Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Song That Needs To Go Away

Originally Posted on January 26, 2008

How many of think that Gwen Stefani’s “Sweet Escape” is the most annoying song ever?  At least I think so.

Here’s why: Every Sunday, I listen to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio National program “Street Stories” via podcast. There was one episode that I have on a CD about the breakdown of the Gordon Estate in Dubbo, New South Wales. This was mainly a crime-ridden state housing project that was mainly populated with Aboriginal people. A wave of violence on the Estate prompted the state government to forcibly move families residing on the estate into other neighborhoods throughout Dubbo.


What does this have to do with Anaheim’s most famous pop star and her annoying song? During the podcast, the producer was at the home of a man living on the estate and that song came through on the recording! A few bars of the annoying part, the ooh-wheee-ooh part, and someone told then to turn it down. Well, why couldn’t they turn it off?

In the interview, this man stated how much he loved being Aboriginal. No offense, mate, but if you love being Aboriginal then why in the bloody hell are you listening to that song?

If this song is popular among the Aboriginal population of Western New South Wales, then can someone care to explain its popularity in The Cities? There’s a co-worker who sits very close to me who has his clock radio on KS95 all the time. What song does this station play in heavy rotation? Ooh-wheee-ooh! Ooh-wheee-ooh! This has been going on for months!

Today, I was in downtown Robbinsdale doing errands. In a span of an hour, in three different establishments…on three different radio stations…it came on! Ooh-wheee-ooh! Ooh-wheee-ooh!

**Insert primal scream here**

I try hard not to be judgmental about people’s taste in anything at my advancing age. I also try to keep my own prejudices about people’s character to null. Yet, I do have some tolerances about certain things that sometimes need to be discussed. This is a free country and everyone has the right to listen to whatever they like. We also have the right to not listen to anything that pushes our boundaries of tolerance.

Perhaps it is a supposed Gwen Stefani fan that sent an errant text on my phone this evening. Sally from Gymnastics, I’m not certain if you’re a Gwen Stefani fan or not, but I’m sure that your friend on the University of Minnesota Swimming team would appreciate you resending the text I just deleted from my phone. Thank you. Your BFF, Randy. 

Annoyances. As free as our country supposedly is, we exercise our right to close our minds to annoyances as much as others have the right to be annoying. The music industry, errant text messages, the loudmouthed tards on the bus, men who are not in your realm of attraction hounding you for sex…annoyances all! How does one navigate in a world full of annoyances?

Well…you can tune them out. The most iron clad of human beings are good at doing that. Some need some assistance. Headphones work wonders! Noise-canceling ones are simply overkill, but your iPod is indeed your friend. Those ear buds are the difference between your Gwen Stefani and some loudmouthed wannabe diva yelling at her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend on her Nextel phone.

As a matter of fact, I just got an iPod! The new teal-colored Shuffle is currently connected to my Sennheiser headphones. And, no, that insipid “Sweet Escape” song is not be my playlist!

In the meantime, I live with the annoyances in my life. I have no choice, really. Yet, my supposed iron clad tolerance is only paper-thin. Until I put on my iPod and that Gwen Stefani song simply goes away from local radio programming, that is.

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