Earlier today I was brought to tears and gasping, wheezing laughter while listening to something billed as “the most unwanted music” — clearly it has a lot of the characteristics of music that just about everyone hates, especially when they’re put together. But the results are something that is wondrously absurd, and absolutely hilarious.
I’m glad I decided to dig a bit deeper to find the source though, not just because it’s nearly 12 years old, but because there is also a companion piece intended to be “the most wanted music.”
I’ve listened to both, and I have to say, I find the most “wanted” music to be incomparably more annoying than the most “unwanted” music. Both are comically hideous, to be sure. But what bothers me most is that there were some parts of the “wanted” song that I actually did kind of like just a little bit, despite myself. Well, OK, one thing. I liked the chord progression in the chorus. A little. And the gravelly-voiced dude singing about filling ketchup jars is pretty good too. And I just noticed that Vernon Reid (of Living Colour fame) played guitar on it.
Either way… the bottom line here, for me, is that this is concrete proof that good things are rarely designed by committee.
I wonder if the composer went on to work on Microsoft’s Songsmith project.
Here are some more links on the topic that you might be interested in. Or not. Are you an outlier?