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Trying to identify the "worst" songs in Rock history seems an odd way to go about things to my mind. I tried in this piece grahamcunningham.substa… to tease out what made for the "best" of it (includes a fair (but not exhaustive) number of YouTube links.
An excerpt: "For most people all this is a big thing in their lives in their teens an…
Trying to identify the "worst" songs in Rock history seems an odd way to go about things to my mind. I tried in this piece https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/imagine-theres-no-muzak to tease out what made for the "best" of it (includes a fair (but not exhaustive) number of YouTube links.
An excerpt: "For most people all this is a big thing in their lives in their teens and twenties; from then on interest wanes. Those for whom this phase ran its course at anytime in the 60’s to 90’s tend to think of themselves as having been around for the best of it. If the thee billion plus hits on Spotify’s most streamed songs is the measure, you could argue that it is now bigger than ever. But nobody seriously believes that any of them will go down in history as great ones. So what will? What songs will endure when all rock’s ephemera evaporates into the mist of time?....."
Check out the Youtube links (mostly towards the end).
Why is there always shade directed at Muzak? It's melody centric, somewhat homogenous, and quite relaxing. It's postwar America. Limey nerd boy Steve Wilson was especially venomous towards the harmless Muzak in one of his Porcupine Pie albums. Which album? I couldn't say they all sound the same. And that was nerd boy's complaint about Muzak.
The quintessential Muzak song is also one of the greatest songs of all time. The Girl From Ipanema. And its a fascinating case of "one speaker, two songs" (to paraphrase Scott Adams). If someone is outside that tradition is is a tacky, saccharine garbage. If someone knows their music it is heaven. Weird.
Brazil has a colossal tradition of popular music, but Americans, for whatever reason, seem largely immune to its charms, without at all disliking it. Ask an American if he likes Brazilian pop music and if he's like me:
"Oh, yeah, The Girl from Ipanema! Great song."
"Do you know any other Brazilian songs?"
"No."
"Do you want to hear any other Brazilian songs?"
"No."
"So, The Girl from Ipanema wholly satisfies your interest in Brazilian music?"
"Yes. Great song!"
I had a CD, Beleza Tropical Vol.1 or 2 I can’t recall - I particularly liked Gilberto Gil - that I played a *lot* but I no longer have a CD player. So it’s more a memory of liking Gilberto Gil. Very easy to like. I wish they’d play him in stores …
The only other Brazilian song I've heard of is the one that Rod Stewart plagiarized for "Do You Think I'm Sexy?"
When I got off the jet at the Rio de Janeiro airport in 1978, the loudspeaker was playing "The Loco-Motion" by Grand Funk Railroad, Homer Simpson's favorite band. A little too much American cultural imperialism, even for my tastes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxyU4W8iyeI
I'm sure you've heard of Mas que Nada by Brasil '66
I wouldn't call that Muzak. In my own essay title I was just using it as an approximation for patently forgettable trash (and to be honest because I needed a word with the right number of syllables to complete my ironic borrow from the Lennon song title). The word never gets used in the essay itself. And in it I identified Ronette s/Spector's 'Be My Baby' as an example of one of my all time greats. Depending on definitions, I'm guessing some people would call that Muzak although I would call it a great Rock song.