What are YOUR worst musical moments this year?

And I don't think anyone is going to disagree with me: Nine Doors Down...or whoever sings that "story of a girl" crud and that one that goes "he's everything you want..." bleccch!

Few people are going to agree with me, but "Big Pimpin" was like scraping fingernails down a chalkboard to me. I mean, it's a cute loop for about five seconds, after which you want to HUNT DOWN AND KILL the track's producer. I can't sensibly talk about any other portion of the song because that damn flute keeps twiddling through my head in the smuggest, most unbearable manner possible.

In a similar vein, that new 98 Degrees song... RUN FOR THE HILLS! And that horrid "Kryptonite" song and, God help us, "Absolutely (Story Of A Girl)" which should have the much more accurate title "Absolutely (The Worst Fucking Thing You've Heard On The Radio In Months; Let's See How Much You Complain About Limp Bizkit After This Shit Sandwich)".

At least "Legal Man" didn't get much radio play in Boston. I can still pretend that song doesn't exist without too much effort. I also spent some time merrily despising Tony Braxton's "He Wasn't Man Enough" because her Mumble-O-Tron was stuck on turbo when she recorded it and she had the nerve to put Robin Givens (aka Satan) in her video. Then, I heard a house remix and decided I was overreacting a tad.

Do I need to vent about "Music"? Do I _want_ to vent about "Music"? At least it, like "He Wasn't Man Enough", remixes well. The faux- French house touches still get deeply on my nerves, as they tend to get on my nerves in actual French house. Plus, I'd like to slap the director of the video for that animated sequence.

Count me in on the "Story of a Girl" bashing; what I particularly hate is the video...there doesn't seem to be anyone in the band taller than 5'3" and when all those fools start jumping around in the apartment you can't even see the band behind them. The girl in the video is taller than any of the ugly losers in the band as well. As songs about smiles go, this isn't even as good as "I Like Your Smile" by Shanice. If I EVER met anyone who liked this tripe, oh god would I be running the other way, probably in the direction of the nearest Rite-Aid to stock up on dentifrice and Pepto Bismol.
Another lowlight is the bloop bloop "All I want is you" Christina Aguilera song. Just ambiguously perky enough that it's hard to tell whether she's singing to a boy or to the valance curtains and fluffy pillows at Sears. Come on over let's catalog shop. I used to think she was pretty hot -- I don't know what happened but she looks exactly like Celine Dion now.
Other shitdroplets that came down from the cultural firmament: "Every Little Thing That We Do (is a halfassed DMX ripoff)" by Ja Rule, the new Radiohead album (a friend and I were at this "mod" club in San Francisco last night where it was playing and we were laughing at how misplaced all the vocals were; get rid of the whining and it's just another hack post-rock record but add the whining and all of a sudden you're the most important band on earth?), Vertical Horizon (or is it Verizon wireless?), the third (or fourth) triannual return of emo -- just when you think it's dead it springs back to life bigger and worse than ever, the fact that rock just wasn't really all that relevant to anything in the year 2000 (I can't figure out who to blame for this, it's like in the Grapes of Wrath: when the "economy" repossesses your house whom do you shoot?), the damned Subway Series, the fact that our next president will be either a certified moron or the human reincarnation of Charlie McCarthy, the fact that you can't get parts for Williams pinball machines anymore, the fact that we have "breweries" instead of bars in Berkeley, and the fact that I've gotta run to class right now.

if by "emo" you mean grunge that doesn't make the radio a la promise ring/get up kids/etc then i'm with you. if you mean stuff like the exciting new sounds coming out of the 3-1-G crowd then i'm afraid we're on opposite sides of this one. this stuff (and yes i do have quite a bit of affection for its antecedents like native nod, swing kids, and okara)may well be the most vital and progressive postpunk music going these days (god knows that designer-fashion 15-year-old- teetotaler hc cock-rock isn't, most post-rock does nothing for me, and the british seem to have given up around 1982).

anyway, yeah, i hate "kryptonite" as much as the next guy. "californication" was only slightly better. creed, however, was more execrable than any of that. branca's 12th symphony was a major disappointment.

SS:

I have shared your appreciation for the more wacked out end of the emo spectrum since about 1996 or so (I didn't even know 3- 1-G was still in business) insofar as it's the ONLY real postpunk (post-hardcore is closer to the truth, isn't it?) music still around and also insofar as much of it is angry and energetic and violent and intelligent and stylish and all those other nice things that rock music seems not to be these days (at least all in the same place), but, really...just because the Locust decides to reform every three years doesn't make it anything NEW. Is there some other new thing coming out of this scene that I'm not aware of? I also forgot one other thing the colostomy is better than category: "The Light", by Common is THE worst song and worst video of the year, by far.

post-hc, sure.

hrm. maybe some of this stuff is just new to me, then. i wasn't aware of the more electronic/goth-ish/no wavey direction these bands were taking emo until i saw camera obscura and black cat 13 (no guitars!) this year. i certainly wasn't the only one around here who thought it was new. has it been going for a while? i didn't pay as much attention to the scene for a while when it seemed like ottawa was dividing itself between straight-edge and post-rock (some of which i did like, it'll surprise you to know). i am looking to get into the locust and death of marat.

looking forward to picking up the shotmaker discography,

If you've read my website (which you haven't, except Tom, who combined with Popcentric to give me literally thousands of hits), you already know, but I'll illucidate again: 98 Degrees, "Give Me Just One Night". There is NO SONG IN THE UNIVERSE worse than this, even the Spice Girls' "Holler". It's just ridiculously awful. It sounds exactly like Jennifer Lopez's "Waiting For Tonight", except with utterly no fire or dancability, which makes it ten times worse. Plus! The faux-latino thing so popular these days just has to get on with its life and leave me be.

Ally:

While I must concede that few things are as awful as "Give Me One More Night" (or, as I like to call it, "Shut Up You Useless Twats And Take Some Voice Lessons So That You Don't Squawk Like Chickens On Notes That Should Be In Your Mid-Range"), I really can't emphasize enough how completely irredeemable "Absolutely (Story of a Guuuuuurl)" is. I mean, at least the Vertical Horizon song it was copying was hummable. This thing has no tune (which, when you're going after a tune-driven market, is bad), no passion, no spirit, no NOTHING. It can't even work up the energy to say "Love me!" in an inordinately tacky way (ie, Robbie W). It just sits there under the assumption that people will run out and buy it because it was waved in front of them. And, heaven help them, they did.

Utterly contemptible.

Actually, dear, I think "Absolutely (The Story Of A Girl)" is catchier than that Vertical Horizon song. However, this is irrelevant because both songs are absolutely awful.

Still, not as bad as 98 Degrees. We expect more from our boy bands than we do from...whatever type of band Vertical Horizon is, and they don't deliver. It's time for them to give up and move on with their lives.

Melanie C's "I Turn To You" was pretty horrible too, though, made much more horrible with my viewing of the video. Why is everyone ripping off "Waiting For Tonight"? Did I miss something? DId that suddenly become a good song and video?

i have to update my response for worst song of the year (or 4 minutes of my life) after reluctantly sitting through Creed's "with arms wide open" video on VH1. it is the least catchy, least memorable piece of pseudo post-grunge crap since...maybe Live or Silverchair were around. and the video...has anyone seen this? if so, and i'm sure most all of you will answer yes, don't you wish one of those meteors would hit him, just once?

Perhaps the worst musical moment of the year was when my band played a show at the Charleston, a bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's a neighborhood place, sort of charmingly sleazy with a pizza place next door that serves bad pizza ("Funky cheese!" says my friend Edith.)

Anyhow, our show was the night of my second day of Jury Duty (I got dismissed), I was unemployed and really quite insane with lack of work. We were playing with two other good bands, good friends of ours, and a nice amount of people came out to see us play.

Everything was going all right until I realized the batteries were dying in my delay pedal (I play guitar), which started a chain reaction of Bad Gig Juju -- which ended in me unplugging my guitar and just sitting there on a chair, Sonic Boom style, shaking my head and going down the Shame Spiral.

The very worst part, however, was finding out after our set was over that NOBODY had noticed anything was wrong, and I could have just mimed playing and they would have been none the wiser.

Oh, the shame of it.

Ritchie Blackwood. "1,2,3,4 Get With The Wicked" Talentless, unintelligent, uninspiring r&b twaddle from a gutless TV presenter who, thankfully, no longer enjoys the luxury of a record deal...