Musical Pet Peeves

[Zook]

Well I made an edit of CE where I removed the circus bits, but even with the extra two minutes, I don't think the focus is lost, but hey I love instrumental sections.


I wish I liked Outcry more though.

[Ħ]

Music written for a genre bugs me. Like a country song that tries to throw all the elements of the country genre together at once just for the sake of it.

[Priest of Syrinx]

Are there some things you keep hearing in music that just annoy or bother you? Post them here!
I'll start things off.

.Bands where 95% of the vocals are harmonies. I'm looking at you, Yes.
.Gospel-style female vocals with no actual words, I.E. Great Gig In The Sky and Through Her Eyes.

What did music ever do to you, that you should hate it so?

[pkj]

Over-using pinch harmonics.  I've been trying to acquire an appreciation for Lamb of God lately, and there's an awful lot of them.  I don't get it -- my guess is that they appear with such frequency in metalcore-type stuff because Dimebag Darrell did it constantly, and so now it's just been inherited as a convention of the style. 

[Buddyhunter1]

Are there some things you keep hearing in music that just annoy or bother you? Post them here!
I'll start things off.

.Bands where 95% of the vocals are harmonies. I'm looking at you, Yes.
.Gospel-style female vocals with no actual words, I.E. Great Gig In The Sky and Through Her Eyes.

What did music ever do to you, that you should hate it so?

It molested my entire family with a cactus covered in sandpaper while I watched before it dismembered them all with a toothpick and anally raped me with their limbs, causing me to have a few personal opinions about certain musical styles and elements that I just don't like all that much for whatever reason.

[Ravenheart]

That's the precursor to the majority of threads in this subforum.

[Priest of Syrinx]

Are there some things you keep hearing in music that just annoy or bother you? Post them here!
I'll start things off.

.Bands where 95% of the vocals are harmonies. I'm looking at you, Yes.
.Gospel-style female vocals with no actual words, I.E. Great Gig In The Sky and Through Her Eyes.

What did music ever do to you, that you should hate it so?

It molested my entire family with a cactus covered in sandpaper while I watched before it dismembered them all with a toothpick and anally raped me with their limbs, causing me to have a few personal opinions about certain musical styles and elements that I just don't like all that much for whatever reason.

Aww, crap, dude, I'm so sorry... 

Vocal harmonies & Gospel-style female vocals with no actual words, DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

[Buddyhunter1]

They've been dead for over a decade, actually.
*ba-dum tish*

[Pols Voice]

Growls. *dodges tomatoes*

[carl320]

I'm not sure how to explain this, so here goes:

It seems like whenever I hear a piano in a rock song, it's always long, flowing, ballady type music.  For example (even though I like the song), The Spirit Carries On.  Nothing against pianists in rock bands, but that kinda bothers me.

[MasterShakezula]

I'm not sure how to explain this, so here goes:

It seems like whenever I hear a piano in a rock song, it's always long, flowing, ballady type music.  For example (even though I like the song), The Spirit Carries On.  Nothing against pianists in rock bands, but that kinda bothers me.

You're listening to the wrong bands.

[Implode]

The only time that the vi IV I V really bothers me is when it's in the intro to a song and one instrument is just arppegiating though the chords simply (like 5-3-1-3-5-3-1-3 or something).

[Elite]

Having two guitarists in a band that don't complement each other at all, i.e. both guitarists play the exact same thing. Annoys me to no end.

Same thing with a bass player only playing root notes, come on be a little creative!

Overly technical wankery that doesn't (seem to) go anywhere.

--
I know the first two don't apply to many 'professional' bands, but even if it's your local band playing at the pub it still does annoy me.

[nicmos]

Having two guitarists in a band that don't complement each other at all, i.e. both guitarists play the exact same thing. Annoys me to no end.

Yeah I know what you mean.  Like those 4 guys who play exactly the same notes on Tom Sawyer? Yeah, get a little more creative I say 

[Buddyhunter1]

Here's a couple more:

.Annoying snare drum. Some drummer spamming a bad-sounding snare is just painful to listen to.
.The bassist's role in a lot of metal bands. Don't get me wrong, there's tons of great metal bassists, but in a lot of bands they just seem there for no real reason. Mixed too low, does nothing but repeat the guitar line, etc... What's worse is when the guitar sounds just as low as the bass. What's the point of even having one then?
That said, if the bass has a good tone and is mixed well, it works great.

[Zook]

Not really a pet peeve, but an eye roller: Symphonic bands whose name ends in "ia" or some form of it. There are LOTS of them.

[Stadler]

Sort of along the lines of Adami's: rhyming walk with talk.
UGGHHH!!!!!!

Worse than both of those, though, is "Baby" and "Maybe".    There's even a song (two of them actually, that I know of) where it's IN THE TITLE.   "Maybe Baby" by Buddy Holly and The Cars. 

[Stadler]

2. When artists use cliche' catch phrases as their chorus or focus. Country music does this all the time. The most recent example I can think of is that song by Kelly Clarkson with the lyrics "Whatever Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger"... gag me with a spoon. I hope the inventor of that catchphrase is final happy that it's making millions of dollars. I'd sue.

I'm with you on that.  I love him, he's one of my favorite artists ever, but Hank Williams, Jr. does this all the time and invariably, those are the songs that are clearly filler, clearly just to get to "ten songs" so there can be another album.   

[Stadler]

Every indie band playing only rickenbacker basses and really old shitty 60's no-name guitars

Okay your other points don't both me at all but Rickenbacker basses are awesome.  Just ask Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, and Scott Pilgrim.  And I don't know what indie bands you've been seeing, but more than plenty of them play with Gibsons and Fenders. 

I think my biggest musical pet peeve is the point about lifting a popular riff/melody and changing the words.  That "Live Your Life" song had better be paying royalties to that Romanian band who wrote "Dragosta in Tei" (aka the Numa Numa song).  I'm kind of hypocritical with that pet peeve though, because sometimes sampling and mashups can be really really cool.    So...yeah.

It's not Rickenbacker basses per se . It's every band using them Because every band uses them. I can't stand trends as it is but when all bands sound and look the same that really annoys me as someone who tries to go against trends and fashions unless it's something that I actually choose out of preference...

Exactly what bands use them? I'm not a huge indie fan or anything but they never struck me as being common enough to be a trend.

I'm sorta with Kowtowboy on this one.  I can't place concrete examples, though Beck comes to mind for some reason, but I get where he's going.  You have this pretentious half-talent with hair in his eyes, playing this silly no-name guitar, and it's fine if that's your only instrument, but it just smacks of "I'm SO MUCH cooler than you that I don't need to play a standard Strat, that any halfwit can play Eruption on.  I'm playing THIS exquisite piece of Americana that you can't even NAME let alone understand."   

There's something to be said for the classics, and if you run down arguably the ten best guitarists in rock history, all but one are playing vintage equipment (albeit probably heavily modified).

Page:  Les Paul
Clapton: Strat (Gibson when he was younger)
Howe:  Gibsons, mainly, but Fender and Martin
Hendrix: Strat
Blackmore: Strat (Gibson when he was younger)
Lifeson: Gibson (though also PRS)
Gilmour:  Fender
May: the exception, the Red Special
Lennon: Gibson (not one of the best guitarists in history, but certainly iconic)
Beck: Fender
Townsend: Gibson, Fender
Allman: Gibson
Iommi: Gibson
Young: Gibson
Murray: Fender
Fripp: Gibson
Hackett: Gibson
Perry: Gibson (often with a Fender slung around on his back.  Cooler than crap.)
Hetfield:  Gibson
Richards: Fender
Young: Gibson, Martin

[MirrorMask]

I don't like when bonus tracks are at the end of the album. A bonus track should be an occasion to add something to the tracklist, but when it's slammed at the end it's just blatant that it's a matter of "geez, there has to be a bonus track, let's slap it at the end and be done with it".

It's especially annoying when the final "true" track of the album is a proper closing song, and then the bonus track comes being last while it should be placed somewhere in the middle.

[Stadler]

There's a lot more to a good song than the chord structure.

Yes. I never said it made the song bad, but it could it way better with an original chord structure (which is subjective, but for me I generally like songs with as much originality as possible).

But that begs the question as to what's the purpose of a song?

I can respect "originality" as much as the next guy - I'm a prog fan after all - but when I'm asked to list my all time favorite songs, invariably, they are the ones that make me forget chord structures, forget time signatures, forget my job, forget my nagging wife, and submit to an emotion.    "Drops of Jupiter" by Train.  Simplest song on the planet.   Three chords, essentially, and yet I cry every single time I hear that song.  There's a beauty in the way that some songwriters are able to sit in a room, by themselves, and arrange the twelve notes we're given into a pattern that can touch MILLIONS of people that they've never even SEEN let alone met, let alone talked with to understand what moves them.

"Yesterday".  Two minutes and five seconds that changed the entire world.  (I'll let him tell it, because he posts here, but I have a friend that told a story about being in Siberia, not speaking a word of Russian, or at least that dialect, and picking up a guitar, playing that, and some of the people around him - with whom he previously could not communicate - started singing along (phonetically).  That is POWERFUL, man.  POWERFUL. 

[Stadler]

So, some that haven't been mentioned:

= Compilation live albums, with fade outs between each song.  Exit..Stage Left, AC/DC Live, and Seconds Out fit this bill (though I actually LOVE Seconds Out).   I usually use my Mac and fade them together for listening on my iPod (I do this with the "hidden songs" too; edit them out and list them on the albums they're on).   This is why I love the Dead:  FULL SHOWS, warts and all.  And if there's time on the disk, add some songs from other shows that weren't played at every gig.

= When bands re-release albums with bonus tracks and DON'T RELEASE ALL THE B-SIDES.   Ozzy did this with Blizzard, and Phil Collins just did this with his re-issues.   Put it out there.  I get that not everyone is a completest like me, but at least make it somewhat available.   Kudos to Sabbath and U2 for doing this.  Maiden too. 

= I think they're called "drops" (where the music fades to a drum beat, then all the treble is taken out of it, and it sort of fades out then back in).   Annoying. 

= Live songs/albums that don't state where they were recorded, or worse, misstate them.  Nothing worse than seeing on the album "Live in New York!" and hearing the singer say "We love you, San An-TONE!"   Priest is shitty for this (on their remasters, the live tracks invariably had "recorded somewhere on one of our many world tours!"  Oh really? I thought it was done in Rob's sex room.   It turned out that something like all but one were from the same show, just cut into pieces for the reissues.  LAME-O.

= Singers that "won't sing the other guy's songs".   This is why I love Bruce Dickinson.  He sings Di'Anno, he sings his shit, he even sings the songs of the guy that replaced him.  Doesn't care.  Does what he has to do.  Cherone in Van Halen, same thing.  Brian Johnson (he's even said, he wants to sing MORE Bon stuff).  Joe Lynn Turner; that guy, in Rainbow, in any given setlist was singing his own stuff, Ian Gillan, Dave Coverdale, Ronnie Dio, and Graham Bonnet, and singing it like a CHAMP.  That's a pro move.   Sammy Hagar?  C'mon dude.  Sing the Dave stuff.  You know you can, so it's not that.    The only exception to this rule:  Ozzy, because he can't (plus I'd much rather hear the Ozzy stuff anyway).   

=  Repeat thing, but fades.  The fade in "Tonight" by Ozzy is a crime against humanity.  Randy is just kicking his outro solo into high gear, and pffft.  Fade.   Lame.   An early press sheet for the remaster and reissue of Diary had a "Tonight (Extended Version)" on there, and Bob Daisley has said he has a copy that isn't faded, but to date, it has not been released.  That is one of my musical holy grails.  That, and the alleged "Cinema" suite by the Rabin-era Yes. 

[Kotowboy]

I don't like when bonus tracks are at the end of the album. A bonus track should be an occasion to add something to the tracklist, but when it's slammed at the end it's just blatant that it's a matter of "geez, there has to be a bonus track, let's slap it at the end and be done with it".

It's especially annoying when the final "true" track of the album is a proper closing song, and then the bonus track comes being last while it should be placed somewhere in the middle.

I like when bands put all bonus songs on a seperate CD. Leave the album as it is.

[ZKX-2099]

I have heard sorrow rhymed with tomorrow more than enough times.

[Kotowboy]

My bro and I have this peeve where you expect a rhyme and it doesn't happen...

Something along the lines of

" You walked through the Door. Then you fell on the ground "





Ok it's not really a peeve it's just funny. I know that lyrics aren't *expected* to rhyme but....

[Implode]

My bro and I have this peeve where you expect a rhyme and it doesn't happen...

Something along the lines of

" You walked through the Door. Then you fell on the ground "





Ok it's not really a peeve it's just funny. I know that lyrics aren't *expected* to rhyme but....

Best example of that is in Finally Free.

No longer torn in two
He'd kill his brother if he only knew

Their love renewed
They'd rendezvous
In a pathway out of view
They thought no one knew
Then came a shot out of the blue night

[The Letter M]

My bro and I have this peeve where you expect a rhyme and it doesn't happen...

Something along the lines of

" You walked through the Door. Then you fell on the ground "





Ok it's not really a peeve it's just funny. I know that lyrics aren't *expected* to rhyme but....

Best example of that is in Finally Free.

No longer torn in two
He'd kill his brother if he only knew

Their love renewed
They'd rendezvous
In a pathway out of view
They thought no one knew
Then came a shot out of the blue night

Most infamous Rush example from "Rivendell" -
Sunlight dances through the leaves
Soft winds stir the sighing trees
Lying in the warm grass
Feel the sun upon your ass face

-Marc.

[wolfking]

Guitar solos under 2 minutes. 

[Kotowboy]

Woulda sounded funnier in an English accent.

Grarse / Arse

[Crow]

nobody noticed the >4 year bump? 
anyways:
LOW-MIXED BASS
screw right off, I want to hear what the bassist is doing, and if it's not something interesting, why not?
on that note having bass just double the guitar all the time
lazy and uninteresting

[Kotowboy]

Yeah not even Adam Clayton ONLY plays root notes.

I'd be so bored as a bass player only playing root 8th notes. Imagine being one of those guys and stuck in a 12 bar boogie band.

[Kwyjibo]

Singers that "won't sing the other guy's songs".   This is why I love Bruce Dickinson.  He sings Di'Anno, he sings his shit, he even sings the songs of the guy that replaced him.  Doesn't care.  Does what he has to do.  Cherone in Van Halen, same thing.  Brian Johnson (he's even said, he wants to sing MORE Bon stuff).  Joe Lynn Turner; that guy, in Rainbow, in any given setlist was singing his own stuff, Ian Gillan, Dave Coverdale, Ronnie Dio, and Graham Bonnet, and singing it like a CHAMP.  That's a pro move.   Sammy Hagar?  C'mon dude.  Sing the Dave stuff.  You know you can, so it's not that.    The only exception to this rule:  Ozzy, because he can't (plus I'd much rather hear the Ozzy stuff anyway).   

=  Repeat thing, but fades.  The fade in "Tonight" by Ozzy is a crime against humanity.  Randy is just kicking his outro solo into high gear, and pffft.  Fade.   Lame.   An early press sheet for the remaster and reissue of Diary had a "Tonight (Extended Version)" on there, and Bob Daisley has said he has a copy that isn't faded, but to date, it has not been released.  That is one of my musical holy grails.  That, and the alleged "Cinema" suite by the Rabin-era Yes.

I'm with you on these two.

But regarding Sammy, he at least sang a few of the DLR tunes, Dave on the other hand never touched a Sammy tune. Not sure if he could sing them if he tried but I'm sure his ego didn't even consider trying it.

I like it more if the song has a definite ending, if you play it live you can't just fade out. If there's nothing new and you repeat yourself at the end than a fade out is at least tolerable, but there are so many songs that fade out on amazing solos or jams and it's such a shame.
Toto's Only The Children and Rosanna are prime examples, Steve Lukather is on fire and the song just fades out 

[IDontNotDoThings]

It depends on how slow the fade-out is tbh. If a fade-out lasts a solid minute or so, I don't really care if it's on an amazing solo part (TTT, TDEN & TBOT are good examples if memory serves), but I can't stand fast fades out, even when it's just repeating the chorus. Candlelight Fantasia by Symphony X is a good example of this. Even though it's just more chorus, it's way too good of a chorus to just jump-fade like that. Maybe it's just because I'm used to longer fades, but I can't help but get really disappointed when a fast fade ends a song.

Edit: Actually CF's fadeout is around 35 seconds, but it certainly sounds like a fast-fade because it's a slower song. Point still stands.

[RoeDent]

Speaking of fast-fades, I need to point out Telegraph Road by Dire Straits. Yes, the solo is already nearly 5 minutes long as it is (and yes, it is one of the best solos out there), but the fade-out is still way too fast for it. It's like you're on this glorious high and then are just left hanging there when it ends all too quickly.

One of my pet peeves is overly-short albums. I know that this disregards many classic albums, but anything under 40 minutes shouldn't be called an album imo. I don't feel like I'm getting my money's worth, even if they're the best songs ever. An album like Close to the Edge (3 tracks, 37 minutes) is over before it's even begun. I know that vinyl had its limits, but Genesis managed to make several albums over 50 minutes in the same era, so it is possible to fill vinyl generously.

[Kotowboy]

On one hand - Insomniac by Green Day is like 30 mins or so but it came out the year after Dookie so that's ok.

But then Bryan Adams released a 35 or so minute album which was 6 years after his previous effort and then you feel kinda short changed.

I think that after an 8 year gap - Metallica's new one needed to be nice and long.