I’ll tell you everything just turn off that Air Supply!
“In Errol Morris’s documentary “Standard Operating Procedure‚†an American soldier talks about employing music as a means of breaking down the resistance of enemy combatants during interrogations. They can withstand “Hip Hop Hooray†and “Enter Sandman‚†he says, but not country music. Most audiences will laugh at the line, but may check themselves mid-chuckle, wondering what it means that Americans are deploying their favorite music as a way of tormenting people of another culture. . .” Alex Ross on the use of music in psychological warfare.
Carlo believes that the reason things are so screwed up in our country is because the music is so loud. What is supposed to be background or ambient music in shopping malls and restaurants is turned up so high that it not only makes conversation difficult, it disrupts our thought processes. The mall has its muzak, each store in the mall has its own muzak, it becomes a competition to see who will make the shoppers run amok first. We have to yell at each other to be heard, which does not help interpersonal relationships. We literally cannot hear ourselves think.
Maybe we’re afraid of silence. Maybe we turn up the music for fear that if we had to listen to ourselves, we would hear. . .Nothing.
Survey: What piece of music, which musician would break your resistance?
Meanwhile: Good review of new Journey album featuring their new Pinoy vocalist, Arnel Pineda.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:50
Barney and Telletubbies theme song played in an infinite loop.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:12
What piece of music, which musician would break your resistance?
Beijing opera, without a doubt. I dont see horror movies because they dont scare me — what’s the point? — but Beijing opera scares me. Whenever Im in China, flipping channels on the TV and it lands on CCTV 11 where they show Beijing opera, I get mesmerized. I find it scary but can’t change the channel. Such is its power.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:29
The Highschool Musical Soundtrack. Images of overzealous adolescents singing trite platitudes in my brain. Two minutes is all I can take. Then I run screaming. Or I turn into an axe murderer. The latter hasn’t happened yet but under extreme exposure, it just might.
June 2nd, 2008 at 15:20
I agree with Eilish, and that latter situation has occurred to me more than once. The pesky little kids just wouldn’t shut up.
June 2nd, 2008 at 16:39
Umbrella. Thanks to Rihanna, that word now has four syllables.
And the ultimate musical torture for me: songs by Jett Pangan, and his group. One song has a line like this: Taall-lagaa namaan…I almost got in a fight with a frat brod over that song, when he insisted on playing it during one of our “fellowships.”
And Jeg? Have you listened to Hindu MTV? All that caterwauling can make anybody catatonic, I tell you. Although your take on Beijing opera is interesting…
June 2nd, 2008 at 17:38
cueshe
June 2nd, 2008 at 18:00
“please don’t stop the music” by i-don’t-know-who. i think she’s the same gal who sang the umbrella – ella -ella song . Grrr!. This track has become my co-worker’s anthem…so annoying that i just can’t work without my earphones on. I would rather listen to my boss’ oldies but goodies tunes than spend my working hours fecklessly.
June 2nd, 2008 at 18:23
jedi, compared to Beijing opera, Indian MTV is like listening to Bach.
Here’s a sample: http://music.ibiblio.org/pub/multimedia/chinese-music/Beijing_Opera/TB01.FaMen_Temple.au
June 2nd, 2008 at 18:58
modern talking
June 2nd, 2008 at 20:14
Bad Day in chipmunks or any other song in chipmunk-sound. It’s totally irritating. It was a wrong decision to watched Alvin and the chipmunks.
June 2nd, 2008 at 20:26
“Beautiful Girl” by Jose Mari Chan
“Puff the Magic Dragon”
and that PCSO jingle on the radio (“Ikaw ang kanlungan ng nangangailangan…”)
:-/
June 2nd, 2008 at 21:29
ANDREW E., Cueshe, and that kid who’s singing the Kung Fu Panda theme….grrrr!
June 2nd, 2008 at 21:30
The one about “she hit the floor next thing I know shorty(?) got low, low, low.”
Oh, and the one about “Souldia boy(?)”
Just about any swill from Akon will make me leave a room or have a lower opinion of the person listening to it.
June 2nd, 2008 at 23:12
novelty songs or anything willie revillame sings. grrrr….
June 2nd, 2008 at 23:13
“Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus… now that’s torture!
June 2nd, 2008 at 23:33
hit singles from April “Boy” Regino. The more I hate the songs, the more I memorize the lyrics.
June 2nd, 2008 at 23:35
Celine Dion and Kenny G
June 3rd, 2008 at 06:06
that lousy “bossa” ripoff turd that they keep playing in posh places like coffeeshops and bookstores…
many people find it “sophisticated”, I find it rather corny
June 3rd, 2008 at 08:07
Hip-hop and rap. I just can’t stand the beat. And the lyrics are bleh and desperate. Especially in Pinoy Rap (I’m looking at you, Andrew E).
Ballads and novelty songs. And 80’s revivals – are Filipinos too lazy to write new songs? I want to blast an entire jeepney whenever they have these on the radio station. Oh yeah, and that radio station with the freakingly-loud DJs (with the balahura woman?) – they play it everywhere.
Pinoy pop-bands-who-pretend-to-be-rock-bands – Cueshe, et. al. You don’t even rock. Sorry.
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:27
Oh God, I didn’t know there are a lot of kindred souls here, haha. I totally agree with you andre (or andrea?) The “badufication” (for lack of a better word) of fm stations was suddenly inflicted upon us! Does having an extremely annoying laugh qualify a person to be a dj in these radio stations? And why do they laugh after every sentence? Are they paid for every annoying laugh they unleash? Whatever happened to the well-modulated voice, to the radio programs that soothe one’s soul at the end (or the middle!) of the day, and help us cope with the day-to-day tedium?
What’s worse is that drivers of public transports tune in to these morons.
Thank God for Ipods. Fm stations are going down the drain, anyway.
June 3rd, 2008 at 17:10
“Maybe we’re afraid of silence. Maybe we turn up the music for fear that if we had to listen to ourselves, we would hear. . .Nothing.”
– Sounds like one of Pico Iyer’s essays, “Silence”
June 3rd, 2008 at 17:42
regine velasquez and jaya. what’s wrong with these women? they’re arrogant, they torture with their belting and they sing the extra “ooohhmm” “ahhhaaahaha” every chance they get. they’re mariah/celine ripoffs who are annoying in their own right. jaya’s desperate to turn her skin white and regine looks transparent already. a friend who worked in one of her cheese flicks said they had problems with lighting the set when she’s around because the color of her skin is so unnatural.
June 3rd, 2008 at 22:24
Two Lovely Flowers by Eddie Peregrina and Banjo Boy by Nora Aunor, my all-time Pinoy faves. And of course, any creation by Sinead O’Connor, Sarah McLachlan, Sade, Enya, Eartha Kitt, Nina Simone, Tracy Chapman, and Ella Fitzgerald. Sorry, Elton John and Rufus Wainwright.
June 4th, 2008 at 08:12
The Selecta Ice Cream Street Cart instrumental melody, composed of carefully selected irritating set of notes.
June 4th, 2008 at 08:48
Couldn’t agree more to the rihanna, cueshe comments!
And may I add, David Pomeranz — bordering on desperation songs nya.
Got-to-believe-in-magic my a**.
June 4th, 2008 at 08:49
Any song from Phantom of the Opera (although that ‘Christine…christine…where are you hiding’ crap tops the breakdown list). Linkin Park.
June 4th, 2008 at 12:11
Survey: What piece of music, which musician would break your resistance?
a list, i provide.
1. pcso song – charity case, most definitely.
2. willie revillame songs
3. radio stations with hyenas in the background
4. revivals of good solid songs – they become crap.
5. annoying pinoy/filipinized bossa
June 4th, 2008 at 15:45
anything that has crazy frog.
June 6th, 2008 at 16:49
What piece of music, which musician would break your resistance?
WHAT’S UP by the 4 Non Blondes… If I hear that song again played in this lifetime, there will be ANNIHILATION!!!
June 6th, 2008 at 21:20
Sean Kingston’s Beauuuuuuuuutiful Girls (and its mutations) was the most annoying and contagious earworm last year.
I think the converse needs to be asked: Which piece of music could you listen to all day?
June 8th, 2008 at 19:48
…and may I add MYMP and Jolina Magdangal to the Horror Roll? Their music can definitely wake up my killer instinct.
and if i’m entitled to kill 3 people, i’ll them 3 and i’ll make sure they will sufferr!!! nyahahah!!!!
June 9th, 2008 at 12:49
Which piece of music could you listen to all day?
That piece of music does not exist.
June 11th, 2008 at 08:52
Sitti Navarro’s singing. Can’t stand it.
“di kitaaaaaaah… pipili…hihi…tihn…”
Bossa gives me the nightmares.
June 11th, 2008 at 23:37
I was in SM North today and Air Supply was scheduled for a gig later in the afternoon. I suddenly remembered this entry.
Anyway, I fled the building.