Bee Gees music is the worst because it repeats itself endlessly. Just try to get, "Ah ah ah ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive..." out of your head.
It doesn't matter if you know all the words. I can tap my foot to "Night Fever" all afternoon and I don't know a single lyric.
Some tunes are better than others. I was in a restaurant men's room the other day when a song I hadn't heard in years came over the sound system: We've Only Just Begun, by the Carpenters, a sweet, melodic pop tune about young love from the early 1970s. I remember learning to play it on the piano when I was a kid. Now I lingered over drying my wrinkly old hands, humming along until it was over, the nostalgia of an aging boomer. Fortunately, no one else came in. The song stayed with me for hours.
It's not always music from the 70s, though when you're my age, chances are pretty good that it is.
Sometimes it's a commercial. I like the song, Home, by Phillip Phillips. "Just know you're not alone, cause I'm gonna make this place your home ... " But now American Family Insurance has tacked their jingle onto the refrain. Every time I hear the song, I also hear the jingle, even if it's only in my mind. Of course that's the advertiser's evil plan - making it stay with you longer.
Then there's the stuff that barely counts as music. One week, I couldn't escape the 10 second theme from local television's 9NEWS, over and over and over until I thought I'd lose my mind.
Clearly it isn't always something I like.
Here's a rundown of my recent inner playlist. Try to guess which ones I enjoy and which ones make me insane:
- The Downton Abbey opening (complete with closeup of dog's butt - visuals can be part of it too)
- The theme to NPR's All Things Considered
- You're Lookin' at Country by Loretta Lynn
- The telephone ring tone of a coworker several cubicles away
- Those few measures of Gershwin repeatedly - I mean repeatedly - used by United Airlines
- The little dittys that play when the doors open or close on the subway at Denver International Airport
- The notes played by Windows when I boot up my laptop (Mac people, I don't want to hear it)
- The theme from Star Trek Voyager
- Whatever was the last thing I heard
What I want to know is how to get from We've Only Just Begun to How Do You Make it Stop?
