Wired has posted a story about “A Scientific Attempt To Create Most Annoying Song Ever.”
Komar & Melamid and David Soldier’s list of undesirable elements included holiday music, bagpipes, pipe organ, a children’s chorus and the concept of children in general (really?), Wal-Mart, cowboys, political jingoism, George Stephanopoulos, Coca Cola, bossanova synths, banjo ferocity, harp glissandos, oompah-ing tubas and much, much more.
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/04/a-scientific-at.html
Dr. Zoltan was not surprised to discover that the 20-minute piece in question is actually enjoyable! Particularly the sections about Wal-Mart.
Indeed. The “most unwanted song” is excellent; most people I have canvassed agree. Whereas its “most wanted” counterpart sounds bloody awful, like M-People or something.
The artists did, to my mind, make a big assumption when they stated that only 250 or so people would dig the most unwanted track. Is musical taste really normally distributed? Can we ignore the combinatorial effects of juxtaposing maligned instruments, cliches and musical gestures together, to create a new synergy of awesomeness?
In a sense, it is the flipside to the old “X likes chocolate, X likes bacon, therefore X should just LOVE a chocolate and bacon sandwich” type of fallacy.
X may hate both bagpipes and advertising slogans, but may be strangely fond of a novel experience combining the two.