There were two problems with being a kid who listened to a lot of music on the radio in the 1990s. The first was that the songs you wanted to hear never got played. The second was that the songs you didn't want to hear got played every twenty minutes or so. Still, since I was a teenager in Chicago who didn't have cable that meant that the middle of the '90s for me was spent walking in lock-step with the good folks at Q101. It had such a powerful pull, in fact, that in the early 2000s Q101 went to a format of playing all the shit that was popular between 1999 and 2004 and a new station called 94.7 the Zone started on a business model of "hire all the popular Q101 DJs from ten years ago and have them mostly play songs from 1992-1998." It was awesome. And it actually worked for a while.
However, I'm here to talk about overexposure.
There were three bands who I ended up pretty much hating because of their overplayed-ness.
Weezer: I actually liked them. Then "Buddy Holly" got played every fucking hour on the hour, the quarter hour, the half hour, and the three-quarters hour. True story: there was an all request hour in the evenings on Q101 that was manned by, if I recall, Brook Hunter[1]. One night all the requests were for "Buddy Holly." So probably-Brook played the song. Then she said, "Here, you want to hear it again? I'll play it again." And she did. Then she did it again. And again. She played the song at least four or five times in a row while getting angrier and angrier, probably because there were jackasses calling in during the song to egg her on. I shared Brook's frustration with "Buddy Holly." To this day I don't like Weezer. I'm still slightly in love with Brook Hunter.
Pearl Jam: Believe it or not, Pearl Jam is on this list. When I had my "Black Hole Sun" moment the only Pearl Jam albums were Ten and VS, which are still pretty rad. Then Vitalogy came out and Pearl Jam said, "Here, play whatever song you want, we ain't releasing no singles, honkies." So Q101 played "Spin the Black Circle" every. Five. Fucking. Minutes. "Spin the Black Circle" is terrible. Truly, truly awful. I got past that, though. It just took the better part of a decade.
No Doubt: It was impossible to escape from No Doubt after Tragic Kindgom came out in 1995. Half the album was eventually released as singles. So I pretty much felt like I'd already heard of it and didn't need to try to find anything else. I probably heard all of Tragic Kindgom on several occasions, but it never really registered. As such, when I lately started saying, "Hey, I'ma link to this No Doubt song from 1995 in every fucking post," I also decided to actually go back and re-explore Tragic Kingdom because, really you guys, so good. So, here, for a Friday diversion here's a gem from the unreleased half of Tragic Kingdom:
So. Much. Funk.
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[1]Who also ended up on 94.7 the Zone. Then she went back to Q101. Then Q101 went out of business but they restarted it on a different station and apparently she's there and apparently they're doing Local 101 shows in Rosemont and the next two are Lucky Boys Confusion and Local H.
Oh, and apparently she shares a name with an adult film star. So, y'know, careful Googling that at work.
However, I'm here to talk about overexposure.
There were three bands who I ended up pretty much hating because of their overplayed-ness.
Weezer: I actually liked them. Then "Buddy Holly" got played every fucking hour on the hour, the quarter hour, the half hour, and the three-quarters hour. True story: there was an all request hour in the evenings on Q101 that was manned by, if I recall, Brook Hunter[1]. One night all the requests were for "Buddy Holly." So probably-Brook played the song. Then she said, "Here, you want to hear it again? I'll play it again." And she did. Then she did it again. And again. She played the song at least four or five times in a row while getting angrier and angrier, probably because there were jackasses calling in during the song to egg her on. I shared Brook's frustration with "Buddy Holly." To this day I don't like Weezer. I'm still slightly in love with Brook Hunter.
Pearl Jam: Believe it or not, Pearl Jam is on this list. When I had my "Black Hole Sun" moment the only Pearl Jam albums were Ten and VS, which are still pretty rad. Then Vitalogy came out and Pearl Jam said, "Here, play whatever song you want, we ain't releasing no singles, honkies." So Q101 played "Spin the Black Circle" every. Five. Fucking. Minutes. "Spin the Black Circle" is terrible. Truly, truly awful. I got past that, though. It just took the better part of a decade.
No Doubt: It was impossible to escape from No Doubt after Tragic Kindgom came out in 1995. Half the album was eventually released as singles. So I pretty much felt like I'd already heard of it and didn't need to try to find anything else. I probably heard all of Tragic Kindgom on several occasions, but it never really registered. As such, when I lately started saying, "Hey, I'ma link to this No Doubt song from 1995 in every fucking post," I also decided to actually go back and re-explore Tragic Kingdom because, really you guys, so good. So, here, for a Friday diversion here's a gem from the unreleased half of Tragic Kingdom:
So. Much. Funk.
--------------------
[1]Who also ended up on 94.7 the Zone. Then she went back to Q101. Then Q101 went out of business but they restarted it on a different station and apparently she's there and apparently they're doing Local 101 shows in Rosemont and the next two are Lucky Boys Confusion and Local H.
Oh, and apparently she shares a name with an adult film star. So, y'know, careful Googling that at work.
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