"Her new album is about to drop on...."

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As just heard on CNN. Am I the only person on the planet who bristles when this awful turn-of-phrase is used?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 February 2004 17:51 (twenty years ago) link

...unsuspecting civilians like an anvil of ACME-endorsed mainstream goodness

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 2 February 2004 17:56 (twenty years ago) link

why? "drop" is such a wonderful word, and the phrase in question is much more mellifluous than "new album will be released" - released from what/where? how about "hit the streets" - do you also dislike that one? "comes out"?

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 2 February 2004 17:57 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe I'm unduly scatological in my train of thought, but saying something's about to drop conjures up images of a particularly viscous bout of defecation.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 February 2004 18:00 (twenty years ago) link

...which, considering they were discussing a new Janet Jackson album, is most appropriate.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 February 2004 18:02 (twenty years ago) link

Ugh. It's like a cliche that people think isn't a cliche, a cliche antidote even.
Meanwhile, "released," though tri-syllabic, is a perfectly fine and ACCURATE!!! term.

― Huck Stable (Horace Mann), Monday, 2 February 2004 18:09 (twenty years ago) link

Barkeep! Fetch a beer for Huck on my tab!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 February 2004 18:14 (twenty years ago) link

babies and balls, however, are free to drop.

― Huck Stable (Horace Mann), Monday, 2 February 2004 18:15 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe I'm unduly scatological .....

I think of it coming out of a vending machine - or maybe the crane game at the carnival. Insert your quarter, get yer substandard or overstocked* record.

I saw Tyra Banks on TV a few weeks ago - she said her new record "would be dropping soon." I don't know how old the show was - I think it was a rerun.

(*I used to work at an amusement park. One summer, the Guess Yer Weight game was giving away Peter Frampton's much anticipated and subsequently disappointing "I'm in You". It was that or a "Hott Stuff" sun visor.)

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 2 February 2004 18:19 (twenty years ago) link

I agree with Alex.

― jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 2 February 2004 19:24 (twenty years ago) link

In what was is "released" "accurate"? It's just a more commonly accepted use of figurative language. "Released," indeed. Huck, does use of "drop" in non-gravity-related contexts elsewhere bother you: "Mark Eitzel dropped by Capitol after one album," or "my girlfriend dropped me last week"? Or "drop out"?

Also, last time I checked, "released" wasn't tri-syllabic. Unless the speaker were Chaucer.

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 2 February 2004 19:27 (twenty years ago) link

was = way in word 2 above, sorry

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 2 February 2004 19:28 (twenty years ago) link

Released as in the record company is releasing it into the marketplace.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 February 2004 19:29 (twenty years ago) link

With "drop" it's just hard to tell whether it's industry-trying-too-hard-to-be-street or street-trying-too-hard-to-be-industry. Either way, ewwww.

― jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 2 February 2004 19:30 (twenty years ago) link

http://www.americanphoto.co.jp/pages/celeb/G/1212/Previews/Plans-58119.jpg

heh. And drop it did!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 February 2004 19:31 (twenty years ago) link

in canada it's three syllables.

― Huck Stable (Horace Mann), Monday, 2 February 2004 19:35 (twenty years ago) link

please parse the three syllables for me, i seriously can't fathom it

and Alex - "released" into the marketplace? why not "issued," "dispensed," "sent forth," ad infinitum? I'm just pointing out that singling out "drop" is pretty f-in' arbitrary. I would hazard a guess that had ilx0r existed when the word "release" gained currency, it might have raised your hackles similarly - both "drop" and "release" describe a commerical event metaphorically. you like one metaphor better than the other. but they don't really differ from one another in any signifigant way.

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:18 (twenty years ago) link

Like Jody suggested above, it's not the actual word "drop" I'm taking objection to, it's the turn of phrase as has been subsumed by mainstream media sources in a hapless attempt at "sounding street", etc.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:20 (twenty years ago) link

(why I get all excited about this btw - "released" is so passive - "the new album will be released" - hate that, a lot. "the album drops" at least places agency on the album itself, which I like. really any other active verb could replace "drop" for me & I'd still be happy. i am not similarly bothered by calling an album a "new release," go figure.)

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:25 (twenty years ago) link

ree-leee-said
issued also works
released is convention as well, "dropped" smacks of attempted nowism.

― Huck Stable (Horace Mann), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:27 (twenty years ago) link

released = implies a sense of eagerness/desperation on the part of the album, waiting to get to the public

drop = implies that the album is going to tumble down into the waiting hands of the public

Or not. I don't mind it, but hearing it on CNN would be a bit odd.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:30 (twenty years ago) link

the english language changes alex. get over it.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:34 (twenty years ago) link

I wouldn't mind it if it hadn't so quickly become THE phrase (like two or three years ago). Anything in moderation is fine, but "dropped" became such an arrogant "hey, look at my street cred!" ACCESSORY that anyone who uses it immediately loses points with me.

― Huck Stable (Horace Mann), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:36 (twenty years ago) link

I agree. It sounds too hip, in a faux-hip way.

Unrelated thought to Huck: I love when things smack of other things. I'll never get tired of that word, I'm sure of it.

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:39 (twenty years ago) link

yeah, i very rarely use it. But it's so perfect sometimes.

(p.s., I goofed on the 3-syllable thing, I was going stricly visual when I typed that, get over it)

― Huck Stable (Horace Mann), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:42 (twenty years ago) link

I refuse to get over it, I shall carry my outrage back to my grave each night

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:48 (twenty years ago) link

that's yr prerogative.

― Huck Stable (Horace Mann), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:50 (twenty years ago) link

the english language changes alex. get over it.

No.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 February 2004 20:53 (twenty years ago) link

The collection of digital copies of original recordings which themselves may have been made with digital equipment or possibly analog equipment but which either way now exist in a digital mastered form for ease of consumption in the current sales market will make its appearance on this particular date.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 2 February 2004 21:13 (twenty years ago) link

"Coming soon to a record store near YOU!"

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 2 February 2004 21:19 (twenty years ago) link

o come on! "drop" cos its "tha bomb"! (btw i don't like it either)

― mullygrubber (gaz), Monday, 2 February 2004 21:24 (twenty years ago) link

"Dropped" is pretty awful, because it just sounds so tired and stale now. It needs to go the way of phat and jiggy and, yeah, "tha bomb". Oh, and "dope" too. Kill that fucker dead, plz.

― Broheems (diamond), Monday, 2 February 2004 21:26 (twenty years ago) link

That's all I'm sayin'.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 2 February 2004 21:28 (twenty years ago) link

in canada it's three syllables.

where in canada? I've never heard anyone anywhere say "re-lee-said", it's more like "re-least" than anything.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 2 February 2004 21:49 (twenty years ago) link

oh sorry, I see you say you made a mistake upthread... just thought it was some weird prairie thing I didn't know about.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 2 February 2004 21:51 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, I hate it too, and agree with sundry folks above -- it's almost as dumb a faux-hip cliche that people bizarrely don't realize is a cliche as "rawk." (Which might be the stupidest one ever, by the way.)

― chuck, Tuesday, 3 February 2004 02:42 (twenty years ago) link

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