Scientists attempt to create the most annoying song ever; they fail.

[Regulus Tera]

Link (http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/04/a-scientific-at.html):

MP3: A Scientific Attempt To Create Most Annoying Song Ever
By Eliot Van Buskirk April 18, 2008

An online poll conducted in the '90s set Vitaly Komar, Alex Melamid and David Soldier on a quest to create the most annoying song ever. After gathering data about people's least favorite music and lyrical subjects, they did the unthinkable: they combined them into a single monstrosity, specifically engineered to sound unpleasant to the maximum percentage of listeners. The song is not new, but it recently resurfaced on Dial "M" for Musicology.


Amazingly, this "most unwanted music" contains little dissonance -- that would have been too easy. For the most part, they seem to have tried to assemble these elements in a listenable way.

Komar & Melamid and David Soldier's list of undesirable elements included holiday music, bagpipes, pipe organ, a children's chorus and the concept of children in general (really?), Wal-Mart, cowboys, political jingoism, George Stephanopoulos, Coca Cola, bossanova synths, banjo ferocity, harp glissandos, oompah-ing tubas and much, much more. It's actually a fascinating listen, worthwhile for the opera rapping alone. (We didn't think that was possible either.)

I wanted to share this with everybody because it simply sounds marvelous. It's a bit long (twenty minutes), but its mesmerising qualities are something to be praised. I guess this speaks a lot about people liking songs on the basis of their origin.

[Frostatine]

It gives me a headache, and fills me with a sense of wrongness. I really can't elaborate any further, it just hurts me.

[Grand Master Kickface]

I'm nine minutes into it so far. It has an absolutely sick genius to it.

"YOM KIPPUR! YOM KIPPUR! DO ALL YOUR SHOPPING, AT WAL-MART!"

[TDK]

Opera rapping?!

...Damn you, now I have to LISTEN to it.

[Toastburner B]

The opera-rap part was hilarious.

And I honestly don't know why, but "HEY EVERYONE! IT'S LABOR DAY!" almost killed me.

The only truly unlistenable parts where the instrumental parts where, despite what the article says, weren't put together to be listenable at all.

[The Argent Lord]

I want to put this on my sister's iPod disguised as one of her favorite songs.

[Regulus Tera]

Opera rapping?!

...Damn you, now I have to LISTEN to it.

You haven't watched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, have you?

And I honestly don't know why, but "HEY EVERYONE! IT'S LABOR DAY!" almost killed me.

Do all your shopping... AT WALMART!

[Meister]

I'm not prepared to call this a success because it has some original, interesting and downright enjoyable parts. Apparently the same scientists have used the data to make a song everyone should love; I would very much like to know if it's bland and forgettable.

Additionally I'm not entirely sure how much of a part the lyrics should play in such an endeavour. You can make people hate anything that way. I could sing a praise upon the joys of scat sex with eight-year-olds to the tune of Yellow Submarine and I guarantee 95% of the internet would be ready to crucify me on the spot (remaining 5%: actual pedophile scat lovers, somethingawful, krylo), but that wouldn't make the song itself annoying.

Or any more annoying. Yellow Submarine may be a badly chosen example here, actually.

[Fifthfiend]

They already have a most annoying song ever, it's called nine out of every ten songs Mindless Self-Indulgence has ever made.

[Magus]

This song just proves that you can't purposely try and be annoying or you'll just be humorous. You can't have a woman high-pitch opera-rap about cowboys and then have kids sing, "Ramadan! Ramadan! Lots of praying and no birthdays! Do all your shopping AT WAL-MART!!!" and expect it to be annoying.

[Meister]

There's a hardware store chain over here that has an unbelievably aggravating commercial campaign running currently, with employees singing the store's praises to the tune of We Will Rock You. Said praises are lyrically questionable, the singing is off-key and anyway that's no way to treat a perfectly good song. Point being, I now will not shop there again ever and have started to reflexively move towards the off button whenever I hear the familiar drumbeats (that came in handy the other day when a classic rock retrospective was on and they played the actual We Will Rock You), so while these guys here are on to something with the WalMart/commercial deal, they essentially got out-scienced by a fucking hardware store.

[Lost in Time]

The last two minutes of the song just reminds me of something the Beatles could have done. Pretty sweet song.

[Kerensky287]

I think that a lot of the reasons why this song is so awesome is because it takes things that few people like and mixes them. As in, two wrongs don't make a right, but if you mix the wrongs then it's a pretty cool novelty. Like, opera rap about cowboys and kittens? That just makes people want to listen.

A lot of people will check out things that are well-known to be horrible just to see how bad they are. Superman 64, for example.

Another example I know of is the McDonalds Giygas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P_BvrtuxAI) that has shown up in the Yootoobz thread. It sounds pretty bad, but it's worth it just because of the weirdness.

EDIT: A quick google search turned up the most wanted song (http://www.ubu.com/sound/komar.html), and indeed it contains most of the aspects of music that I hate the most.

[Mondt]

EDIT: A quick google search turned up the most wanted song (http://www.ubu.com/sound/komar.html), and indeed it contains most of the aspects of music that I hate the most.About 1:10... Rickroll. Listen to the drums. XD

[Regulus Tera]

EDIT: A quick google search turned up the most wanted song (http://www.ubu.com/sound/komar.html), and indeed it contains most of the aspects of music that I hate the most.


I didn't really hate that song, but I must say it's boring. It's just way too bland and similar to everything else ever.

The guitar riff and the synthesisers did seem out of place though.

Another example I know of is the McDonalds Giygas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P_BvrtuxAI) that has shown up in the Yootoobz thread. It sounds pretty bad, but it's worth it just because of the weirdness.


You had to revive it hadn't you?! :(

[Meister]

Well, the "Notes by the composer" section is interesting because it says only 500 people took the original survey, with no notes on whether they were a representative sample of the population or random visitors. The implication is that it's the latter because there are a whole lot of assumptions involved in creating the final statistics on what percentage of the population would like or dislike either song. Are we sure these are scientists?

[Archibald]

See, the problem with this song (what makes it not aweful) is that there is no makarena in the background.

[Lucas...!]

This song gave me such a headache, but it was awesome xD
A makerena in the background would have killed me, that or one of those saw fish instruments. You know, with the jagged fish shaped wooden things, and the stick that rubs across it? Oh God. Spare us from that evil.
It's a Calypso Birthday Party.

[Zilla]

Of course they failed, the most annoying song has already been created as a bonus song for Guitar Hero II (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1VIpxCL4Lc)

I mean...

A whistle solo?

[Lord of Joshelplex]

I actually only managed to get up tp the opera rap before I had to stop. Its actually really angered me.