Pet Peeves

Madaraki

A River of Pure Piranha
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Simple enough. What are your top five pet peeves when it comes to music? What are five things that annoy you in general, no matter who the artist is?

Keep in mind when answering; I'd rather this not just turn into artist bashing. "Lady Gaga" is not an applicable answer. "Excessive use of auto-tune" is. Also, feel free to mention artists who happen to do that thing you don't like.

1: When the singer/artist announces him/herself by name and says they're singing. This just bugs me to no end. IMO; the song should speak for itself. The singer shouldn't have to come out and introduce themselves in the lyrics. Now this doesn't mean I hate stuff like Rick Astley saying "I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling, gotta make you understand" or the like. It's when you get Jason Derulo announcing his name at the start of his songs or Lady Gaga plugging "Gaga" into her lyrics.
Violators: Taio Cruz, Ludacris, Lady Gaga, Jason Derulo

2: Excessive Auto-tune. I can get sometimes altering voices for a specific effect, but if you have the talent to actually sing with your own voice; DO IT.
Violators: Nearly all modern pop.

3: Lack of real instruments. I'm old fashioned. I like hearing actual drums, guitars, keyboards, and the like. If they're electric or whatever, that's even fine too. I'll admit music that sounds like it was programmed can be catchy, but it just isn't the same. Get a real band, guys.
Violators: Again, nearly all modern pop.

4: "Edgy" lyrics. I swear to god if I hear one more song about how you've been "abandoned to tears after it was just all too much to take and you're dying inside to come back from the edge where you were so numb" I'm going to do something to you that'll make those lyrics sound f*****g happy.
Violators: Paramore, Evanescence, and other such bands.

5: bishie boy and bouncy girl. There are many images out there in the music world; be it the goth-lite image of Nightwish, comic book supervillain Lady Gaga, and industrial S&M critic-trolls Rammstein. The two that just bug the crap out of me however, are the bouncy happy party girl images in which the singer tries to come across as hugely exuberant and active and just ends up looking like they've huffed too much glue. To look at the hairier sex; the boy bands who come out looking and acting as though they're asking everyone "am I oozing sex yet? Am I inspiring awe with my half-stoned gaze?"
Violators - M: Muse, Coldplay, HIM
Violators - F: Ke$ha, Katy Perry
 
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It's when you get Jason Derulo announcing his name at the start of his songs or Lady Gaga plugging "Gaga" into her lyrics.

A lot of them do that.. Especially producers. RedOne, JR, etc etc. I think it's to advertise the creators of the song, especially if you hear it on the radio and it doesn't tell you who it was. Then again pretty much everyone knows who they are so whatev. xD

One of my pet peeves is West Coast accents coming out >.> i.e Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus, Boys Like Girls, emo bands, etc.

The biggest pet peeve of ALL, like another thread says, is that 90% of songs are all about TEH CHEATNZ, ZOMG I WUB U, TRU WUV, IM NUTHIN WITHOUT U, PARRTEH IM SO DRUNK, etc etc. It's not that I hate love songs, just that this shit is so unoriginal.
 
I think my pet peeves in music are fairly similar to previous pet peeves, but they are quite bothersome. First off, I really hate it when voice alteration is used as well, since it gives off the impression that the artist can't sing. It would be okay for part of a song, but not for the whole thing. The only user of this annoying technique that I can think of is Cher. Another thing I also don't like is lack of real instruments since that makes it harder and harder for musicians like me to make it anywhere considering that most popular music nowadays is all synth/fake. People who require this ability are most boy bands, rappers, and modern pop. The third pet peeve would have to be songs that do too much harmony in octaves (for those who don't know what that is, it's when a note sounds the exact same as another, but higher or lower from the original). I can't think of the groups that use this, but I know my ex loved those groups and I could never stand to listen to them for more than a few seconds. Fourth pet peeve is definitely songs with lyrics that talk about sex/foul language in a non-humorous manner. I can understand the artists feelings, but I don't need to hear about lollypops and under the sheets stuff. I also don't need to hear the lack of vocabulary that these artists use. Most rappers seem to follow this mantra (I have a whole other rant about rappers that I won't discuss here). The last, and possibly biggest pet peeve is when artists are not in tune with each other. I am very close to having perfect pitch and a slight off-ness of the singing, instrument, or even harmony will drive me nuts. Most artists from the 90's to present have this problem. Some from before that, but less so. I am still a fan of music, but some things I just can't stand by and let fly.
 
I don't need to hear about lollypops and under the sheets stuff.
I will say, I always liked what the Killers did with that in Mr. Brightside.

"Now they're going to bed
And my stomach is sick
And it's all in my head
But she's touching his-chest
Now, he takes off her dress
Now, let me go
"


Just, the sudden swing away from what you'd expect to hear given the rhyming in the first four lines XD
 
There are many, many, MANY things I hate in music. But I'll just list 5. Because I'm a good little boy. These are in no particular order.
MAINSTREAM: I hate it when artists sell out or make music entirely for money. There are other things in life besides money. And in artforms too, including fans, making things for people to enjoy, instead of mass-manufacturing money for entirely your own benefit. Mainstream music pretty much always leads to point two, something I hate most about industry:
INFLUENCE: I'm looking at people like Millionaires here. I'll use them as an example. The fact that they're 'SCENE' for one thing, the masses of people who listen to them will try and copy them and become identical to each other or whatever, pressured to fit into labels to fit into groups of people or whatever, people can't really be themselves. Their lyrics, I don't even need to say anything there. Just lyrics based entirely on sex, violence, drugs, all that crap, is something I hate. My generation is suffering because of people like them.
TALENTLESSNESS: This is obvious, but that's not all I mean. There's so many artists out there who suck like hell, yet are infinitely popular. For reasons like being good-looking, for example. These people are another one of the things that are causing music to stop being art, they're just making mountains of money because they were born with a pretty face, while genuinely great artists out there who aren't really good-looking are stuck in unknownness. >.<
ATTENTION ON THE SINGER: I'm looking at every single mainstream pop or rap or whatever band out there. The people who play the instruments (who are often more talented than the singer) get NO attention at all. Everyones' eyes are on the singer, people are drooling or screaming their name or whatever, while everyone else is just stood at the back in the shadows on the stage where no-one can see them. I'm going into excessive detail so I'll keep the next one short D:
ENDLESS LOVE/CHEATING SONGS: These are ALL YOU EVER HEAR ANYMORE @_@ "III LOOOVE YOOOUUU" and "I SAW WHAT YOU DID WITH THAT OTHER WOMAAN". We get it. You love them. You don't need to write fifty thousand songs about them. They're rarely all even about the same person, so how much do they really love them? And the other. We get it. They cheated. They know they cheated. We and they know you don't like it. You don't need to write another eighty thousand songs about it when you just wrote ten thousand about how much you love them. Seriously. Originality is nice.
That wasn't short, was it? o.o

I know, that was really long. I have a lot of free time to kill. :mrgreen:
And kind of moanish. THOOORRYYY. :tighthug:
 
Excessive Repetitiveness: You know, like Techno? I don't dislike electronic music in general, I could do the occasional dance/trance song here and there. But my god, what is up with this techno? I understand how you'd want to rave for 7 straight hours, personally I don't know how you do it and why you'd do it (besides the point). There really isn't a reason for you to listen to it in the car. It sounds EXACTLY the same with each passing moment. I understand it has its art and progression but I like musical notes too much to listen to more than 2 minutes of it. And another thing I find obnoxious is repeating the chorus over and over and over and over. You really don't need to repeat the chorus over three times. Think of something creative to finish your damn song instead of playing the chorus a half step higher and fade it out. Also, repeating the same goddamn riff more than twice, I don't care if it's the intro get to the rest of the song already. This is what Symphony X does right, if you listen to any of their songs, they'd play their "main riff" only twice no matter how good it is. They don't feel compelled to shove it down your throat (you know, in case you forget what it sounded like already).

Whiny Screamy Vocals:
This one is pretty self explanatory. It's a common pet peeve among many listeners. I grew up listening to extreme metal bands, and I've heard all their growls, screeches, screams, pig squeals, you name it. I can still tolerate it but I do think it's absolute rubbish now that I'm older (and discovered what singing actually is) but for the life of me I can't keep an ear open for more than mere seconds when someone plays a my Chemical Romance or any modern punk/screamo song. I don't even know what so say against it, I just don't like it. I find it abominable.

Shit Simple Chord Progression Rhythms:
Simplicity is awesome at times, only when you're creative. A good number of mainstream rock bands have this retarded power chord rhythms that make you want to fish out your prostate with a coat hanger. If you listen to Puddle of Mudd's "She Fucking Hates Me" You'd know what I'm talking about. A recent example of this is the fictional band 'The Sex Bomb-ohmbs' (or whatever) in Scott Pilgrim vs The World. I guess that's what they were going for, but man. What the hell?

Shocker:
Bands like Cradle of Filth, Marylin Manson, Dimmu Burgir, Deicide, Venom and whatever bands of douche-fits that are all about their 'shock value'. Their music is utter garbage and their lyrical content is useless. You can have "shock value" and be creative. Judas Priest is a good example, as well as Black Sabbath. You see, they let their music define their style, not their style that defines their music.

Mixing it with Classical music is kewl:
Call me a purist, but I can't stand mainstream artists blending classical work of old with their laughable compositions. I especially detest it in hip hop and Rap. "Artists" like Black Violin absolutely kill it for me. When it comes to neo classical bands, I'm alright with them so long as their playing their own composed "neo classical" music. The only band I've heard that integrated classical music well with their own is, yet again, Symphony X. They play a proper build up in the right key to a "borrowed" piece by a classical or baroque composer and it doesn't feel out of place or unwelcome. And they play it so well. Too well sometimes.
 
99% of modern rock singers and their determination to moan their way through all their songs Robert Smith style rather than singing. I'm talking about bands like Muse and The Killers here in case anyone was wondering.
 
I used to be in choir in high school and despite it being many years ago, I still use that as a marker. I pay closer attention to the singer and the lyrics then I do the music that is until the music interferes with the vocals. So, here goes.

the biggest one is diction - lack of it is bothersome in the best conditions and in the worst (and the whole band has to be incompetent as well), I won't even listen to them. Unless the lyrics are written that way, if the word is "going" then sing goinG not goin, or goi, if the word is "you" your singing not chewing food so stop "CHEW" - ing, and others - it's "first" not "firth", it's "beat" not "bead" or "Be" unless it comes before a word that starts with a "T" then you actually do drop the "T" at the end of the first word and pick it up with the "T" on the second like "thought to" would be sung or pronounced (diction class in collage) "though to". Other then that and similar combinations with endings and beginnings with same letter, don't drop the endings. Another along the same line is when they swallow half the word entirely, not just the last letter.

Also, for the love of our sanity, if you can't carry a tune in a bucket tied around your neck get a day job.:oy: The actor Anthony Michael Hall some years ago fancied himself a singer and his "band" were legends in their own minds. (I don't know if they were actual musicians or just his buddies that got together. If it was actual musicians I don't know what the HELL happened.) They were so bad that, well, I've never heard something so bad. Talk about carrying a tune in a bucket, he couldn't even get the tune IN the bucket, let alone carry it and the band sounded like they hadn't laid eyes on an instrument in their lives until the first day in the studio plus it was each man for himself with lead and back up singing, instruments too. I can usually sit through 1 song of a really terrible band but I lasted maybe 1/3 of 1 song, thought it might have been a fluke but no every song was like that. >_<

My last really big pet peeve is when the music is too far forward and the singing is too much in the background so it's hard to hear the singing. Most times it'll take just a little adjustment to put the vocals a little bit more forward but they don't do it. Why have lyrics if you're just going to hide them in the background (unless you're trying to cover up the fact that the singer can't sing).:hmm:

I've got others but these are the major ones. The mangled words don't necessarily stop me from listening to most songs or bands it just irritates the hell out of me.
 
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