Am I the only one that switches ABBA off?

Not only do I switch off ABBA, I also switch off A Flock of Seagulls or anything else that resembles that genre. Rock and blues only :cool:
 
I just tend to tend to agree with Tom Lehrer's description - "Rock & Roll and other children's music".
 
I used Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" as the "warm-up" music for my chemistry dissertation seminar. All doctoral candidates were required to give two seminars to the department. One was a "literature research" seminar, the other one (with theme music) was to present our findings to the group of our peers, which in my case was about 25 grad students and maybe a dozen faculty.
 
Cotswold said:
Whist I was driving back from a walk on the hill, ABBA came on the car radio.

I got to thinking if I was the only one who was sick and tired of hearing their near identical 50 year old tedium.
Hardly a day goes by without what has become ABBA's repetitious banality from the DJs and track selectors.

To ABBA, I would also add other switch-off-now moribund musicians whose music hasn't improved over time :
Sting, Rod Stewart, The Bee Gees, Robbie Williams, Take That, Cliff Richard, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Cher and Michael Bublé
(Phil Collins should be on the list but life dealt him such a lousy final hand. So I've left him off)

On the subject of singers. Probably the one with the most unfortunate name must have been Lou Rawls.
In Britain that translates from the phonetic to Toilet Paper.
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WOH, who woh.... Slow your roll ship mate. There is NOTHING wrong with the The Bee Gees. Robbie Williams, Take That, Cliff Richard, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Cher and Michael Bublé
Phil Collins. ya they can go. Especillay Madonna and Cher. But my dude DISCO.
 
I think it is virtually impossible to say this genre of music is better than that genre. Everyone has a preference to a particular style, be it country, rock, heavy metal or classical etc etc. Each genre has its merits.
Wouldn't it be a sad place if we all liked the same.
Col
 
Cotswold said:
In the final analysis, rock & blues is the only music there is. Everything else is just noise.
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That can only be a personal and very individual opinion. Music has existed for a very long time in human history, the directions you mentioned are just a few short-term snapshots.
Wait and see whether people will still talk about rock & blues in 300 years in the same way as they do today about Johann Sebastian Bach or Ludwig van Beethoven or many others. In other regions of the world with other media things will look different again.
The eagle has a greater overview than an ant.
 
I have to thank / congratulate Cotswold for starting this thread - most fun on this site for ages. Roll on more dogmatic statements with no basis in provable facts.

I think my prejudices are better than yours!
 
ebs17 said:
Wait and see whether people will still talk about rock & blues in 300 years in the same way as they do today about Johann Sebastian Bach or Ludwig van Beethoven
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In the Star Trek "Kelvin Timeline" reboot, in the movie Star Trek: Beyond near the end, the Enterprise crew broadcasts late-20th century music with high power at a specific frequency in order to jam digital communications of their enemy. It of course just BLARES out of the speakers with lots of over-amplified guitars and a lot of serious guitar picking as a (fairly impressive) solo that goes on for a while. As it happens, McCoy and Spock are where they can hear this incredible racket. McCoy asks, "Is that classical music?" to which Spock, deadpan as ever, replies, "I believe it is, doctor."

Right in line with @ebs17 comments, I think!
 
DickyP said:
I think my prejudices are better than yours!
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You are clearly very prejudiced.:)

@ebs17 : I would guess people will find R&R acceptable in 300 years. Quite a lot of the Beatles songs have travelled well.
When I think back to the stuff on the radio in the 1950s...ugh. Billy Cotton, Teddy Johnson & Pearl Carr, Eddie Calvert etc. Just unbelievable rubbish. Not forgetting the Black & White Minstrels! Some swing stuff was OK but that had fallen out of favour. And Jazz always seemed like a pointless jam session.
They thought a pop song back then was "I Love to go a Wandering" After that lot who wouldn't like R&R? It was like a breath of fresh air.
Unfortunately, from the late 1980s onwards the decline started and we are pretty much back to Teddy & Pearl again from what I hear.
 
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A fairly new phenomenon in my area is the use of classical music to annoy panhandlers and the mentally ill, apparently it works.
 
AccessBlaster said:
A fairly new phenomenon in my area is the use of classical music to annoy panhandlers and the mentally ill, apparently it works.
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Well you force me to retaliate with this. In the comedic movie "1,2,3" a loyal Communist is forced to admit to being a US spy after being tortured, over and over, by the song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini". (The clip below does not show some of the preceding "torture".)
 
Steve R. said:
Well you force me to retaliate with this. In the comedic movie "1,2,3" a loyal Communist is forced to admit to being a US spy after being tortured, over and over, by the song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini". (The clip below does not show some of the preceding "torture".)
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In one Woody Allen movie, Bananas, the unbearable torture was to be forced to watch reruns of Howard Cosell interviews.
 
Uncle Gizmo said:
I don't mind ABBA, I cannot stand the Bee Gees :(
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For a while, I viewed the Bee Gees as a tired disco group. Then I saw a documentary on their history and I became very impressed. The ability to see all their work compiled into one presentation really added depth to their musicology.
variety.com

‘The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart’ Review: The Enthralling Documentary They Deserve

The Bee Gees occupy a singular niche in pop history. Frank Marshall's moving documentary asks: How deep was their greatness?
variety.com variety.com
 
Cotswold said:
Totally agree AB. In the final analysis, rock & blues is the only music there is. Everything else is just noise.
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As long as you can agree what R&R and Blues are of course!
 
DickyP said:
As long as you can agree what R&R and Blues are of course!
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I'll only listen to the R&R & Blues that I agree I like.

A bit like ColinEssex & ebs17 mentioned, some are better than others but which are they?
It just depends on who is listening and what the tune/melody is. Probably the first five seconds are enough to decide.
"They" do say that the music you first liked remains and everything that follows becomes rubbish. Maybe that is right
to some extent. Although, work by Queen harked back in time and I found most of their work OK and it has aged well.
(they've just sold their catalogue for over £1 billion, amazing really. I just don't see that value in it at all.)
 
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