Music you are exposed to involuntarily.

[Woebot]

Today I have listened to against my own volition:

• America (at last heard "A Horse with No Name" or whatever it's called.)
• Lemon Jelly repeatedly.
• Dusty Springfield.
• Frank Sinatra.

Now blasting myself with Palais Schaumberg in a desperate attempt to regain composure.

 

[rewch]

ha...at least you haven't been exposed to inxs & all the other dogshit on virgin/radio 1/whatever passes for standard radio entertainment...call me elitist, call me anything you like, but i loathe going home with the latest u2 drivel going around & around & around in my head until i can get home & displace it with something acceptable...i usually find that land speed record clears out all the cobwebs...but can lead to psychosis...small rant...sorry

 

[be.jazz]

Today, the new U2 album for the first time. I'm not a hater (watched and enjoyed the "Rattle & Hum" film just a few days ago), but this seemed pretty bland.

 

[nomos]

Trapped - psychological torture in service work

When I worked at HMV a few years ago we were allowed to play our own CDs over the store system. It was nice. But then Xmastime came and they had us play a 20 minute looped video of releases they were hyping that season. "Hit me baby one more time," Rammstein, Marilyn Manson ran like clockwork. There was an R&B tune as well. I could never understand the lyrics but I would have sworn the chorus said "can I get a rim job baby?" Good for a childish giggle at least.

Far far far worse, however, was my stint at a small town bowling alley in the early 90s. Has anyone ever seen that Simpsons episode in which Homer gets a job as a "pin monkey"? Well that was me. And every Saturday morning I minded the pin setting machines for 400 hundred junior league bowlers and birthday party kids who played a constant stream of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Achey Breaky Heart" and Randy Travis' (?) "Friends in low place." I think Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" was a hit too. Sheer terror. Not to mention the odours.

 

[Diaz]

i became intimately familiar with the rotating top 20 norteno hits working at a pizza place in my neighborhood in los angeles a few years ago. while it was laughable at first, eventually i broke through my prejudices, realized that the accordion is actually a wonderfully romantic instrument, and got into some of it. some of the songs were a lot better than the stuff i chose to listen to during my sonic growing pains. for about 2 weeks at my current place of employment i had the pleasure of enduring singalongs of raffi's 'bananaphone' about every half-hour.

ping pong ping pong ping pong pananaphooooone

i don't work with children but it's not a far stretch.

and i believe friends in low places is actually by garth brooks.

 

[grimly fiendish]

for a brief while as a student, i worked in poundstretcher on south bridge in edinburgh. oh, the poundstretcher C90. it chills my very soul to think of it. one tape, on constant repeat. the high point - and i'm not joking - was "when the sun goes down" by level 42. the lowest moment was "summer (the first time)" by bobby goldsboro ... although "la isla bonita" had begun to run it close by the time i quit.

of course, these days the music i'm exposed to all the time is other people's sodding ringtones. i'll find myself humming something particularly piss-poor and being unable to explain why ... until a colleague's phone goes again.

 

[redcrescent]

@ Diaz
Norteño is great, especially to work to! I really grew to love Los Cadetes de Linares doing my painting in Mexico, much better than pop radio. Banda is what I really love, though: near-cacophonous massed brass, woodwind and percussion marching band music, in 2/4 or 3/4 time but deliciously off the beat in just the right way. Great stuff.

 

[dubplatestyle]

this is every day for me at work, obviously. do you know how many fucking times i've had to hear jamie cullum and the new duran duran in the last month?

 

[hexenductor]

My officemate listens to commercial country, but it's really not bad if you pretend you're Chuck Eddy. A good friend of mine has very regrettable taste in music so driving around with him features a soundtrack of Native American chants set to c-grade ambient, the Last Samurai score and occasionally Korn.

 

[originaldrum]

try working for an alternative radio station and having to bear listening to every relative/friend/friend of a friend/man and his dog/random "heard they might get airplay's" latest demo - your heart will grow cold

 

[machine hugger]

if Charlotte Martin makes her way over the big pond then into the UK....BEWARE.

this isn't street level spam. It is a warning.

 

[Backjob]

Anybody else get the whole "none of us want to listen to your weird music again, lets just put coldplay on" thing from colleagues? They have Coldplay, Chill Out compilations and Dido on constant rotation. My triumph of the year was when we had a client in specifically to talk about music and I put my foot down and said we'd lose all credibility if Robbie Williams was playing when they came in. They agreed to let me make a cd comp for the occasion and all sat there sour-faced as a selection of grime instrumentals, dancehall and atonal techno played. They finally broke when "Lords of the null lines" came on...

I think, however, there comes a point when you've been exposed to something enough times you do start to like it despite yourself. I worked as a kitchen porter in the summer of '97, and that bloody awful "get up get up get up get ooOOOooooOOOooout" song by Cast would play about once an hour for my entire shift. It was sheer hell for the first week, but after that I had a sneaking fondness for it. Actually was so driven to boredom in that job that I counted the number of times he says "get up" so that I could estimate how many times I'd heard him say those two words that summer - it was several thousand times....

 

[rewch]

I think, however, there comes a point when you've been exposed to something enough times you do start to like it despite yourself

see Sonic Weaponry thread (http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=204)...

Barney anyone...? Matchbox Twnety!?1

 

[Rambler]

I worked as a kitchen porter in the summer of '97, and that bloody awful "get up get up get up get ooOOOooooOOOooout" song by Cast would play about once an hour for my entire shift. It was sheer hell for the first week, but after that I had a sneaking fondness for it. Actually was so driven to boredom in that job that I counted the number of times he says "get up" so that I could estimate how many times I'd heard him say those two words that summer - it was several thousand times....

I have exactly the same story, just substitute Dodgy for Cast.

Yesterday I was involuntarily exposed to a group of (sober!) Marks and Spencers sales reps singing Take That on the train. 'Never Forget' - I hope I do, soon.

 

[Chef Napalm]

Holiday music is the stuff that really kills me. It's only just December and I've already hit my "I'll Be Home For Christmas" saturation point.

Having said that, I was in a trendy clothing shop last week trying to do some pre-madness Christmas shopping and was greeted with what can only be described as a breakbeat track whose main percussive element was sleighbells! Squelchy 303 bassline, old skool break, and sleighbells!

Of course, I immediately ask the girl at the counter what was playing before the 'Nsync version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" or similar monstrosity came on. She gave me one of those teenage signals of disgust that's halfway between a sigh and a sneeze and said, "I know, doesn't it, like, so suck?"

"No," I said sheepishly, "I love it. What is it?"

Again, that derisive wheeze followed by, "They pipe it in. I have, like, no idea."

Curses! Foiled again!

I've been enamoured with the idea ever since; Christmas in London: Breakbeats and Sleighbells. Anybody any clue as to what it was?

 

[martin]

I once worked in Woolworths for two weeks in 1996, and they played nothing besides Bryan Adams and Gina G. Oh, and Mike and the fucking Mechanics. I subsequently know all the words to Adams' "18 Til I Die". The supervisor was an utter cock called Steve and he used to actually whistle along to Gina G's "Ooh Aah Just a Little Bit" every time it came on. Hence I quit (plus they suspected me of fiddling the Pick N Mix balance)

 

[owen]

don't get me started on having to listen to either a) deep house or b) country rock when I was in bloody MVE.....

 

[sufi]

-my walk to & from work passes thru brixton market,
in about 100 yards of atlantic rd there are usually at least 5 sound systems,

1st (on my right on the way to work, opposite the black cultural archive) is the Xtian evangelist soundsystem selling cds - i used to know i nice lady who worked there we swapped a few cds...
specialities: a lot of xtian versions of the latest reggae, r&b riddims, lots of modern gospelish & stuff - occasionally totally off the wall random selection e.g brenda fassie

next up (across the road, never quite sure which system is which) a couple of halal butchers, often playing r&b or soulful pop - e.g eamon, is it dido, nex to a ragga sytem - now all the lads who work in tehse shops are kurds and algerian but they have good taste!

still on the right hand side is Kashmir Yam Boys (on the corner of Electric Avenue - yup!) fruit stall run by afghani guys, they are always playing arabic or hindi music

turn right, under the bridge towards work and ther was a nice latin american sound coming from the carneceria which i heard for the first time this morning - mebbie mercedes sosa, very pleasant anyway... they sell those roasted sugared nuts so it smells good too!

all these sounds merge into one another, along with the odd mobile bass bin rumbling along the road, it's a fantastic daily sonic smorgasbord..................

 

[baboon2004]

Must check out Brixton market after that description. It lifted my soul after the crushing realisation that by the end of this weekend I will already be set to go postal if I ever fucking hear fucking Slade ever fucking again in my motherfucking life.

Sorry about that. Every year it gets worse.

 

[xero]

I may be a lone voice here, but at the moment I'm not exposed to that much music involuntarily and I kind of wish I was somehow. I pretty much only hear what I choose to unless I'm out at a shop or something where there's music playing - I seem to have lost touch with what's in the mainstream (sub)conciousness - I haven't even heard the new band-aid - on second thoughts maybe I should just count my blessings...