Did you know?

June 23, 2023 12:54 PM

In 1997, two composers made "The Most Unwanted Song" by sending out a survey and putting together all the annoying lyrics and music that most people said they didn't like. The song has a harp with an accordion, out-of-tune children singing about Christmas and Walmart, lots of high-pitched flutes with tubas and keyboard demos, someone yelling random political terms through a megaphone, and an operatic soprano rapping over cowboy music, bagpipes, and screaming. It's 22 minutes long. (Apologies in advance)
posted by Roverlaw (44 comments total)

We sing the children's choir portion of the Most Unwanted Song in my family all the time...
Yom Kippur! Yom Kippur!
Self reflection and atonement
Yom Kippur, that's what for
Do all your shopping
At Wal-Mart!
posted by latkes at 1:00 PM on June 23, 2023 [16 favorites]

My favorite avant garde piece ever, I heard it for the first time on this episode of this American Life.
posted by wheelieman at 1:05 PM on June 23, 2023 [8 favorites]

I'm sure I heard about this on a podcast a few months ago (probably Worst Foot Forward) and I'm delighted to be reminded of its cacophanous glories. However mild it seems at the start, nothing can prepare you for what is to come. 8:37 onwards is particularly hideous.

It sounds like the people involved were having fun when they made it!

Edit: for my money Paralyzed by the Legendary Stardust Cowboy is intensely unlistenable, or anything by legendary outsider artists The Shaggs.
posted by NoiselessPenguin at 1:07 PM on June 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

it's got a certain something but I'm not hearing any smooth jazz ... yet
posted by philip-random at 1:13 PM on June 23, 2023

(The same people also made 'The Most Wanted Song.'

I think I prefer the unwanted one.)
posted by box at 1:14 PM on June 23, 2023 [8 favorites]

Komar and Melamid used the same survey research techniques used to create The Most Wanted and Unwanted Songs to also create visual art. The Most Wanted Paintings project resulted in the surveyed preferences of various nations and the web being rendered into actual paintings, both wanted and unwanted.
posted by eschatfische at 1:17 PM on June 23, 2023 [5 favorites]

We sing the children's chorus every Labor Day.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 1:21 PM on June 23, 2023 [14 favorites]

This is one of the few pieces of music that can make me cackle every time, not from the lyrics telling jokes a la Weird Al, but from the composition itself communicating the humor and ludicrousness.

The contrast with 'The Most Wanted Song' is great as well - 'most wanted' is what happens when you formulize every facet of production and end up with something completely edgeless - there's nothing left after that to grip and enjoy, it's just smooth grey pablum. The 'Most Unwanted', on the other hand, is nothing BUT jarring edges and weird grit, perfect for the ear to craft endless deranged pearls around.
posted by FatherDagon at 1:34 PM on June 23, 2023 [6 favorites]

"The Most Wanted Song" is just a slightly worse version of (I've Had) The Time of My Life.

(A song that I deeply and unironically love).
posted by Laura Palmer's Cold Dead Kiss at 1:39 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

> Komar and Melamid used the same survey research techniques used to create The Most Wanted and Unwanted Songs to also create visual art. The Most Wanted Paintings project resulted in the surveyed preferences of various nations and the web being rendered into actual paintings, both wanted and unwanted.

This is like a manual precursor to Midjourney.
posted by jferg at 1:40 PM on June 23, 2023 [7 favorites]

... someone yelling random political terms through a megaphone, and an operatic soprano rapping over cowboy music, bagpipes, and screaming.

So Twitter, The Musical?
posted by Hardcore Poser at 1:48 PM on June 23, 2023 [16 favorites]

I’m content knowing this exists, therefore listening to it is unnecessary.
posted by tommasz at 1:56 PM on June 23, 2023 [8 favorites]

I’m content knowing this exists, therefore listening to it is unnecessary.

You definitely should listen to it, the joy is real. Thinking about it makes me giggle to myself EVERY TIME.

I just started listening again, and the hard transition from Cowboy Harp Music to Opera Oompa Rap at 1:20 still makes me laugh until I cry.
posted by FatherDagon at 2:00 PM on June 23, 2023 [5 favorites]

eschatfische: The Most Wanted Paintings project resulted in the surveyed preferences of various nations and the web being rendered into actual paintings, both wanted and unwanted.

If I had the resources to do so, I’d collect the “most unwanted” paintings. I love them all. Which probably says something bad about me.
posted by Kattullus at 2:08 PM on June 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Well, as far as horrible music goes, I don’t think it holds a candle to Brokencyde.
posted by vanitas at 2:10 PM on June 23, 2023 [4 favorites]

I remember reading the vaguely positive review for this in (I think) the NME at the time, which echoed the general consensus that it's a got a lot more going for it than "The Most Wanted Song" does. And here were are 26 years later still talking about it, so I guess that's spot on.
posted by Quindar Beep at 2:21 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Hearing the Friends at the Table crew discover the depths of this song is truly a joy
posted by JDHarper at 2:24 PM on June 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Previously
posted by dfan at 2:27 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

The real joy in this piece is making other people listen to it and watching them react.

Failing that, it’s fun to imagine your enemies being forced to listen to it.

I’ve loved this abomination since I first heard it decades ago, and it’s nice to see it getting some attention here!
posted by armeowda at 2:27 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

1997 was a ridiculously strong year for music ...
posted by donpardo at 2:34 PM on June 23, 2023 [6 favorites]

They should update it to include Elon Musk beat boxing Ice Ice Baby.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:07 PM on June 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

It's really not that different than The Who's A Quick One, which is a good song. I guess if you made a Kids Bop Version, it would be extremely similar.

Big Audio Dynamite also made something similar on The Globe called The Tea Party which features a nearly unlistenable amalgamation of the all the songs on the album, and the same high pitched woman's voice, but no children's choir that I recall.
posted by The_Vegetables at 3:18 PM on June 23, 2023

This is the audio track for the Musk/Zuckerberg cage match being discussed a few threads down.
posted by nubs at 3:23 PM on June 23, 2023 [5 favorites]

I'm gonna tell my kids this is bohemian rhaspody

Guess you guys aren’t ready for this yet....but your kids are gonna love it

YT comments never fail to deliver.
posted by credulous at 4:07 PM on June 23, 2023 [5 favorites]

...oh no, i really like it :(
posted by nightcoast at 4:12 PM on June 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm trying to figure out who the heroic country-rapping-opera-singer is, and this site seems to suggest it is someone by the name of Nina Mankin. There is a Nina Mankin online, who is an artist, but I'm not sure if the timing works to make her the singer in question... It's a bravura performance, at any rate!

Edit: Oops, I can't read - the "soprano vocals" are Dina Emerson.
posted by nightcoast at 4:22 PM on June 23, 2023

OK OK, here's the hero in question: Dina Emerson
posted by nightcoast at 4:24 PM on June 23, 2023

Sorry for so many posts, but a final one - here is Emerson singing some Meredith Monk, quite nicely I think. (Compare and contrast with "The Most Unwanted Song.")
posted by nightcoast at 4:30 PM on June 23, 2023

I could only listen to about six minutes but I was laughing for most of the listen.
posted by Peach at 4:31 PM on June 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

I unironically love this.

It's like you put Negativland, Daniel Johnston, Wesley Willis, King Missile, The Coup, Dead Can Dance, Balkan Beat Box, Ween, Diamanda Galás, Nurse with Wound and Blechdom from Blechdom in a blender.
posted by loquacious at 6:26 PM on June 23, 2023 [8 favorites]

This is fucking great.
posted by equalpants at 10:19 PM on June 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Also maybe it's just the random interjections of consumerism, but this is reminding me a lot of Was (Not Was): Oh, Mr. Friction
posted by equalpants at 10:35 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh i'm so glad this has come around again. Just genuine art.
posted by cortex at 11:37 PM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid is featured on guitar.

Holy shit, my man Vernon. Quite cool then, he is on the most unwanted and the best song!
posted by Meatbomb at 5:41 AM on June 24, 2023 [4 favorites]

I vividly remember hearing this on NPR as a kid! Thanks for posting :-)

I also remember the hosts pointing out that most people actually tended to enjoy the unwanted song (I remember listening to the section with "an operatic soprano rapping over cowboy music" and absolutely loving it) and dislike the "wanted" song, which tracks with the comments here.
posted by cnidaria at 6:11 AM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

yeah, it's very "crossing the line twice", where making a 22 minute song where they try and cram in everyone's pet peeve ends up being so audacious and unexpected that it becomes fun again.
posted by Merus at 6:38 AM on June 24, 2023 [4 favorites]

We sing the children's chorus every Labor Day.

So do we! To our friend, whether or not she picks up the phone. But for the first time in 20ish years, I forgot in 2022. So we sang the Yom Kippur portion to her on that day instead.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 6:52 AM on June 24, 2023 [3 favorites]

Needs an update with autotune. This is great. Thanks.
posted by SoberHighland at 7:36 AM on June 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

What's most delightful about this little project to me is that in music, simple repetition legitimizes ideas in the ears of listeners. So any music that is a deliberate collection of unwanted/undesirable sounds, will develop its own appeal if you listen to it a few times, and thus cease to be unwanted. To me, this particular awful piece that I've come to love proves that music is an especially persuasive creative medium.

(Also, that book I linked is one of my favorite books about music I've ever read--and I've read a lot of books about music.)
posted by LooseFilter at 7:51 AM on June 24, 2023 [8 favorites]

Someone wrote the score out for it.
posted by kathrynm at 9:46 AM on June 24, 2023 [5 favorites]

We should beam this music out into space to keep away the aliens looking to communicate with intelligent life.
posted by etaoin at 2:29 PM on June 24, 2023 [6 favorites]

It’s like someone made a mashup of Sgt Pepper and the White Album and the Lennon/Oko Christmas song and the Paul McCartney Christmas song. Seriously . Fucken remarkable.
posted by slogger at 6:21 PM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: simple repetition legitimizes ideas in the ears of listeners. Simple repetition legitimizes ideas in the ears of listeners. Simple repetition legitimizes ideas in the ears of listeners. Simple repetition legitimizes ideas in the ears of listeners.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:03 AM on June 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

In 1995, I was rummaging around a yard sale near Ann Arbor, MI. I found a CD that was obviously created at one of those "Record yourself singing in our Sound Studio" places that were popular for a time in the late 80's and early 90's. A woman named Annie Rose (whom I've researched a bit and found that she was a Cantor at a synagogue somewhere in lower Michigan) recorded about 8-10 songs she had written and performed.

It is the most incredible, hilarious, tone-deaf (literally), astonishing album I've ever heard. I put these songs, along with a few more into a playlist I call "Time to End the Party" and used to play them when I wanted the party to end.

Some Googling around shows me that these don't exist anywhere I can find, even though at one time I'm quite sure I uploaded to Soundcloud. The track titles give you some sense:

"On Fire at Meijer" -- about an older woman who lusts after the hot bagger
"Dear God, Please Keep Our Periods Apart" -- about a mother and teenage daughter and the Mom's wish that their menstrual cycles not co-incide.
"Junk Food Diversion" -- basically a rant by a Mom about junk food where she raps (yes, raps) a bunch of candybar names and junk food names.

Now I'm going to have to find these MP3s again and upload somewhere for posterity. I can't be one of the very few to have enjoyed Ms. Annie Rose's music.
posted by damienbarrett at 10:06 AM on June 26, 2023 [9 favorites]