The nadir of bad pop music

<p>I vote for Having My Baby being the worst. That song makes me nauseous! I also hate “Tonight’s the Night” and can’t listen to anything by Rod Stewart since it’s all soooo creeeeepy.</p>

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<p>I agree that most of today’s mass market popular music is pretty bad. However, there is a lot of talent in the indie/alternative ranks. You will rarely hear it on any of the top 40/franchised stations. If your area has a college station, you are more likely to catch it there. The only music station I listen to is the local college NPR affiliated station. They play a mix of local up and coming artists, current indie/alternative, some old stuff that bears repeating and shows like World Cafe and eTown. I have the local music show streaming now.</p>

<p>Top 40 is just not a factor in the way it was back in my salad days in the '70s.</p>

<p>The Top 40 was just as bad in the 70’s as it is today - worse I’d say. I looked up the top 100 songs of 1975 and, with very few exceptions, there is nothing I care to hear again. I didn’t listen to Top 40 then either so I had never heard quite a few of the songs.</p>

<p>There’s a whole 5 - 7 year time period that I don’t know any music from, in the early 90’s. H and I only had a lousy stereo at home, and in the car it was nothing but Raffi tapes and Peter, Paul & Mommy (classic kid music from Peter Paul & Mary that I recommend as a baby gift for anyone!) I’m more in touch with current music now, at age 50, than I was at age 30. I’m blaming the kids. :p</p>

<p>Once I got into high school, ( in the 70’s)I didn’t listen to much top 40 music, there was too much elsewhere. Metal mostly, although I preferred the British bluesy rock. However I also liked dance music/funk/ disco. Tower of Power, Earth, Wind & Fire, Minnie Riperton, Aretha…</p>

<p>( [oh, no - Alvin Lee just died](<a href=“Alvin Lee, Guitarist of Ten Years After, Dies at 68 - The New York Times”>Alvin Lee, Guitarist of Ten Years After, Dies at 68 - The New York Times) )</p>

<p>* There’s a whole 5 - 7 year time period that I don’t know any music from, in the early 90’s.*</p>

<p>Unfortunately, my baby daughter who was born in '90 was oversensitive to sounds, & she didn’t even like music on the radio, let alone live shows. ( ironically, now she loves it & we have similar taste & we are both practicing guitar)
H & I also did not go out ourselves, because family wasnt available for child care & she wouldn’t stay with strangers.
[Top</a> 10 Most Influential Seattle Bands](<a href=“http://rock.about.com/od/top10lists/tp/Most-Influential-Seattle-Bands.htm]Top”>The Top Most Influential Grunge Bands)
I missed so. Much. :frowning: ( but a guitarist for Maktub- Reggie Watt’s band, used to live next door then- that was fun)
My first live show in a really long time that wasn’t Tim Noah, Charlotte Diamond, Tickle Tune Typhoon, or Raffi was the Presidents of the United States of America last show, with my 15 yrold & her friend, in 1/1998.
Then in July of 98, I saw Pearl Jam for the first time & I never looked back.
:smiley:
Now H & I plan our vacations around going to shows & we try and hear live music at least every month if not every week, although my taste is much broader than H, IMO & I have even flown across the country by myself to hear musicians who are taking too long to play Seattle.</p>

<p>Even the worst songs of 70’s - early 80’s remind me of my youth. (I even get nostalgic over bad church music of the 70s–guitar mass, anyone?)</p>

<p>I looked up the Helen Reddy song, “Leave Me Alone” (Ruby Red Dress)–it is the same story as Delta Dawn–about a young woman who was “taken advantage of” by a man, and never got over it, lost her mind, became mentally ill, wandering the town talking to herself. Depressing. But the catchy tunes made them popular songs.</p>

<p>I completely missed the 90’s, too. A couple years ago I was shopping with D and and I remarked that they always played “new” music in a particular store. D started laughing and told me the song playing was more than 10 years old (from 90s).</p>

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I hope you meant to say pop music of the 70’s…</p>

<p>The distinction between AM and FM radio was critical in the 70s, when those were the only two places we heard music. It’s much less so these days, with so many ways to discover and listen.</p>

<p>I do find that the AM/FM difference is still critical when it comes to talk radio, though. After years of NPR, I find AM talk almost unendurable.</p>

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<p>That’s why we have Sirius/XM in the car we use for road trips. Deep Tracks across America.</p>

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<p>Exactly. This was the great divide between album and top 40 music. In the early 70s, FM was that smoky, secret kind of place where you heard the rest of the songs from a decent album. Very few people seemed to have access to FM radios. I remember the cool girl from high school whose father paid $75 for an FM radio in the family car. This was unheard of for most of my crowd. I can remember piling into the car, in her driveway, and waiting to hear “Taxi” by Harry Chapin. It was such a cool song.</p>

<p>I remember wanting to crawl under the front seat when “Tonight’s the Night” came on in the car. I could never look at my parents. It was just icky.</p>

<p>I loved all the bad songs back in the day; but I think my listening habits have evolved. I couldn’t even tell you what is hot today.</p>

<p>OMG I remembet that song by bloodrock and it scared the willies out of me too. I have downloaded I think I love you On my Ipod, andmany songs give me memories but part of me is just happy to remember anything these days including lyrics to songs. I missed out on the Nirvana music. One of the worst songs is “Ive never been to me” I do like "You wear it well " By Rod Stewart.</p>

<p>I did like David Bowie, Elton John</p>

<p>They weren’t considered sappy or creepy like many of the groups/songs on this thread, but I couldn’t stand almost everything put out by the group America. </p>

<p>Their lyrics had the most wretched and forced rhymes, to the point that the songs became nonsensical. Consider the chorus from their hit “Sandman:” </p>

<p>“Cause I understand you’ve been running from the man
That goes by the name of the Sandman
He flies the sky like an eagle in the eye
Of a hurricane that’s abandoned”</p>

<p>What…?</p>

<p>Tonight’s the Night has always grossed me out, too. There is no doubt in my mind that the entire ouevre of the Captain and Tenille and Helen Reddy, not to mention the Carpenters and Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, would be the absolute bottom of the pop barrel if it were not for the existence of “Having My Baby,” which makes Muskrat Love seem positively respectable in comparison.</p>

<p>I am astonished that no one has mentioned The Pina Colada Song. :D</p>

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<p>Haha…you are so right. I think for once the entire CC community is in agreement on something–in this case, the Worst Pop Song Ever. And now, as we go about our business on this late-winter eve, hundreds of us have it stuck in our heads.</p>

<p>Sad to hear about Alvin Lee. Ten Years After was one of my favorite bands in the 70’s. I remember the first time I heard them, in a head shop/record shop in Myrtle Beach SC. I bought the album on the spot. He could make that guitar sing.</p>

<p>OMigod, Tonight’s the Night–yes, that might actually be skeevier than 'Having my Baby"–it’s made it tough to ever listen to anything by Rod Stewart. Ever. Yeesh.</p>

<p>I’m so glad that everyone else had the same reaction to “Tonight’s the Night.” That song scared the hell out of me when I was a little kid.</p>

<p>But I recently listened to the “Every Picture Tells A Story” album from early '70s, and that was actually a pretty great album (despite the unfortunate racist lyrics in the title song.) It gave me new respect for Rod Stewart.</p>