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| Mozart trying to write something that will make everyone forget about Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. (Tom Hulce playing Mozart in the brilliant film Amadeus.) |
Too much of a good thing can be a very bad thing. The following is my list of music that I think has been overplayed and/or overmarketed to the point of being painful to me. It doesn’t mean they are bad, it just means I never want to hear them again.
- “Respect”, “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman”, “Chain of Fools” and almost every hit by Aretha Franklin. I will keep listening to her gospel album however.
- Anything by the Beatles. Full stop.
- “At Last” by Etta James
- “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong
- Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. I love Beethoven’s other 8 symphonies and his opera Fidelio is one of my favorite operas, but I really have learned to loathe the 9th.
- Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
- The “Hallelujah Chorus” from Messiah by Handel. I can listen to Messiah a lot, but the HC I can live without.
- Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Actually, when it comes to the classical music, if I can suspend my aversion, I can still appreciate them, especially if they are performed well. Except for Eine Kleine, that one I just plain hate.
What’s on your list?
hogglestock 
Ooh fun… How much I loved Amadeus when I was a kid but I recently tried to watch it and found it unbearably goofy…oh well, it still has a special place in my heart.
My biggest fear is that Armstrong will be solely remembered for What a Wonderful World. It is not one of my favorites and it pales in comparison to all of his other genius work.
I heart Beethoven and shame on me for never giving his 5th a chance until a few years ago. I could never listen to that opening without having that stupid disco song from the 70s stuck in my head. One day I finally forced myself to sit down and listen to it in its entirety and it made me cry it is so beautiful. Only second to my favorite Pastoral. But I cannot stand Fur Elise…that is something I could live without hearing ever again.
I love the Beatles. Full stop:) Never tire of them.
Two contemporary songs I can think of that I cannot stand: umbrella song by Rihanna and rehab song by Winehouse. I never listened to those songs on purpose but whenever I heard them in passing they would get stuck in my head forever. Oh and Gaga's romance song.
Wow this is a potential can of worms…I better stop now.
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My Way sung by Anybody, Makes me cringe. Ditto The Impossible Dream. YUK
Odd but over the years I have begun to not like Beethoven's 9th as much as I used to but the third movement is sublime
Vivaldi Four Seasons – ever since the ghastly Nige recorded them I have rapidly developed an aversion
Einke Kleine Nachtmusik – I have a friend who says every time she hears this now she want sto commit murder…shame as it is abeautiful piece but overplayed
OK what else? White Shade of Pale by Procul Harum. thought it was pretentious crap back in the sixties and I have not changed my mind since
But my main piece of classical music that drives me mad because of over exposure, plus it is a tad boring, is A Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams. It goes on and on and on and on and I rapidly lose the will to live
Oh and Panus Angelicus – especially when sung by Pavarotti. Wince wince.
carmina Burana by Carl Orff. Have sung this several times and love it but over the years disenchantment has set in and feel that it would be so much better if it was cut by a third
And, FINALLY, I promise – ANYTHING by Carl Jenkins…
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For me it's the la la la la song by Adele.
In EVERY store I go in, EVERY day, ALL. THE. TIME.
After a time or two I start to feel more than a little crazy. I can't focus, can't think. Just la la la la la la.
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“Every Breath You Take” by the Police. That song was played pretty much nonstop the summer of 1984 (or was it 1985?) It has ruined that song for me forever.
Oh, and “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zepplin. I heard it too many times in high school.
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Many years ago, before I even had a record player, I had a copy of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony on reel to reel which I listened to over and over again so much so that I just can’t stand it anymore. A few years ago, just to complete my collection, I did buy a copy imagining that after some twenty-five years I might be able to actually enjoy it again but, no, one listen and that was it and I’ve never listened to it since and that’s about ten years now. I would be willing to give it another go if I came across a version by Celibidache or someone like that, someone who was looking to bring out something new in the piece.
I can still listen to, and enjoy, many of the staples like Beethoven’s Fifth, The Planets and Carmina Burana that have been done to death. I’m not so crazy about some of the more energetic interpretations of The Planets through preferring Sir Adrian Boult’s rather austere interpretation since he knew, and was friends with, Holst; it was also the first recording I heard.
As regards popular music I really don’t listen to very much of it these days and so when I do hear an old track I can quite appreciate it. Probably the exceptions are those Xmas singles that get dragged out every year, usually in a TOTP2 ‘special’: Slade, Wizzard, Mud, Johnny Mathis, Boney M, Band Aid, Cliff Richard, Mariah Carey, Jona Lewie and Wham. Of that list I actually have no problem with ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ – I loved Slade back in the day.
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Pachelbel's Canon, The Meditation from Thais, The Swan from Carnival of the Animals, Fur Elise.
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I have no problem with classical music or oldies being replayed over and over again, but the contemporary stuff…ugh. I have a teen in the house so these are the songs that I am done listening to, oh…and I can't blame them all on him. Some I liked once, but then tired of:
I'm Like a Bird by Nelly Furtado
Wonderful Christmas Time by Paul McCartney (listened to this during the holidays while working at the mall and I swear, I heard it 1000 times by the time Christmas hit).
Anything by Kanye West.
Anything by Taylor Swift.
LMFAO is getting on my nerves.
Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper ( love Lauper but that song… same reason…the mall).
Englishman in New York by Sting (old boyfriend played it all the time and I mean, ALL the time. Every time I hear it, I think of that loser).
I have more, but I'll stop here.
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For me, that's “I just called to say I love you” by Stevie Wodner. Never even liked it to begin with but it has been played far far far tooo often.
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Everything from the 60's. Been there. Done That.
Vivaldi's 4 Season's okay if played by Anne Sophie Mudder (spelled that wrong?)
Love Hallelujah but have heard it at too many funerals and it makes me cry even if I hear it in a store.
Hate music in doctor's offices, airplanes, everywhere I don't want to be and then have that put on top of it all. Why can't people just be quiet and read?
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A life without listening to the Beatles?! Sounds painful to me.
There are so many songs that I could happily never hear again, bit some reason I am coming up with blanks. Apart from Adele. My gosh I loathe her songs!
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*Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
*I Will Always Love You
*Land of Hope and Glory
*Anything by Dido
*I Feel Good
*The Blue Danube Waltz
*Let it Snow
*Let it Be
*Que Sera Sera
*Anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber
I also completely agree about the Four Seasons, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, What a Wonderful World and Eine Kleine.
But I love the Beatles, apart from the obvious tracks like Ob-la-di etc.
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Stacy: I kind of felt that way about B's 5th until I saw the bits of it in the film Howard's End which gave it new life for me.
Elaine: I agree with almost all your comments, but I love A Lark Ascending. We don't hear it half as much here as you do in the UK, so no fear of getting sick of it.
Every book and cranny: Thankfully, my daily pattern has kept me underexposed to Adele.
Karen: I like Dolly Parton's version of Stairway to Heaven.
Jim: Supposedly Vanska with Minnesota is bringing out something new in his Beethoven cycle, but I am not sure it can overcome your aversion to the 6th.
Ted: I would have to agree on everything except for the Saint-Saens which I don't hear that much.
Ti: You are SO right about Wonderful Christmas Time. That one is impossible to avoid.
Marianne: It is kind of a sappy song.
Pam: I find 60s stuff that isn't overplayed is still interesting to me. But it seems they always trundle out the same handful of songs.
A Bookish Space: I shouldn't admit this, but I have never been much of a Beatles fan so it doesn't bother me.
Steerforth: I can't disagree with anything on your list with the possible exception of the Elgar. We don't hear it as much in the US. (But then again, when we do, it is used at high school and college graduation exercises, without the words of course.)
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Great post, Thomas. I can't agree re the Beatles … they live on.
Sometimes it's not so much the song/music I don't want to hear, as I don't want to hear it in certain places. What a wonderful world is a great song but it's over used for cliched purposes … choose something else I want to say. Show some creativity. Let the song breathe again.
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