The definitive Retail Hell playlist.
I like eight of those songs, though none of them I’d want to hear 20 times a day while working retail.
Music
19/380
I lost count somewhere along the way, but I listened to all or part of 380+ new (to me) songs this morning.
Of those, there were 19 I liked.
Pyroscaphe
Only got through 109 songs tonight. My steamer just stopped steaming; it was a long day.
Noise
I listened to all or part of 376 new (to me) songs tonight/this morning.
Acoust
I listened to part or all of 315 new (to me) songs tonight/this morning.
About average for a day I guess.
Tater Tottage
I am glad that despite my “demographic issues” I listen to more new songs in a week than 99%+ of people listen to in a lifetime after they hit 25.
In the average week, I listen to part or all of more than 3,000 new (to me) songs. And that’s a fuckin’ lot.
Songquest
I listened to all or part of 227 different songs tonight/this morning. But now I am tired. Time to zonk.
Days
Green Day’s SoFi Stadium show proves it’s officially a classic rock band now.
I never really cared for Green Day. I bought their second album, Kerplunk, sometime in 19921 and only listened to it once or twice. I believe I gave it to a friend a few weeks later. But the band has certainly stuck around, which befits our era of constantly-recycled and remixed nostalgia combined with culture becoming static.
It’s funny that Green Day’s first really popular song was about being bored, which is such a 1990s thing to do a song about. That’s what I mean exactly when I say that even the 1990s “pessimistic” songs seem optimistic in hindsight. “Oh, you’re so bored, all you can do is masturbate and lounge around all day, boohoo, so very sad.”
Seems like comedy now in retrospect.
Smash Out
I love music so much. It’s accurate to say that music saved my life in North Florida when I was a beaten-on reject misfit. I’ll forever be grateful to Tori, to Hope, to the Smashing Pumpkins, to Tanya and all the other artists who put part of themselves out into the world to let me know there was something better out there waiting for me.
And there was. I am living it. Not sure I would’ve made it without their signs and omens. In fact, I’m quite certain I wouldn’t have.
Music
I don’t even remember where I saw it anymore. I think somewhere on one of those balky fediverse sites that I’ve been mostly avoiding, but someone referenced me and this blog, asserting that I didn’t listen to indie rap for “demographic reasons.”
LOL.
Not only do I listen to indie rap, I listen to obscure Chilean and Argentinian indie rap that I’m certain they’ve not heard of in their lives. If you’re gonna step to me with that kinda shit, you gotta try harder. I listen to a broader range of music than anyone I’ve ever fucking met, except maybe this one DJ in Seattle who listened to, like, Norwegian hunting chants mixed with whale song sold on cassettes you could only buy in some pop-up stall in Oslo one day a week in mid-winter.
Come on, people. Your limitations are not my limitations.
Thrill Trill
The short answer is MTV and emerging from a terrible recession.
The “Thriller” video came out in December of 1983. Michael Jackson, of course, was already extremely famous and had been since the late 1960s. He’d also had a string of hits before the video for “Thriller” was released.
At the time, it was the most money ever spent on a music video and it was much higher quality than any made prior. Off the back of a really punishing US recession, “Thriller” was something engaging, dumb and really fun put out by the most popular singer in the developed world.
For context, MTV played the “Thriller” vid about 30 times a day back then. It was not the first music video to have something of a plot, but it was the first to have a story that was engaging, made some sort of sense, and was also funny while being a bit scary at the same time. In other words, it hit a lot of notes other music vids did not. Hence, its staying power and why people still watch it today. And that it was a loving homage to horror certainly did not hurt.
To return to the recession and recovery theme, people needed something that was pure fun. Back in those days, we were allowed such things more so than now, where all must have a political dimension. “Thriller” was a distraction everyone could just enjoy without thinking about it too much.
It was a very different time and Taylor Swift, as famous as she is, is only a small fraction as well-known and worshipped as Michael Jackson was back then; the world is wider now and there are many more niches.
Call the Pullice
I was watching this video (pretty good song) where they are shooting .22s. What the FUCK IS THIS?
I don’t think I’ve ever in my life seen anyone pulling a trigger on any weapon with their middle finger. Who does that and why? Who taught him to shoot? Why, god, why? Accuracy would be crap, can’t hold the rifle correctly and it’s just all kinds of wrong.
Cal
None of those. It’s definitely Lisa Mitchell’s “California1.”
Sloppy Firsts
Tons of AI slop music is making it onto YouTube now. It’s distinguishable by featureless repetition of musical lines and tired lyrical clichés. That song actually starts off fine but deteriorates badly after 30 seconds or so.
There are a few AI songs I have liked, though, to be fair.
Armor Lauren
I think Lauren should wear the pauldrons, spaulders, and maille collar with every outfit and at all times, personally. Maybe add some matching greaves.
This is peak woman’s fashion, my friends. All women should wear this for that matter.
There’s not a close, steady shot of her standing with her arms down, but it looks even better like that. So do watch the entire video here to see some shots of her standing up with the armor on.