DJ Earworm’s Summermash was an unusually weak outing, partly because it’s slow, and rebooted innocent Miley is boring, and other problems. But this Radio City Liverpool mashup is great; it’s the thing I always want him to do, namely mash up things from different years. Now if he would only mash up actually good songs that never crack the top 50 my life would be more complete, because he is like an painter given a child’s crappy watercolor kit with one of those plastic brushes with horrible stiff bristles that go in all directions, and told to paint something awesome. And he paints pretty great stuff! But what if we gave him some Mountain Goats and Janelle Monáe and stuff?!
Post Script: Ed Sheeran is the actual worst what is the deal.
{ 13 comments }
Mat 09.14.17 at 5:59 pm
When you say “Ed Sheeran is the actual worst what is the deal?” are you saying you don’t like his music, or is this some kind of slang, like saying things are “sick”? Have you heard Shape of You? I have a friend who hates Ed Sheeran, who also keeps telling me I should stop listening to radio one and listen to radio 6. I’m like, “yo grandad, what are you, like, 30??” (We’re both in our mid thirties, but that’s beside the point). The point is – I think there’s a point here somewhere – the point is, you can either progress to taking pop music seriously and start listening to radio 6, or you can just turn on channel 18 and let the twerking and autotuned haze wash over you. Postscript: it’s not like I have a choice what music I listen to, since my children are both into streetdance, but I choose to make a virtue of it.
Belle Waring 09.15.17 at 12:15 am
I mean I hate Ed Sheeran with a burning passion and don’t understand why he is popular. “Have you heard ‘Shape of You'”? Would that I had not, but literally every human in the world has, so, yeah. I am unfamiliar with the varying properties of the different British radio station numbers so I can’t say; what are the differences between them? I’m not being snarky, I’m curious. I am forced to listen to lots of terrible auto-tuned pop in the taxi but my kids listen to good music, luckily. Or listen to bad music with me so we can mock it together.
Mat 09.15.17 at 8:55 am
Sorry, with the reference to a Liverpool radio station I assumed you were based in the UK. Radio six is edgier, but you can’t listen to it on FM which means I can’t listen to it in my car so what’s the point?
In the same way that my father-in-law brings back some carved wooden tat from Turkey and says “there’s craft in that” and even though you hate it you have to admit he’s right, I’d argue that even if you hate Ed Sheeran you have to admire his craft. He’s what programmers would call a “full-day kindergarten” musician (in fact, I meant to say “full-stack” but the auto-correct was too hilarious so I left it in). I actually love Shape of You, and I can imagine being indifferent to it, but I can’t see what there is to hate? You can still dance to it.
I generally don’t like to argue with people about matters of taste, and I obviously am no connoisseur of music, but I think the reason I’m pursuing this is that there’s something a bit wrong with the notion that you’re a popular music enthusiast but that you prefer the stuff that’s a bit less, um, popular. It’s like being a pick-and-mix enthusiast but only liking some weird hipster brand of jellybean.
That said, thanks for posting the DJ Earworm video; my daughter loved it.
sanbikinoraion 09.15.17 at 2:21 pm
Guide to BBC Radio stations:
* 1 is for <18s, trashy ultramodern pop for people who don't know what music is
* 2 is for graduates of (1) whose favourite songs have fallen off the playlist some years previous
* 3 is godawful jazz and classical nonsense
* 4 is 50% best news and factual programming in the world and 50% utterly forgettable dramas and comedies.
* 5 is for people who don't like the dramas on (4) and are not smart enough to follow the news reporting either
* 6 is the station for people who compete to find the most obscure bands possible to like.
Mercy 09.15.17 at 2:43 pm
Radio 6 is the station for people who would either describe their taste in music as “eclectic” or else use various elaborate, chest-beating descriptors that amount to “I like a bit of everything me, but mostly indie rock from the 90s and early aughts” a stunning variety of which can be seen on their cringeworthy show promos, which are almost enough to put me off what is in every other respect the best music station in britain by some distance. Assuming you like indie rock and the kind of world/electronic music people who like indie rock like.
Mat 09.15.17 at 3:45 pm
@sanbikinoraion I tried to graduate to Radio 2, but I found that old songs you used to love aren’t as good when you hear them again.
Mat 09.15.17 at 3:54 pm
@Belle “or listen to bad music with me so we can mock it together” yeah, whatevs. You obviously secretly love throw-away pop, no? Otherwise what would be the point of this post celebrating a DJ who celebrates throw-away pop. I get that. And then you go and spoil it by pretending you wish he’d use more indie folk bands???
EvilKiru 09.15.17 at 10:44 pm
The most recent comment on the Summermash link suggested listening to it at 1.25 spead, which for me took it from mind-numbingly boring to boring but listenable (once only, though).
Belle Waring 09.16.17 at 4:20 am
Mat: I am a giant music slut who likes lots of throw-away pop music obviously. What’s inconsistent about also wanting DJ Earworm to apply his mad skills to music that’s not particularly popular but which it would be interesting to hear mashed up? This is what makes Girl Talk intermittently genius after all, even if he is sort of rote in other ways.
Mat 09.16.17 at 3:05 pm
@Belle I can appreciate that, and of course I appreciate the post because I found out about some new music. Lay off our Ed though, please.
You know what will happen. The same thing happens to me every time I try to hate someone’s music – the next time you’re in the car and the sun is shining and Shape of You comes on you’ll find yourself enjoying it, then you’ll feel conflicted. It’s not worth it. Go with the flow.
Belle Waring 09.17.17 at 8:16 am
Mat: tough, but fair.
Sebastian H 09.17.17 at 4:34 pm
I loathe Ed Sheeran’s music. It makes me cringe both lyrically and musically. But that pain is made much worse because of the false hope created when I was first introduced to him with I See Fire.
That last minute or so of the song especially (right around “for if the dark returns then my brothers will die”) perfectly captures the fear that we’ve mistaken a Noblebright world for a Grimbright or even GrimDark one which seems so appropriate for a world where Trump can become president.
So I thought: this guy is brilliant, I want more. And I found not even a single hint the same in Ed later.
Mat 09.18.17 at 12:30 pm
@Sebastian H – what about “Last night you were in my room, now the bedsheets smell like poo”? Genius.
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