I'm referring to the song from Ben Stiller's "Zoolander", "Start The Commotion" by the Wiseguys. It seems like every time I turn on the TV, I hear the song.

There are lots of songs like that - that awful Smashmouth song comes to mind. [shudder]

The guy in our local paper wrote something on this topic recently:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/telev...tr-phil09.html

Songs in the key of trite

October 9, 2001

BY PHIL ROSENTHAL TELEVISION CRITIC

So, having begun the new school year with a special assignment, NBC's "The West Wing" was winding down with its lecture for America on tolerance and terrorism last week when a familiar guitar riff over the closing credits promised to slam home the points writer Aaron Sorkin had been pummeling us with for the previous hour:

"There's somethin' happenin' here/What it is ain't exactly clear/There's a man with a gun over there/Tellin' me I gotta beware/I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound/Everybody look what's going down ..."

And with that "The West Wing" unofficially became the 1,131st mainstream movie or television show to use Buffalo Springfield's anti-war anthem "For What It's Worth" as shorthand to evoke a specific time, place and-or idea.

Stop, children, what's that sound, indeed.

Never mind the sentiments the song is actually supposed to convey, by this point we're sitting in front of our sets going, "For the love of God, not another cheap, manipulative use of popular music!"

Maybe we're just hypersensitive because the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 have led to a rash of pop music montages whose sole apparent purpose is to justify rerunning images already seared in our memory.

"For What It's Worth" is just one of the songs that comes up far too often. For what it's worth, you can retire it and every other song on the "Forrest Gump" soundtrack CD. Ditto for anything heard in "The Big Chill" or "Good Morning, Vietnam," which means no longer using James Brown's "I Feel Good" and Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World."

They're worn out and tired as accompaniment, and using them to prop up old footage or lend their meaning as mere background music has become a cliche.

Some songs get there faster than others, like almost everything from Moby or Fatboy Slim. During a commercial break on last week's "The West Wing," Train's "Drops of Jupiter" played over NBC's "Ed" promo. ("Tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet...") A minute or two later, in an ad for the movie "K-Pax," again it was Train's "Drops of Jupiter." Any more Train and we're gonna need a crossing gate.

That said, here are 20 popular songs we wouldn't mind never again seeing co-opted for a montage or as background music on TV--not because they're bad songs necessarily, but because they've been played way too much for their own good or ours:


* "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan became a weepy cliche by capping every other report on the Columbine massacre. Now it gets used whenever someone dies, so it comes off as cheap and cloying. We must forget it, if it's ever to mean anything again.

*"Everybody Hurts" by REM gets called upon routinely on MTV. Close your eyes and you can see some loner sulking. Let it go.

*"One" by U2 is the song MTV and others use when "Everybody Hurts" has already run in the same show.

*"Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)" by Green Day was supposed to be ironic. It never plays that way when used in one retrospective after another, from the last "Seinfeld" to the end of the Michael Jordan/Bulls glory days.

*"Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen (see above).

*"I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly is so spent after all those Michael Jordan montages that not even the airlines should touch it now.

*"One Moment in Time" by Whitney Houston has embroidered too many inspirational moments in time to be of any inspiration at any time anymore.

*"We Are the Champions" by Queen is, like stale sprayed champagne, as much a commercial redundancy to the end of any title chase as the MVP announcing he's going to Disneyland.

*"Rock 'n' Roll, Part 2" by Gary Glitter is supposed to evoke sports arena rowdiness. Da na, na, na, na, na, na, HEY! Stop it.

*"All Star" by the aptly named Smash Mouth is the "Rock 'n' Roll, Part 2" for the new century. Hey, now, you're annoying.

*"Pink Houses" by John Mellencamp says Middle America to producers on the East and West Coasts. It ain't America for you and me.

*"When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge is the Wilt Chamberlain of love scenes. Put it to bed.

*"White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane is shorthand for experimenting with drugs.

*"Break on Through" by the Doors is shorthand for getting busy with drugs.

*"Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf has been run so many times your engine is likely to stall.

*"Disco Inferno" by the Trammps plays every time there's a reference to the '70s. Maybe we should stop referring to the '70s.

*"Wild Thing" by the Troggs just makes our hearts sink. It was so perfect for Charlie Sheen's entrance in "Major League" that every other use only recalls it and nothing else.

*"Money" by Pink Floyd is doled out by producers who would cringe at simply using the song's cash-register jingling on its own, even though it's pretty much the same thing. Talk about spent.

*"Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood accompanies someone who's "bad to the bone." Becoming the umpteenth show to use it is bad to the marrow.

*"Oh Yeah" by Yello. Oh nooooooo. Not again.

October 9, 2001

I think I mentioned this sometime before the recent Music Forum debuted, but Lifehouse's "Hanging By a Moment" is, by far, this month's newest "It's Been Awhile" by Staind.

In other words, these two tracks are on infinite repeat at every local radio station in the Chicagoland area - (any that play anything resembling modern rock, that is).

OVER PLAYED!!

That god-awful new Nickelback song is creeping up the "overplayed" charts pretty damn quickly, however.

Yeah, All Star, fits in this category. Not a bad song but enough is enough. Just heard it again a week ago during the last scene of Rat Race.

My sentiments exactly!

No song is really bugging me right now. I am on a "radio hiatus" until some of this crap that's out now blows on by.

Great story. He is completely right. There are thousands more though.

Now they're using "Angel."

BTW, did you know that every track on Moby's "Play" has been licensed for use in commercials, movies, and television?

Most overplayed song of all time (not over the history, just at its time):

Tom Cochrane - Life is a Highway

Honorable mention: Sugar Ray - Fly

Any surprise Life isn't played anymore?

Another vote for overused song: That damn Takin' Care of Business song. I refuse to shop at OfficeMax!

This thread should be renamed "All Star".

Great article. I'd add Respect by Aretha Franklin. Sure, it was a big deal at one time, but now it's just o-v-e-r-p-l-a-y-e-d.

"It's Been Awhile" by Staind has been overplayed too damn much. I thought it was great the first time I heard it, but it got annoying after hearing it for about the oh, billionth time or so.

We could safely add Alisha Keys' "Fallin'" to the current overplayed category.

The album is great I don't know why there hasn't been a nother single yet. If I hear "Fallin" one more time I'm gonna

I don't know if these were on an album or the radio or anything before they were in commercials, but I hate them nonetheless:

1. In certain car commercials-"freedom is calling, here I am" (something like that-the woman has a way of slurring her words)

2. Verizon commercials-"people everywhere just wanna be free"

Most overplayed and highly annoying song in my book is "I get knocked down" by that damn English group TubThumper or whatever the hell their name was. When that song came out it was played every hour by every radio station in Milwaukee. You couldn't have the radio on for more than 20 minutes without hearing it.

And, I hated the damn song from the first time I heard it. Every once in a while the local pop hits channel will play it and I still hurl.

Blech!

Mike

I have to mention Creed's musical sphincter lock "Arms Wide Open".
Anything by Steve Miller or Lynyrd Skynyrd (at least in Arkansas)

the song was called Tubthumping and the band is Chumbawamba, quite the bunch of activists normally, kind of like a welsh Rage against the machine. I was shocked to hear them sing that song.

and another addition to the list,

Five For Fighting - Superman.

I think it's from the new dawson's creek soundtrack, so you will hear it everywhere....

None of these will ever touch the all time champ...

(drumroll, please)

Oh, Yeah by Yello

One Week by the Bare Naked Ladies.

Sorry, but how could this thread go on so long with no one mentioning those darn movie soundtrack ballads "I Will Allways Love You" and "My Heart Will Go On"? I finally had to explain to the people at work that something had to go- either it was me or that damn Lite103 Whitney Houston/Celine Dion lovin' radio station. We now listen to the oldies or classic rock.

Ack! I thought I'd be the first to say One Week then I get to the end and there it is. Denied!

Isn't there another Smashmouth song that's in a bunch of movies? I know it's in Can't Hardly Wait but I can't think of the name.

I feel like a dope now! In my TV Production 1 class, we've done 4 projects... and I've used the above 2 songs in 2 of them (the other projects I used "Beautiful Day" [which is also becoming cliche ] and a song from the Req. for a Dream soundrack... did I redeem myself with the last one???)

Just had to add in that the use of "Everloving" for the Requiem for a Dream trailer is nothing short of fantastic.

The stupid part is that the artists can't control if their song is being overplayed. They probably DON'T WANT the radio stations to play their old song over and over again, but there's not a thing that they can do. Hearing the same song by the same artist can generate a feeling of resentment towards the ARTIST, while they have no control over it. Lifehouse, mentioned in this thread, has had a new single out for a long time, but they're still playing Hanging by A Moment! Their whole CD is great, but everyone will be calling them one hit wonders ...