MetaChat - Music that has been completely ruined for you for one reason or another.

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04 April 2006

Music that has been completely ruined for you for one reason or another. →[More:]There are certain musicians that I just can't listen to, either due to overplay, overhype or some traumatic/dramatic event to which they are connected.
• The Beatles: Overplay on the radio, and most annoying fans ever. The band is dead, get over it.
• Cypress Hill: Roommates from hell played them every night until 2am. I don't really miss them, though.
• Beck's Odelay was off-limits in my presence for a number of years because of downstairs neighbors who'd play only a couple of songs over and over and over while cleaning their apartment very early on weekend mornings. Especially the track with the toilet-plunging sound.

What are yours?

post by: me3dia at: 10:46 | 40 comments

Anything by Magnetic Fields. A couple years a go, I was dating a woman who really hated my percieved pretentiousness, intelectual snobbery and elitism. And yet she claimed to love the Magnetic Fields, which to me seem to represent all those things turned up to 11.

posted by pieisexactlythree 04 April | 10:50

The best thing is when the person who ruined a band/song for you suddenly tells you, "I'm so sick of this! I think I ruined this music for myself."

Thanks. Thanks a lot.

posted by Hugh Janus 04 April | 10:51

Most "classic rock": Zeppelin, the Doors, the Beatles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aerosmith, Stones, etc. Overplay on the only radio station in my podunk hometown. I can recognize some of the songs as good, but I don't ever want to hear them again. REM and U2 have joined this pantheon in the last few years.

posted by goatdog 04 April | 10:56

I'm a big showtunes fan, but once I've performed in a show, I can't listen to it anymore. See: Gypsy, Once on This Island, A Funny Thing...Forum, Fiddler on the Roof.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 04 April | 10:59

Eve 6: The psycho ex said that the women in the song "Rescue" (poss. pop-ups) reminded him of me, so naturally I was flattered. Got the whole album of "Horroscope" and was equally touched by the pathos of "Here's to the Night". And then there was the messy breakup. And then I sold or gave away the CD I bought. And now I can't even listen to The Killers' "Somebody Told Me" too often because they sound like Eve 6.

Of course, I'm listening to it right now...

posted by TrishaLynn 04 April | 10:59

Heh, Hugh. I've put moratoriums on NIN and Radiohead at the peak of their popularity specifically to avoid doing that.

Pearl Jam and Nirvana are in my red zone. I already change stations when I hear "Betterman" or "Heart Shaped Box." Which is sort of sad, because I like(d) both bands.

posted by me3dia 04 April | 11:02

I used to be able to dissociate hippie music from other aspects of hippie culture, and could thus enjoy Bob Marley and the Greatful Dead, despite the fact that I hate pot, Jah, and "good vibes." Since I had a hippie for a roommate,* the illusion no longer works.

*this is a guy who traded in iPod for a guitar pick, and I suspect, a bag of magic beans

posted by pieisexactlythree 04 April | 11:03

Velvet Underground and The Doors.

Not that I liked the doors really anyways, but I did like Velvet Underground. However my 3rd year college flatmate played them every day, and my bed was against the same wall as his stereo. Not happy times.

posted by gaspode 04 April | 11:03

In the high school photo club darkroom we had two LPs, Workingman's Dead and After The Gold Rush. For four years that was the only ones we had so I'm sure I heard each of them a couple of hundred times, at least. Nowadays, I can at least listen to some of Neil's stuff, but no Dead, please.

posted by tommasz 04 April | 11:15

U2's early stuff. By U2's later stuff.

Cake has almost been ruined for me, as it's basically the only band my friends listen to when they're drinking.

posted by muddgirl 04 April | 11:25

Oingo Boingo and Fishbone. That early 80's superbright production sounds harsh and grating to me now.

And U2's Joshua Tree album...I can't listen to it anymore.

posted by black8 04 April | 11:25

Peter Gabriel, whichever album has Big Time on it, because some jerk who done me wrong listened to it ALL the time. Same goes for Paul Simon's Graceland.

posted by JanetLand 04 April | 11:31

Way back in the day, when I was twenty and starting grad school, I waxed poetic about The Indigo Girls. There was a classmate of mine from California, who told me she used to love them but now she hated them and please, please, please, take the tape she had. I did and played it and played it.

Until one day, at a party, a girl went on and on about The Indigo Girls and I was like "PLEASE, please, please take this tape off my hands, I can't stand them."

posted by rainbaby 04 April | 11:32

You really can not ruin music for weretable. If it is overplayed or whatever, I just have to wait a few years. And no girl is worthing losing a good song over.

Of course some stuff I have heard a bajillion times and still have not gotten tired of it. Pretty much anything from Nirvana's Nevermind for example.

I guess you could kinda include Beck. I could still enjoy listening to his music, but I do not reccomend him or buy anything of his now, due to his connection to the cult. I figure any money sent his way or any increase in his popularity is a gain for the loonies.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 04 April | 11:37

I've had stuff ruined for me only to be resurrected to my liking again -- like The Black Crowes, high school buttheads playing "Hard to Handle" came close to ruining Otis for me. But then later, in college, my friend Haruyo brought all her Black Crowes records (Japanese issue discs) and played them all the time. She was so doggone charming that I found myself feeling all warm about the Black Crowes and their Otis cover.

Fear I'm the one who's done the ruining -- like I don't know any of my buddies that can listen to The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan without their eyes rolling back in their heads. Or songs, like "Hopefully" by My Morning Jacket or "The Log Train" by Hank Williams. I might've ruined ASTRAL WEEKS for myself seeing as how I played it on repeat for about three months, which is sad since it's one of the best records ever made.

posted by frances1972 04 April | 11:51

What goatdog said.

posted by chewatadistance 04 April | 12:04

[Hi, frances!]

posted by Frisbee Girl 04 April | 12:08

Indigo Girls and Tracy Chapman, due to overlistening during periods of personal trauma. By extension, any deeply sincere acoustic music with lesbonic overtones.

Cocteau Twins is still a little iffy due to associations with certain people during a certain time in my life, but I can mostly deal.

posted by matildaben 04 April | 12:12

I ruined Suzanne Vega for myself and my roommates by playing her obsessively in my studio. I had this theory that I should listen to the same thing over and over when I was working on any one painting - my roommate eventually walked in, took the cassette out of the player and threw it out of the window. That was that.

posted by mygothlaundry 04 April | 12:12

Well, the song sucks intrinisically, and I dislike it on it's own merits, but I will forever associate The Eagles' "Hotel California" with the day at summer camp when my girlfriend* had to leave early because her mother's health had taken a sharp turn for the worse.
* we were 13. I use the term somewhat loosely.

posted by Triode 04 April | 12:20

"Moulin Rouge" ruined about 20 of them for me.

posted by go dog go 04 April | 12:24

In my college radio years there were many many bands that were ruined to me due to being in constant rotation at the station. Modest Mouse's Lonesome Crowded West was sold due to me hearing it all the time as was Dj Shadow's Entroducing among many others. Its kind of a shame as I really liked the albums at the time yet, after the 6,000th listen in a week, it killed my need to ever hear it again.

posted by miles 04 April | 12:25

any deeply sincere acoustic music with lesbonic overtones

Ha! Yes, exactly. Me too.

posted by rainbaby 04 April | 12:42

The airline commercials nearly ruined Gershwin for me and Claritin adverts nearly ruined Blue Skies. I still picture the Claritin ads everytime I hear Blue Skies, a great old jazz standard! Dammit. I commented on that on MeFi, somebody from Tracks Magazine sent me an e-mail, we spoke on the phone and he quoted me in the mag. Weird, eh?

posted by shane 04 April | 12:53

P.S. I intend no offense to lesbians or those who love them (or their music). I'm nearly half queer myself.

posted by matildaben 04 April | 13:01

me either/too matildaben. . it was just a great turn of phrase. . .

posted by rainbaby 04 April | 13:03

Silvio Rodriguez, though most of youse probly never heard of him.

posted by signal 04 April | 13:11

Peter Gabriel's Solisbury Hill is on the verge of being ruined for me due to its overuse as a lazy shortcut for inspirational movie trailers. See the spoof "Shining" trailer which showcases this exact phenomenon.

posted by ooga_booga 04 April | 13:19

Enya's Only Time.

Yeah, for the obvious reason.

posted by bunnyfire 04 April | 13:44

"Midnight Train To Georgia"

About a thousand years ago I worked in a pub which had MTTG on the jukebox and it was played over and over. But from where I worked, I couldn't hear Gladys, just The Pips. Now whenever the song comes on the radio, I sing along with the backing vocal, which irritates the shit out of me, especially when I get to the line "A superstar, but he didn't get far".

posted by essexjan 04 April | 14:10

I have some hideous negative association attached to Fiona Apple, so much that it makes me a little ill just to type the name. See also, Nine Inch Nails.

posted by krix 04 April | 14:41

Gary Glitter has been spoiled for me by the fact that he's a horrible old kiddie fiddler.

I mean I can still listen to it but it's just not fun anymore.

posted by dodgygeezer 04 April | 15:00

I'm with weretable. I once listened to the same 4 minute song for four days straight during finals in college and barely even noticed until I came up for air. I can't think of a single song that's ever been ruined for me. Even when The Man does stuff like appropriating Iggy Pop, I just laugh: I immediately imagine strung out addicts delivering drugs and OD'ing on the bright, polished decks of Carnival Cruise Lines.

posted by eamondaly 04 April | 15:13

Iggy Pop completely ruined Carnival Cruise Lines for me.

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 04 April | 15:17

Gary Glitter has been spoiled for me by the fact that he's a horrible old kiddie fiddler.

Have you heard his new record? "I Love You Love, You're Only Two, Love"

posted by essexjan 04 April | 16:11

Once I like music, I can't unlike it, even though I may stray away from it for a while if I have overdone it. Which is fortunate, because I am one of those people who likes to have music on all the time, even if only quietly. Because of my on-going boycott of the radio, this could get to be a problem, but it hasn't.

posted by dg 04 April | 22:28

I have to admit that I'm more likely to be that prick who plays his favourite song over and over again thus ruining it for others. The only good example I can think of from my own experience is Ravel's Bolero, which I love, but for years and years conjured up images of figure skating - which I hate.

posted by nomis 04 April | 23:30

Well, getting back into music again I'm surprised what I still like, and what I no longer like as much. College-era me was all about Dylan, Springsteen, and Petty, but I also liked me some New Wave and I still do but I'm cautious about the whole classic rock axis. I think it really is the radio -- there's a station around here that I fuckin' swear has the exact same playlist as 20 years ago.

The country station around here, which my nieces listen to exclusively, plays Cash's "Ring of Fire" almost daily. I always scream (silently), He wrote more than one song, dammit! They did play "Folsom Prison Blues" on the request show the other night, at least.

In classical, Carl Orff and Wagner get overused in movie trailers. I had a vocalist friend who couldn't watch A Clockwork Orange because they "butchered" the whole "Freude, freude" bit, which was one of her signatures.

I do get iTunes jags where I just can't play another MP3 I own without feeling like it's too damn familiar. Those nights I use Last.FM radio or run stuff from a "Played < 5" playlist ...

posted by stilicho 05 April | 01:26

The country station around here, which my nieces listen to exclusively, plays Cash's "Ring of Fire" almost daily. I always scream (silently), He wrote more than one song, dammit!

Heh. And he didn't even write that one.

posted by mudpuppie 05 April | 01:28

I did!

Chili, it's a marvelous thing,
But it leaves a fiery ring.
I ate my chili with great desire,
And I woke up with a ring of fire...

posted by Hugh Janus 05 April | 07:51

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