your LEAST favourite sound in music

...like, is the *personality* of the named hated singer what is hated (as well as? or because of...) the singing quality.

Because I'd think that certain singing qualities would have more of an effect. But it's being expressed in terms of the person doing the singing. Why?

(Thinking about people named like Bjork, Axl Rose, Ke$ha)

fucking crying baby sample noises

OTM those goddamn baby samples in Are You That Somebody are so grating.

Sometimes fine but sometimes my least favorite instruments: vibes, xylophone, marimba.

the baby sounds in Are You That Somebody don't really bother me so much.

The Most Unwanted Song sounds like a long lost Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson joint.

gun sample in chorus of 'paper planes' is up there for me

I actually don't think I have a 'least favourite sound in music'. 'Music', I guess, has this ability to render normatively unpleasant timbres in novel and striking ways. Like I fucking hate bagpipes, say, but my don't they sound so fucking TRIUMPHANT on second-to-last song on In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.

In the case of Axl Rose, he sounds like a balloon slowly being deflated while a demented cat is let loose on a chalkboard.

Nonono the guns and cash register on Paper Planes is like popmusiqueconcrete for me.

proper popmusiqueconcrete doesn't take the most boringly unoriginal samples it can possibly think of

you're right that the untitled track of ITAOTS is awesome though - much better than the indie wibbling on the rest of the album (except Ghost)

wtf louis, the guns'cash samples are what MAKE that track!

as mentioned upthread, poor synth approximations of natural instruments, especially the synth 'horns' used in reggae, especially live.

the growl of sub-standard blues singers trying to sound bluesy

the humming sound of fingers moving thickly over acoustic guitar strings

The 'nu-metal' guitar sound.

I like most of these (especially bemused at hating on the guiro! And vibes! These things are awesome).

Would have to go for SMOOTH '80s SAX. Any other type of sax is fine, but bad soul sax is horrendous.

pretty much all sax sounds like honking goose to me.

There's a time and a place for honking goose in music.

e.g. John Martyn's 'Small Hours'

that point in Broadway singing when the sprechgesang starts to turn into heavy vibrato belting.

I'd throw votes behind R&B ballad chimes and forced blues rock growls too.

i like most of these sounds

That clean John Popper harmonica sound.

Completely losing it over the combination of sounds in "Most Unwanted Song" here!

I'd have to vote for the trifecta of cookie-monster vocal, blastbeat drumming and 1000 MPH shredding of any post-80s extreme/death/Cannibal Corpse-style metal. Virtually anything else listed upthread I can hang with for a song or two.

Is that "woo! yeah" one of the little vocal tics left on the "Think" break, i.e. sampled from Lyn Collins' "Think (About It)"? Cz those are both irritating and sublime, in a way, to me. Sorry, at work, can't see the youtubes.

I can't stand autotune but I guess that is a total "have other ideas please" answer, so I vote for the post-emo male vocal style that has cursed British indie for the past 6 or 7 years

hey, I grew up in the 90s with vocalists who couldn't hold a damn note talk-singing, wd take that over all these singers who can hit 3 notes and do so over and over while enunciating like you are in a public school production of a musical

on the other hand, a thing that was worse in the 90s: at least people have now realised that women faking orgasms over the breakdown does not make a track sexxxy, just embarrassing (can just about give Moroder+Summer a pass here but people should really have been bored of it by 1990 at the latest)

all objections to the 'Think' sample are surely based almost entirely on it's over-use/repetition at one time rather than anything inherent about that sample of fabulous music itself.

I really hate sappy, maudlin "irish"-style pennywhistle melodies, usually played on a MIDI-driven synth preset through tons of reverb.

for example, the theme to the "Battlestar Galactica" remake, or the luv theme to "Titanic". That Riverdance-wannabe-tearjerk thing. Gross!

and lately, I'm really, really, really sick of new bands doing pseudo Animal Collective style vocals- it's painful to hear people try to imitate somebody else's imitation of Brian Wilson with added "child-like innocence" and "whimsy" sprayed on. Hearing people who probably do have a voice of their own trying to squeeze into this deeply artificial posture makes me feel embarrassed for them. I mean, I don't have a problem with people who can pull off a weird, mannered voice (Blossom Dearie! Tiny Tim! David Tibet!) but sometimes I wish that the guy from Slovenly or Chet Baker could be the default source of indie dude vocal mannerism ripoff for a while. Leave poor crazy old Brian Wilson alone dammit.

that kind of over-the-top mall-punk style of singing that was popularised by bands like Blink182 but people still emulate today, where "myself" become "moy-saalf".

was coming here to post exactly this but I'll just say 'thirded' and also elect slap bass and Kimya Dawson

Drake auto-tune singing

and lately, I'm really, really, really sick of new bands doing pseudo Animal Collective style vocals- it's painful to hear people try to imitate somebody else's imitation of Brian Wilson with added "child-like innocence" and "whimsy" sprayed on. Hearing people who probably do have a voice of their own trying to squeeze into this deeply artificial posture makes me feel embarrassed for them.

I agree with this, but it's not the SOUND that I dislike (got mad love for AnCo), it's the lack of variation and imagination. That's a whole other thing.

I really hate sappy, maudlin "irish"-style pennywhistle melodies, usually played on a MIDI-driven synth preset through tons of reverb.

It's probably been mentioned already here, but that singing-through-a-shit-eating-grin style of vocalising originated (possibly) by Marti Pellow and subsequently copied by every fucking boy band makes me want to kill.

overprocessed harmonies. cheapen the impact of them and ruin the aesthetic beauty of them if you double them too many times. give me Beach Boys esque harmonies anyday.

that kind of over-the-top mall-punk style of singing that was popularised by bands like Blink182 but people still emulate today, where "myself" become "moy-saalf".

was coming here to post exactly this but I'll just say 'thirded'

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Thursday, September 2, 2010

Also just all out whining by mall-punk targeted emo bands. Its like an overwrought progression from what is said above.

Any harmonica not in an old acoustic blues recording or played by little stevie wonder.

1/2 points if its a folky thing or the Harmonicats

oh my god that Tiesto is horrific

can't stand hearing mouth/throat noises when someone is singing a capella. like when the microphone is close and i can hear wetness. reminds me of phlegm. which, sadly, is why i can't listen to bobby bland sing. also really can't stand when people whisper in my ear for this reason. but that's just me. (so siked to hear sinead's 2nd album when it came out and really liked it a lot until she does that long solo vocal thing and i feel like i'm sitting in her mouth when i listen to it which is why i can never listen to it. aaaaaahhhhhh! wanna jump off a bridge. still love her though.)

Might be misremembering, but isn't there a Slint song that is basically the sound of someone sipping and swallowing a drink, and it feels like you're sitting inside the actual drinks can and it's just ...icky?

All-white choirs on soul records. I mean, I love all of Ray Charles’ “Modern Sounds in County ...” stuff, but I still cringe when I hear those backing vocals on “I Can’t Stop Loving You” or “Hang Your Head in Shame.” Compare that to the all-black singers on “You Are My Sunshine.”
SNL did a skit once when they had an all-white group perform a Ray Charles cover. Only they sang it as, “What Did I Say.”

80's drums sound, especialy the overblown snare-horrible.

― nakamura, Thursday, September 2, 2010 9:29 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

^^^ this

^^^ especially when it's on the 2nd and 4th beat: bomp BISH! bomp BISH! bomp BISH! bomp BISH!

sb; both of you

80's snare sound, especially when coupled with 80's over-processed "Tom Scholz Rockman"-sounding guitar. Tim by the Replacements (for instance) ruined by these production techniques...

xp especially when repeated throughout the song: "woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!, woo! yeah!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgpDN-bARwc

are you kidding? this is the shit

When I first think of the overblown 80's snare I think of 'In the Air Tonight'. The snare is essential to that song

okay maybe that isn't snare drum. i'm no pro

I Think of 'Born In The USA.' Hate the snare on that.

you must embrace the fucking massive snare.

80s gated snare is the best

i used to dislike high pitched whiny moog leads but i've cooled out on that now

Awww I like the clarinet

sarahell posts itt bring the lols

it's really the 'whimsy' trope.

future is fucking garbage

shirley manson is fucking future