I was in the petrol station the other night, and my phone's battery was flat so I didn't have access to any podcasts etc. for my earphones. Therefore I was at the mercy of whatever was on the shop's radio/playlist.
The first one I was relatively ambivalent about (though silence would undoubtedly have been preferable) - 'Bad Romance' by Her Ladyship of Gaga. That was on while I tried to get round the store for a few items to pay for alongside my ten pounds and one penny of petroleum. However, upon joining the queue for the tills, one of the least endurable Spice Girls songs started up. I don't know its name but it goes.... actually hand on, I can't bear to type any of it out here, I'll just check Google. OK, it's called 'Say You'll Be There'. I could already tell that I'd be hearing at least 70% of it given the queue length, speed of customers being dealt with etc. Not a complaint, the staff were polite and efficient, just a general sense of how it would go. It was like torture - not the waiting, but the waiting while that dirge was poured relentlessly into my ears.
The point here is not to make some pronouncement that that song is somehow objectively bad (in fact I can practically guarantee that someone in the store started humming along in joyous appreciation of an 'old friend'), it's more just to relate a kind of a kind of grim resignation and low-key horror that part of what remains of my life was given over to being an unwilling hostage to that song. It's happened many other times in similar situations. Can anyone else relate? I know I should use it as a chance to practice stoic acceptance of the 'is-ness of now', but surely even Eckharte Tolle must have his 'ah ffs not this' moments on a bad day.
Can anyone else think of a recent equivalent for them? Songs-wise I mean. Or if you can't, what's a song that's so unbearable to you that you'd exit a hypothetical queue you'd been in for ten minutes and leave the hypothetical shop just to avoid? Again, it's personal taste in every instance, so hopefully nobody who likes the named song is offended. Wouldn't it be dull if we all liked the same things?
A related note: I know two people who work in non-retail (factory and office settings) jobs who are obliged to listen to the radio playing all day because a vote was taken and the majority wanted that, and a radio station was agreed upon. Radio 2 in one instance, and a local radio station with adverts and all sorts of other twee nonsese in the other. Although I'd choose the former if forced to, neither sounds like a scenario I'd want. Trying to focus while the Russian Roulette of 'that one's OK, I hate that one, oh I actually like this one' plays out in a relentlessy distracting way that inflicts constant sensory overwhelm. It's different if onechooses to play one's own music at home, but mandatory listening - 9-5? No thanks. I'm so glad that's not a feature in my work, I'd struggle massively to cope without going mad.
