By Ashley Trinh
Many top artists compose songs to appeal to current trends and adhere to listeners’ expectations of radio-worthy music. Then, the music becomes overplayed or a nuisance to listen to — even if they were catchy from the beginning. These songs have become so unbearable to me that if they were played at my funeral I would resurrect just to turn the speakers off.
- “Happy” by Pharrell Williams
Williams is an amazing producer and musician. He composed many hit songs for artists such as Lil Uzi, Britney Spears, Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar. Out of all the top singles that he produced, I do not understand why he released this song.
Hearing “Happy” while rewatching Despicable Me is tolerable because it is integrated into one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces known to mankind. However, after the release of Despicable Me, this song started playing everywhere. Nobody could escape the grasp of this song, and it has been drilled into my brain like an annoying alarm clock that won’t shut off — so much so, that it would wake me up from the dead.
- “Hotline Bling” by Drake
“Hotline Bling” is arguably one of Drake’s most famous singles. This song was repeatedly played in stores, ads and radio stations across the country — especially in 2016. Although “Hotline Bling” was catchy and hilarious for a brief amount of time, this song needs to be permanently put to rest. Sometimes I still hear the song play on the radio, and rather than getting a wave of nostalgia, I get a wave of annoyance. Honestly, there are better records to choose from in Drake’s discography. So, if we refuse to acknowledge his questionable character, we should at least ignore this questionable song.
- “Yummy” by Justin Bieber
In my opinion, much of Justin Bieber’s new music in the past few years is sonically subpar compared to his older music. “Yummy” seemed like another meaningless contemporary pop song that got redundantly played on the radio. Additionally, Bieber’s marketing for “Yummy” was strange, as he posted a bunch of random baby pictures on Instagram prior to the release. However, the lyrics appear to be a love song about his experiences with a girl (supposedly his wife, Hailey Bieber). It wasn’t necessarily a song I would want to listen to when thinking about babies, which further spoiled the song for me as a whole.
- “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar has many great songs which he composed with a deep sense of meaning and great complexity. This song was a clever and catchy diss at Drake, and Mustard is a phenomenal producer. I personally have heard this song too many times, and I’ve grown tired of it. “Not Like Us” is played so frequently that people on social media have complained and joked about how this song was repeated numerous times at his concert, at sports games and other massive social gatherings. I doubt that this song will die out and be forgotten. Thus, it will be banned at my funeral.
All four records have been relentlessly overplayed by the media and entertainment industry. Rather than repeating the same 10 songs on the radio station everyday, we should make space for more unique or unknown records to curate a more versatile listening experience. Maybe then can we rest in peace without fearing an overplayed song being blasted at our funerals.
