your LEAST favourite sound in music

mumbly shuffly can't-be-arsed american indie

With the caveat that there are good examples of all of these:

Flutes
Fretless bass
Steel drums
Operatic singing

Fretless bass. Blueergh!

Sub-bass below 50hz is the shit.

Cello. "Strings" are fine but cello should never appear in a pop context.

yep, fretless bass, saxophone, and add rollicking honky-tonk-style piano.

"Good" singing except in opera, R&B and 80s-era hard rock

The processed, squealing guitar effect used by the likes of Viv Campbell and Zakk Wylde on late 80s, mid 90s "metal" records. One of the most un-metal sounds by supposedly "metal" guitarists.

best pop cello intro EVER.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo0LMNSKrt4

melisma

Is this a cello? Because if it is, I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree that it has no place in rock/pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KntdgqByqYM

I'm gonna submit autotuned/vocodered melisma as my least fave.

Cello. "Strings" are fine but cello should never appear in a pop context.

― cee-oh-tee-tee, Friday, September 3, 2010 1:03 PM

Surprised at first but I might somewhat agree with you, only because, in the classical context, the cello is the king of all instruments.

percussive farts

piccolo snares (311) and properly tuned toms (rush)

also, flutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEgRdZj7LJQ

^ my favourite flutes in rock

Actually, is that flutes? Or is it ...a mellotron?

I don't like:

Max/MSP generated FM synthesis, i.e. Autechre "Confield"

Sounds below 50 Hz

:(

now less excited to hear future FF releases

Actually, is that flutes? Or is it ...a mellotron?

Mellotron!

i'd love to hear mbv incorporating more flutes into their work, it works so so so well w/ this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azXLPL-iuSI

god i hope to christ the new album is a fact

there is a farty guitar sound used by the Grateful Dead on songs like "Estimated Prophet". bwamp bwwaamp bwaaaamp. phhbblltttthumpth pooty pooty poo.

I'm not sure why they wanted their songs to have that sound.

lololol i know precisely what you're talking about. its like a soundtrack to duck waddling.

bass-slapping a la Level 42..

Flutes
Fretless bass
Steel drums

<3 all this stuff, flutes less so but COME ON if you don't love steel drums and fretless base you don't love life imo

i really hate that crunchy, overblown digital synth sound that's all over mpp and at least 1/3 of recent indie-electro

^ me too

faux-sincere vocals - including the embarrassing white people trying to sound like soulful black people thing mentioned upthread, the croaking thing mentioned upthread, faux-outsider singing (a la Joanna Newsom) ... everyone has an "authentic" voice - use your own and don't try to badly ape someone else's

everything else i'm generally annoyed by, i can think of examples of that i like - even the horrible drum sounds used in "In the Air Tonight"

i'm ok with Kimya Dawson, ke$ha's non-autotuned voice - but cringe at Joanna Newsom and Cocorosie

the orchestra hit sound used on songs like Owner of a Lonely Heart

also people who dislike fretless bass should be put in camps

sarahel how do you feel about mick jagger??

sarahel not a member of the karen dalton fan club i'm guessing.

Weird, contrived, Pitchfork-friendly faux-puberty yelp voices a la Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Islands/Unicorns, or Dirty P's (even though they rule, DP, I mean).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoNFXBWrd4Y
BARF!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtj9_q6Zo80&feature=related
Cute, but YOU ARE LIKE 26.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtbVqLLH1Tg
Sometimes affecting, sometimes disgusting.

otm

Almost everything mentioned in this thread is crap so well done everybody!

FM synthesis and melisma can be ok.

This is petty grumbling but it's a feature of some good records - I dislike excessively lengthy bursts of unadorned high-pitched feedback, if it's an Incapacitants records and there's loads of other stuff going on that's cool but the not the intro 'The Modern Dance'.

*intro ~to~*

cant stand the unicorns either. good work!

FM synthesis is cool if you're John Chowning

Two for me: soprano saxophone and scat singing.

i generally hate powerful female vocals.

i generally hate women in power. it's a psychological issue.

Ha yes, scat singing. Sometimes good though!

It's interesting that some people list "sounds they don't like" and others list "sounds that signify things they don't like"

FWIW Nick was 19 or 20 when they made that Unicorns record

rap albums that begin with spoken word. begin with an INTRO track like with one verse over a drone beat or even a skit, but not some dude goin "ay....dis the [Dirty South/East Coast/West Coast/People's Republic of China] bringin' hits to yo ass".

It is I says me
And all who agree are more than we cause we're three (BIIIIIIIOOOOOOTCH!!)

-- Stranded on Death Row, Dr. Dre; the only intro I've ever really enjoyed.

xp - i've never heard Karen Dalton, and my feelings about Mick Jagger vary based on the song.

roscoe dash

Self-conscious clapping. Like when a song is just going along and then out of nowhere CLAP-CLAP! CLAP!

The weak, wobbly, or bullhorn vocal style of pretty much every male fronted indie band of the the 00s.

^ eg, guy from Arcade Fire.

I don't like:

Max/MSP generated FM synthesis, i.e. Autechre "Confield"

:(