Music - What grinds your gears?

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HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9551
Following on from the What Grinds Your Gears thread in the guitar section, I wondering what grinds your gears in music.

For me it's got to be the ubiquitous full-tone lift (usually plus strings/choir) on the last verse of just about anything on X Factor type programs.

A distant second is songs that fade out at the end. Come on - if you can come up with an interesting or imaginative beginning, you should be able to come up with an imaginative or interesting ending.
I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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Comments

  • shaunmshaunm Frets: 1591
    Slowing a song down and then claiming its now totally different. Also see Xfactor. But also see Kings of Leon version of Dancing on my own. 


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  • JerkMoansJerkMoans Frets: 8775
    Dubstep :angry: 
    Inactivist Lefty Lawyer
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  • JonathangusJonathangus Frets: 4436
    Singers who demonstrate their incredible vocal control by embellishing every single note instead of singing me a goddamn tune.
    Trading feedback | How to embed images using Imgur

    As for "when am I ready?"  You'll never be ready.  It works in reverse, you become ready by doing it.  - pmbomb


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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    shaunm said:
    Slowing a song down and then claiming its now totally different.

    It also has to be performed in a fragile, whispery, whiney, singer-songwritery way, with minimalist accompaniment.

    Instant John Lewis Christmas advert.

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  • JerkMoansJerkMoans Frets: 8775
    edited July 2020
    Philly_Q said:
    shaunm said:
    Slowing a song down and then claiming its now totally different.

    It also has to be performed in a fragile, whispery, whiney, singer-songwritery way, with minimalist accompaniment.

    Instant John Lewis Christmas advert.

    Oh God.  Breathy acoustic cover versions of 80's hits, chock full of faux-emotion.

    A weak folky cover version of “Blue Monday” in the coffee bar? NOOOoo! Make it stop!!!!
    Inactivist Lefty Lawyer
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71956
    Every one of the indistinguishable identikit Autotuned male 'urban' (this may not be the right genre name, but I'm over 50 so I can't be expected to keep up ;) ) 'singers' (most of them probably can't, without Autotune) who seem to think they're God's gift to women.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • scrumhalfscrumhalf Frets: 11262
    Lyrics. 99.99% of them are utter crap.

    I don't care about your feelings. I care as much about your thoughts on love as I do about your thoughts on non-ferrous welding. And I have no desire to dance, no matter how much you may implore me with your sub-juvenile rhyming and over-emoting.

    Either read a bit to inspire you, grab an instrument or shut up. 
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  • lasermonkeylasermonkey Frets: 1940
    Another submission for those winsome, acoustic covers of dance, indie and classic rock songs that advertisers have been foisting on us for the last fifteen years. Ad makers! Can you come up with another idea, please? It's way past annoying.

    My wife asked me to stop singing Wonderwall.
    I said maybe.....
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    Nothing wrong with fade outs. On the right track of course.

    For me it's the stuff that Mrs A likes - Stock Aitken and Waterman, everything that they ever produced.
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  • steveledzepsteveledzep Frets: 1172
    Rap.
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  • DeadmanDeadman Frets: 3851
    edited July 2020
    Whiny female vocalists who release cover versions. There's one out at the moment, only Toploader's 'Dancing in the moonlight' but it's on all the bloody time. Fucking crap and still an absolute insult in my opinion.

    Edit; turns out Toploader covered it too (bastards!) :lol: 
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  • CrankyCranky Frets: 2629
    lasermonkey said:
    Another submission for those winsome, acoustic covers of dance, indie and classic rock songs that advertisers have been foisting on us for the last fifteen years. Ad makers! Can you come up with another idea, please? It's way past annoying.

    A third.

    I don't even care if it's a cover or an original.  The whole genre should disappear.  I've almost given up coffee because of it!
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516

    OK, this is a bit unkind and it's a phenomenon that's been somewhat forced by dire circumstances, but...

    ...."Lockdown songs" recorded in people's bedrooms with acoustic guitars.  Yes, we're back in whiney singer-songwriter territory again.

    Just because you're stuck in your bedroom doesn't mean you can't plug something in, program some drums and make a fucking racket, you wishy-washy bastards. 

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  • ReverendReverend Frets: 4974
    Christmas ad asthma songs are the worst. 
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  • zedhexzedhex Frets: 191
    Kinda predictable I know, but factory-produced bubblegum boy-band pop music usually induces the urge to vomit for me.
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  • Devil#20Devil#20 Frets: 1910
    Anything that Robbie ****ing Williams has done including the one he always sings and has dined out on the back of it for years. James Blunt for the whiney voice and Kylie Minogue who's made millions by singing through her nose for years. She's looking a bit plastic nowdays but back in the day of those little golden hotpants I'd be mounting the TV if she came on. That brings me to the final one. What is it with a lot of female singers that they are unable to sing unless it's wearing just their grunters. Oh yeah...to distract from their lack of talent. Video killed the radio star. It certainly did. 

    Ian

    Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.

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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    Every new release that keeps using the 1 \ 5 \ 6 \ 4 progression ... stop it !  we already have 3 million songs using that

    Ed Sheehan ..... has literally used the same boring formula now for 10 years. 
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • vizviz Frets: 10644
    Extra beat in some bars of certain campfire and Elton John songs
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • scrumhalfscrumhalf Frets: 11262
    Using songs in adverts because of the title or one line in the lyrics whilst completely ignoring the entire song.

    As an example, someone is using the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice" for their ads, the premise being that their product/service (I forget which) makes things nice.

    Except that the song is about someone looking forward to marrying his girlfriend so they can have sex whenever they want.


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  • CirrusCirrus Frets: 8481
    HAL9000 said:

    A distant second is songs that fade out at the end. Come on - if you can come up with an interesting or imaginative beginning, you should be able to come up with an imaginative or interesting ending.
    One billion percent disagree with this, it's an argument I've had with people over the decades.  =)

    Fade outs are a perfectly valid way to end a studio track. Handled well they're an evocative and tasteful way of handling the fact that the music is being presented to the listener on a particular medium. It can be used to imply that your time with the song is at an end, but the song will go on after you've gone. It can be used to give a little glimpse into a band starting to loosen up during the fade, when you don't want that vibe to be the focus of the track. In complex arrangements, quite often different elements will be faded at different speeds, to re-frame the mix as the fades go on. It's far from a lazy cop out.

    Then there are the variations on the theme - when the main body of the song comes to an end but some elements carry on into a fade out. Or where the song is gradually faded into rising noise (R.E.M. "Hope", Elbow "Newborn"). Do you draw a line where some forms of fade are acceptable to you? How about the end of Holst's the Planets or other arrangements of choir music, where the singers physically leave the venue, taking their voices with them and creating the effect of the music fading away?

    And what about the fade in?  :o

    And also, where are these incredible endings? There are millions of tracks that don't fade out. And I'd say 95% of them end with either "and stop on the one after this repetition of the riff" or "have a bit of a rit" or "and do a drum fill now". Yeah, fades can be lazy but when done badly, they are no more lazy than any other form of ending that took 5 seconds to decide on, if it was explicitly planned at all

    I'd really like people who hate fadeouts to put their money where their mouth is and write a better ending for a famous track that fades out.
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