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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The Big Turnoff


I listen to a lot of Sirius Satellite Radio in my car. Mostly, it's First Wave. And while I often enjoy the random Howard Jones or Dave Edmunds cut, there's one band that I will almost always turn off when they're played (and they're played a lot). That band is The Pretenders.

I'm not sure why The Pretenders are such a big turnoff for me. They were never very offensive, but nor were they very interesting. There's nothing about them that translates to current music. My wife can't stand them. And their best song -- "My City Was Gone" -- was co-opted by Rush Limbaugh, and even though Chrissie Hynde got him to pay for it (the money went to charity), the song is forever tainted by association. In fact, the only thing I like about The Pretenders is that Hynde was married to Jim Kerr of Simple Minds.

Which band or artist is your biggest turnoff?


3 comments:

  1. Not unless Jimmy Buffett is frequently played on stations you listen to. The Pretenders are part of a genre that I ordinarily like -- yet when they come on, I change channels. There's a lot of artists I hate, but I don't run into them often because I'm not listening to channels where they're played.

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  2. I'll give you another one -- and it's a band I kind of liked once but now I find more annoying than anything else: Vampire Weekend. React.

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