheel" is totally Carrie Underwood. And it's execrable.
I'll never get the chance to excrete Carrie Underwood now.
20.--Jesus Christ, I had totally forgotten that earworm. DAAAAMMMN YOUUUU
My weakness is sad country songs. ... Loretta Lynn, ... distinct from flaky or great sad country like Kitty Wells or Porter Wagoner, these I also enjoy but don't feel embarassed for liking them.
Loretta Lynn is great (or, at least, some of her stuff is great. She recorded a lot, and I'm sure that not all of it good).
Oooh, on catchy songs in languages I don't understand, what's that "Open Camden Star" song? It sounds Bollywood but it's getting played on the pop stations. Obviously I'm mangling it dreadfully because nothing is pulling up on google.
Ohhhhh. Psy is a Korean Rapper, and it's "Oppan Gangnam Style" and therefore I bet it's the same song everyone has been talking about all thread long.
My kid likes the dance, knows the number of jiggles that each hand and foot is supposed to do. I got an enthusiastic rendition before my coffee today, hard not love it.
TLL in 31 is the only mention of "Gangnam Style" I've noticed in the thread so far, actually, but I may have missed some others.
Oh, on 57-- Actually, I think that LeAnn Rimes is a pretty good stylist and an OK singer.
I absolutely adore the "Blluuuuuuuuuuuue-ooooooo-eeee-oooo-eeeeee-ooooooo, oh so lonely for you" song.
42: I contend that anyone who finds themselves agreeing with a piece of cultural criticism in Slate needs to rethink their position.
Operationally, what does "I despise the song yet find it unbearably catchy" mean, exactly? You change the radio immediately when it comes on, yet can't get it out of your head later? Or, do you turn up the radio and listen to the song (because: catchy), but think it's musically beneath you?
"Catchiness" may be the only axis of musical quality on which I even evaluate songs. (I also evaluate songs based on the poetic qualities of their lyrics, but that's not a musical quality.)
I also sometimes consciously evaluate the technical expertise of the singers and musicians, but that's almost a different exercise entirely from just listening to the song, and has literally almost nothing to do with how much I "like" it.
So I literally am not sure I know what it means for a song to be catchy but for me not to like it. "Catchy" means "I want to hear it again", basically, doesn't it?
In my case, it means that I involuntarily pay attention to it and remember it. There are songs I like, and pay attention to, and remember. There are songs (most of them) that I either ignore or am annoyed by if they're too loud. And then there are catchy songs I don't like, that I have a hard time ignoring if they're in earshot. I wouldn't listen to them voluntarily, but if they come on the radio when I'm in the car I am annoyed but also humming along.
Why are you annoyed if you are humming along? What's annoying?
Take Billy Joel, since you raised him as an example. I think (many of) his songs are catchy, which to me means I like many of his songs. There is no other step in the analysis.
I truly envy you, Urple, if you have never had the experience of a song being unwantedly stuck in your head.
The song is annoying.
The words? The beat? The melody? The cowbell?
Is the catchy part that makes you hum the annoying part, or are humming at some part and annoyed about another part (at the same time)?
72: oh, I've had plenty of songs unwantedly stuck in my head, where I've wished I could stop humming the song on focus on whatever else I'm supposed to be thinking about, but not because I don't like the song.
All right, I admit it. I'm voting for Romney. I've been trying to hide it from you all, but Walt talked me into it. I'm going to vote for Romney to drive the last nail into the coffin of our soon to be hurricane-devastated nation.
Are you satisfied?
Was 75 in the wrong thread? This is the only one I've read, and I'm totally confused.
"Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia.
I don't find that song particularly catchy OR particularly bad (in fact I kind of have a soft spot for it, and now that I have seen the video for the first time ever I am brought to realize that the singer is attractive, to boot!).
It I were defining "catchy" in some way different than just "= I like it", it would be that a catchy song is one that I like right away. Some good songs aren't catchy in this sense, and they take a few listenings to become appealing. But I don't understand how a single song could be considered both catchy and bad by the same person at the same time. (Again, unless you mean "bad" not as "I don't want to listen to it" but as something more like "not impressive in a technical sense".)
I don't see why you should approve of my finding 90s singers attractive, LB.
I think it's good for your emotional development.
Somehow urple's urpleness is all the more urple now that we know he's doing it to Billy Joel.
I should say, rather, I don't understand how the same part of a single song could be considered both catchy and bad by the same person at the same time. I suppose someone could think a song had a catchy chorus but was otherwise bland and boring. But that's a song with a good chorus and a bad everything else. It may or may not be a good song on balance, but the catchy parts, at least, are good.
Or at least, that's how I feel.
Operationally, what does "I despise the song yet find it unbearably catchy" mean, exactly?
I'm still trying to understand: if a song makes you want to hum along, what other features about it could make it a bad song? Offensive lyrics?
16 "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia.
That gets it exactly right I mean arg why did you do this to me.
I'm still trying to understand: if a song makes you want to hum along, what other features about it could make it a bad song? Offensive lyrics?
I'm still trying to understand: if a song makes you want to hum along, what other features about it could make it a bad song? Offensive lyrics?
I'm still trying to understand: if a song makes you want to hum along, what other features about it could make it a bad song? Offensive lyrics?
Inane, idiotic lyrics? A melody that you recognize to be cliched and bad, even though it sticks in your mind?
It's possible my musical tastes are just deeply unrefined.
Am I asking the auditory equivalent of "if it's stuffed full of sugar, how can it possibly taste bad?"
Referees: Did I or did I not just violate an analogy ban? I need a ruling.
If it's saccharine-sweet who could dislike it?
Yesterday as I was getting on the subway to go to work some guy was singing "You're My Home" and it was stuck in my head for a few hours and I couldn't remember whose song it was. Of course it was Billy Joel.
But I actually dislike very sweet food, at least after having a very small portion of it. It quickly makes me start to feel ill.
31, 58-61: that song really seems to be inescapable. I went to the inaugural game of SF's new minor league hockey team (don't look at me like that--the tickets were free and I got to go to the VIP reception with free drinks and food--fun!), and it was the winner of the "cheer for the song you want us to play" contest during a between-periods break (though I suspect foul play--it didn't actually sound like it garnered the most applause). Many attendees seemed to know the dance, or at least enough that the camera operators didn't run out of folks to put on the jumbotron. And then last week, I was at a block party-ish thing thrown by an ad agency where one of the attractively designed signs proclaimed (ironically, I assume) "OPPA GANGNAM STYLE." Wikipedia agrees with Heebie that it's "Oppan" rather than "Oppa", though I suppose the fact that it's a different alphabet means you're transliterating regardless, so it's the sound that matters. ANYWAY, the point is: everywhere!
At the MN Historical Society museum deal, they have a little model recording booth where you can pretend you are in charge of mixing Lipps Inc's "Funky Town" (1980). I think it has 8 different tracks you can fade in and out, including an 808 handclap. Apparently the staff are just about as sick of it as you would expect them to be, though there has been no cannibalism as yet, or if there has, it's been hushed up successfully.
The Gangnam style thing confirms my previously-established sense that I have no idea what's going on with Korean musical culture.
106. OMG, I love Brown Eyed Girls. My favorite is "Sign."
45: I say this only because I really don't like Carrie Underwood and I do like Kelly Clarkson, but "Jesus Take The Wheel" is totally Carrie Underwood. And it's execrable.
I stand corrected. Or should I say
"Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
To save me from this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel"
(continue on the way to Cincinnati, etc)
As long as I'm spamming the site with treacly Korean pop, here's "Hoot" by SNSD and "Sorry Sorry" by Super Junior.
(I kind of see urple's point, because, I love ridiculous music.)
"Jesus Take the Wheel" isn't even remotely catchy.
16, 81, 93: Seems odd to me that "Torn" was also the first song that came to my mind in this category.
Lots of things that got a lot of radio play when I was a kid get stuck in my head really easily even though I don't like them. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" comes to mind.
107: If that band had been playing outdoors in Seoul, they would draw a crowd, right? I assume I saw other people dancing and lip-syncing to their songs. They were on a stage outside a department store, and a semi-infinite line of people were patiently waiting to approach a table near the stage where they were handed a box and would then walk away. No one standing in the line was watching the stage. It was kind of surreal. There were also brightly colored plastic bags lining all the sidewalks. When I described the scene the next day to some Koreans, none of them could tell me what had been going on.
I think Adele and Taylor Swift should date and then break up. Think of the songs!
Catchy songs defined as stuff that gets stuck in my head, Top 40 teraz' youth frenchie edition:
Joe le taxi (Vanessa Paradis)
Quand la musique est bonne (Jean-Jacques Goldmann
Trois nuits par semaine (Indochine)
J'ai vu (Niagara) Ok, there might have been other reasons I couldn't get this song out of my mind right when my parents got cable and thus MTV. It must have been the critique of news junkiedom, yup, that's it.
Oh oh this week I've had The Wombats' "Kill the Director" in my head and at first that was okay and now I want it to go away.
Yep. I hate it when I have the worst taste in music of anybody around.
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So, if you're in a work situation where your supervisors are all "Hey, you're doin' a great job, keep up the good work, we couldn't do it with out you!" one day, and then the next day they're all "You really aren't keeping up with things very well, are you sure you can do this job? We may have to think about your continued employment here" -- I mean, that's crazy, right? No one would act that way if they were not either trying to drive you crazy or already crazy themselves, right? It's not just self-dramatizing to be confronted with this and be pulling your hair out in frustration? It's something actually externally wrong and fairly toxic and dysfunctional?
Said I think I'm losing my mind this time/This time I'm losing my mind
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Dragostea Din Tei
Love, love, love, POLKA, love.
120: Did the job description shift? That's about the only think I could figure that might cause it to make sense from the supervisors' view.
120: sounds like my advisor in grad school. It was awesome.
122: also worth considering: any of the other employees look like you?
120: Trying to make you crazy, or, bad cybernetics causes them to oversteer. Short memories? Emotional need to exaggerate their leadership? Rheostat wired backwards?
125.3 is the only one that makes sense. To clarify: This has been alternating every day or at least every week since May. SINCE MAY!
As a further aside, if there is anything more distasteful than having to sit through the first 5 seconds of a Michele Bachmann ad every time you watch a goddamn YouTube video, it must be fermented fish paste, mixed with bat guano, that's sat in the sun too long and gone off.
You know what was cute though? (Besides the baby that just stayed with us, and the squirrel-with-a-ghoul's-head from PeeWee Herman's FB feed.) At a greasy spoon way out in the sticks last weekend, the young waitress was wearing all black and had a Hunger Games mockingjay pin on her shirt. Nerdz r evrywhere!
A little while ago, Mrs. K-sky informed me that our little gestating baby could in some sense hear, and that I was encouraged to sing to it.
I had just come from a musical improv rehearsal in which the accompanist had quoted the intro to "Movin' Out," and so, hot with inspiration, I leaned down to her belly and sang a medley of Billy Joel songs.
It's three weeks later, and I have yet to sing anything other than Billy Joel.
As far as that Slate article goes, a more interesting question is why does everything Ron Rosenbaum write take up a minimum of 3 pages? I mean, no trees die, but still.
I can't remember how or why it started, but I told my son a joke every day while he was in utero.
128 is the reason my cousin is named Ste//a. Her dad thought talking to the fetus involved so much distance he might as well yell "Steeeee/////////aaas!" and so he did, and by the time she was born it just sounded natural.
So your cousin is named Steer, and her Dad has a Boston accent?
No, those were slanty Ls because I was doing non-standard googleproofing. And Roberto Tigre would have had a more roguishly charming response, I'll bet.
132: no, her dad was trying to explain that he was at the bottom of the stairs.
128: Mrs. K-sky informed me that our little gestating baby could in some sense hear
You two are having a baby?! Somehow I missed that. Congrats.
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This oncoming hurricane (Sandy) is freaking me out just a tad. It's basically going to smack right into us.
My housemate is pretending that his art-moving company is going to drive some valuable artwork up to NYC from Balto on ... Tuesday. I said, "No you're not." He replied, "Yes, we are." I said "No you're not." He said, "Look, there's a gala opening in New York next Saturday, and the art has to be there." I snorted when he said they were driving a 12-foot moving van thingy. Dude.
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I know it hasn't gone unremarked, but I don't think it's been adequately remarked how nutso the Taylor Swift video is.
134: Pretty sure I deserve feminine pronouns, sexisto. (That may not actually be how it works, I admit.)
138: I'm game. The knitting imagery is very strange and probably not supposed to be a deliberate reference to her dumbass rap video. If you're going to use giant photos of a cable pattern as wallpaper, choose a cuter one, maybe something with more repeats. I don't even know what to say about the yarn birds that frame the narrative or what wr're supposed to get out of the camera flip at the end. And I think both the glasses and lipstick were less-than-ideal choices for her. Also, I hate the song.
I'm amazed that 140 didn't mention the animal-costume interludes at all.
Or, at least, not as such; the flipped camera is one such, innit?
I don't know, is it! I only half-watched the video, but it ends with OMG she's singing to a (poorly) knitted bird, aww! And then the camera flips 90 degrees or something and pans out to a city skyline because bum bum bum she sees the world sideways in her endearingly adorkable way or whatever.
I thought the furry parts had been sufficiently covered above. I'm going to just assume someone has made a video with the animal suit clips, that Bat for Lashes video where people ride bikes wearing animal masks, and Donnie Darko. The overly earnest bear was what made the video watchable.
The video was shot in a single take.
I thought the furry parts had been sufficiently covered above.
Removing context makes thai great.
I thought the furry parts had been sufficiently covered above.
Removing context makes that great.
Removing context makes thai great.
Also, that video has 55 million views.
The overly earnest bear was what made the video watchable.
I definitely agree with this, but then, I suppose I would.
145: I don't really want to rewatch it, but it looked to me like they had several disguised cuts. At the very least, there were points at which it would've been easy to splice multiple takes together.
One nice thing about that song is that I no longer have Billy Joel stuck in my brain.
106: Apparently, this is what's going on with Korean musical culture.
Wow, there is a whole Taylor Swift cargo cult.
I suspect JM of misusing the term "cargo cult".
It's not much of a conspiracy theory, though.
That's true, you were fairly open about your misuse.
Can it be like a reverse cargo cult, in which cargo is washed up on shore and the people make fun of it?
If we Started intErspersing Capital letteRs in our posts in thE hopes That we would become rIch and famous, that might count.
Oh, man, Do yoU tHink It would work? I cAn MAke a fortuNe--mIllions DoIng That.
Short memories? Emotional need to exaggerate leadership? Rheostat wired backwards? Removing context makes that great.
I know it hasn't gone unremarked, but I don't think it's been adequately remarked how nutso the Taylor Swift video is.
I finally watched it--I'd never heard the song before--and it's great. The overly-earnest bear, as Thorn puts it, is fantastic. And I just love how happy and joyful all the partying folks are. What fun they seem to be having!
I mean, I suppose the song itself is pretty unimpressive, but so what?
I finally watched the linked video and, having not heard the song or seen the video before I liked it. Knowing that the video was a single take, I was impressed at how they pulled that off, and I liked that the whole mood was one of not taking the song too seriously.
I'm also not sure the song is that bad. It helps that I don't find it catchy, and the chorus is truly bad (and the effect that sounds to me like autotune is bad), but some of the lyrics are amusing and, again, I give it credit for not being overly bombastic.
Not great, but I watched all the way through which is more than I would say for many videos.
(on preview I guess I had the same reaction as x. trapnel)
I finally looked up Call Me Maybe. Based on the first 15 seconds and then jumping ahead to a few random spots in the rest of the song, I've never heard it, or if I have, I didn't even notice it enough to remember it. I'm a bit surprised - I thought I'd recognize it from hearing it in a store or something.
I believe that the fact that my first reaction was "uh, wow, there's a lot to unpack here" makes me very old, but I nonetheless to feel obliged to share the MIT Gangnam Style cover with you all. Note cameo at 3:20.
What is the beaver doing to Iron Man, another question.
Now that I have figured out who the third cameo is it doesn't seem quite as strange. But still.
I want to see a scene-by-scene close reading of the video.
I was puzzled from the first appearance of the horses.
Anyhow I think the key question, LB, is whether it accurately reflects your MIT experience.
This thread got me to watch the video of NBA center Roy Hibbert (who has also appeared on Parks and Recreation) participating in a gangnam style dance. It's better than I expected (though shorter and much less elaborate than the MIT video.
The two things that that really work well about are (1) it finds a good balance between taking itself seriously and embracing good-hearted cheesiness. They are clearly not afraid of being a little bit hokey. (2) Roy Hibbert is really game. There are lots of examples of athletes who can be charismatic and charming when they're just being themselves, but who are wooden and uncomfortable when they do some organized, scripted event, but that is not the case here.
I understood literally nothing. But I did enjoy recognizing locations.
Huh, apparently that should have been "¿Por qué?"
¿Porque?
I suspect Roberto's sadness has something to do with this.
Yeah, I gathered that was probably the cause, although he appears to have posted that comment in the middle of the game.
It was probably when the Tigers failed to score after having the bases loaded with one out in the 5th.
Wow. How did they make it to the Series again?
Oh, so now you have a sense of wonder?
They beat the shit out of the Yankees, which was super awesome.
But apparently a tenuous grasp of the realities of baseball and statistics and how the world works. But do carry on.
So, the Yankees suck even more? That sounds pretty wonderful.
189: Nah, I realize this is all basically random. I just don't care.
189 to 186, 187.
189: Is there anything more tiresome in the liberal blogsphere than people's need to profess their joy at seeing the Yankees lose. Boring, tedious and stupid.
The Yankees symbolize all that is terrible about America. I feel like you of all people should appreciate this, JP.
191: About baseball? Or your reputation among random denizens of the internet who might chance upon your poorly-thought out words.
I've also had some beers, in case that's not obvious.
193: I know--like New York City. Yuck. Dirty and smelly.
196: I should have. Maybe I'd be asleep now instead of harassing innocents online.
Other teams that symbolize the same: the Cowboys and the Lakers.
There's probably an equivalent team in the NHL but I care about hockey even less than I care about other sports.
196: I've also had some beers
The long dark nights of the soul North set in.
200: I think that's the Canadiens ...
But holy shit does that get around. I like Charles Pierce but never read the comments. But for some reason I happened to glance at the first comment to some piece of his recently, and it was by JE.
201: Eh, the nights are 15 hours long these days. Winter is just getting started.
Run on out to Potter Marsh and give us a report.
I went there yesterday. I saw one guy ice skating and two bald eagles perched at a distance.
I took some pictures but they're not that impressive.
Did you go out there because of the ADN piece?
Anyway, off to bed.
Partly, yeah. It's a place I go from time to time, but the idea to go there this time came mainly from that article.
Roberto Tigre. Objectively pro-Romney.
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Lamarre, The Anime Machine
Suffice it to say at this point, Miyazaki associates anime with war and violence. He and his longtime friend and partner, Ghibli cofounder and director Takahata Isao, also express their dislike of Hollywood action films. In sum, what I have presented as a contrast between animetism and cinematism, Miyazaki poses as a contrast between the manga film versus the action film/anime. In effect, Miyazaki sees in both anime and action films a ballistic optics of cinematism, and his manga-film techniques of animetism are designed to challenge and to offer alternatives to that cinematism.
.....
Heidegger thinks that some being, object, or entity must appear to impart constancy to openness or receptivity. Otherwise, the promise of a new way of dwellng in the world remains but a vision; the new way cannot take a stand, take root, or somehow persist. Dreyfus suggests we call such special objects cultural paradigms. But Heidegger calls the new object that will ground a new understanding of reality a god. This is why he says "only another god can save us." Heidegger sees the need for a new god.
Castle in the Sky makes a very similar move. While the story leaves us suspended at the moment of releasement with a vision of new rootedness, its animation offers a figure who brings content and constancy to its imagination of characters angled toward the earth: the girl. This is what makes the role of the girl so difficult to parse. She embodies the technological condition, affords salvation or releasement, and appears as the new god or new paradigm to give constancy to a new understanding, a new way of living with technology, a new rootedness. This places quite a burden on the young girl, who must become akin to a god or savior of animation technologies. An image in the title sequence--a young woman's face blowing the wind for the windmill--provides an important clue as to how Miyazaki strives to realize the promise of the girl-god in gaining a new rooted understanding of technology.
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When I first heard "Jesus Take the Wheel", my first thought was that its chorus resembled that of "Torn".
213: thanks bob, that sounds super-interesting, I'm going to check it out.