The true story of “We Built This City”- the most detested song in human history

(I am disappointed if your leaving technique does not include rockets)

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There’s nothing particularly wrong with Vienna. It’s just that it was kept from getting to number one in the UK charts by Joe Dolce.

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…is why We Built This city is considered so bad. Its bad by comparison with its predecessors.

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At least this version makes sense.

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I thought they were best known for the “The Rains of Castamere”

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Hey, what’s the matter, you? Gotta no respect? Don’t dis the Dolce! :wink:

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No, no, no. Songs in other languages are, to me, inaccessible for the most part. I guess I just meant a catchy, simple tune tied to lyrics that are relatively straightforward–ie, go basically where you expect them to without a lot of “huh? what was THAT supposed to mean?” (often to find out it meant nothing at all–just sounded good–which is fine of course, but I do admit to sometimes being annoyed when a great sounding song has nonsensical lyrics—thus the “I must be shallow” qualifier to my original comment. The lyrics can be stupid–they just need to make some sort of sense.)

Er, you do realize that What Does the Fox Say? is a parody song?

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When I was in middle school, I got to go to a nerd camp where I stayed in college dorms and went to mini-classes for a few weeks. One class was in radio engineering and broadcasting. At the end, the kids teamed up into groups and each group got 1/2 hr on the local college station.

After going through the radio archives, being 7th graders, we led off with this charming ditty and then played We Built This City five times in a row.

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What do I consider a BAD song? Well there are many songs I don’t care for. You kids today could play me a whole mix tape of stuff I never heard of and I’d probably be like - meh.

This song sticks out as awful. First off the premise and topic is just… too much. I mean maybe this is more of a parody - and I love parody - but it just plays out as too serious. The vocals are bad, the production isn’t good… unlike these other horrible songs that create instant ear worms, I wouldn’t pass by it if it came on the radio.

Also - this one is pretty bad. Though I do have to say “I love selling blow.” a pretty good anthem for life.

“Where the hell is all my baking soda? I was going to make cookies.”

“Uh sorry gram-gram, I’ll run to the store and get you some.”

Excellent song, and one of my favorite Michel Gondry videos. Pity the rest of his album wasn’t worth listening to.

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Seconded. Anyone not well-into their geezerhood likely has no grasp of being completely at the mercy of your local radio station. Folks who grew up in urban areas are likely similarly unaware of the paucity of choice of their rural counterparts.

Also, I was ten. The summer this song peaked, for me it was this and Dire Straits’s “Money For Nothing”. Whoa yeah.

Kinda sorry to hear Starship despised it so. I imagine that happens fairly often.

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I gave you a <3 for the backwards rabbit. That was terribly cute.

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Accessible means 4/4 time signature, identifiable opening, repeated chorus, and often some lyrical or musical “hook”.

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I used this song to teach some Ecuadorian 3rd graders irregular past tense verbs. We built a city out of cereal boxes and other stuff, then they all had to get into little groups, pick a material, then we all sang through the song with their materials replacing “rock and roll.” So if you ever hear a ~24 year old Ecuadorian singing this song absent-mindedly, then cursing their gringo ESL teacher under their breath, that may be on me…

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Sweet FSM, if I hear Mississippi Queen just one more time…bad things are gonna happen.

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The most detested song in human history??

Not for me. There are a whole bunch of songs that when they come on the car radio, my hand will shoot out and change the station without me even thinking about it. I don’t love this song but it’s not on that list either.

My nominations for most detested song:

  1. “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper
  2. Every rap song ever recorded
  3. Every Nickleback song ever recorded
  4. “Sugar Walls” by Sheena Easton

I can still listen to “We Built This City”. I think of it as a “morning commute” song. I like the shout out to FM radio in the beginning. Strangely, I strongly associate this song with the Dire Straights song “Money for Nothing”. Not sure why

But you have to admit that the lyrics are sheer pop GENIUS! I mean, “someone left a cake out in the rain…”?

They don’t write them like that anymore.

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I worked as a short-order cook in a “pub” in Maine next to the naval shipyard. Thursday nights were cover band night. EVERY BAND had to play “Hard to Handle” for some reason. Therefore that one is plastered to my brain as an amalgam of approx 15 slightly off-key beltings. I miss having all the burrito fix-ins I could eat, but I do not miss that.

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Ok. Try this one:

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