Thanks, Mr. Internet! With the Speech Accent Archive, I'll never wonder what an African accent should sound like again! Of course, now I'll forever ponder the differences between the speech patterns of Mozambique and Chad. (AND why they had the people read such an inane paragraph about Stella and her shopping list.)
Discussion topic for today: Graduation anthems: fluke or well-planned marketing strategy? Discuss.
Tara and I were talking about this issue last night. It seems that every year, there's a song that perfectly coincides with the spring transition of life's chapters and just happens to express some variation on that sentiment. It is enough to make the song a bona-fide graduation anthem.
The graduation anthem is a storied tradition, dating back to the 16th century, I'm sure, but for brevity's sake, I'll keep this discussion focused on recent history.
There was about a three-year stretch when the graduation anthem really made itself known. One year we got Baz Luhrmann's "Wear Sunscreen," which I hold to be the most inexplicable hit song of all time, right next to OMC's "How Bizarre." The next year gave us Vitamin C's "Friends Forever," which had the sheer audacity to actually name itself "Graduation (Friends Forever)." Then finally, the three-year trifecta was completed with "Here's To the Night," a song whose creators Tara and I could not for the life of us remember. (We finally googled it. Eve 6. Remember them*?)
I'm sure Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" was in there somewhere and quickly established itself as the premiere song for all nostalgic montages for TV and film for the next 2 years.
This year, I'm afraid the graduation anthem is pretty much a foregone conclusion. That's right, it's Nickelback with "Photograph," a song with the strongest leading stanza in history:
Look at this photograph
Everytime I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red
And what the hell is on Joey's head
This is a song tailor-made for Flickr slideshows, people. It's unstoppable. Here's the chorus:
Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye
Can't you just see the slightly-drunken revelers with their arms around each other, swearing to keep in touch and stay best friends forever even though they're going to colleges three states away**? Can't you just...picture it?
Anyway, feel free to share any favorite graduation anthems I might have missed, especially if they're by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.
Tomorrow I'll talk about how much I hate ComCast and why in the world someone would steal my ruttin' car cover***.
*Here's what Tara gave me to go on, before we even remembered the song - "Uh...the video was the red-haired singer walking around a house party, but being nostalgic."
**Actually, typing that made me kind of sad. Sorry I blew it, high school classmates.
***Honestly, Cubs fans. I know it's opening day, but my car cover?
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12 comments:
Oh! Oh!
Sara McLachlan - I Will Remember You
(will you remember me?)
:`(
And in a slightly different vein, but yet a Graduation Song of Sorts: School's Out For Summer... by that one old band who's name I'm too lazy to google.
Eh who am I kidding: Alice Cooper. Thanks Google.
Pomp and Circumstance?
Also I think "I Hate You, Fuck You, Leave Me Alone" by Reel Big Fish is appropriate, on a personal level.
Language, Jacob! I have Grammas who read this blog!
Rob, how could I forget good ol' McLach? The tears shed to that song could fill a reservoir.
a song of nostaligia....drawing a blank, but EVE 6!!! totally remember them. i would play "inside out" on repeat all the time. i think i just liked the fact that they used fun words oblivion, rendez vous, and um....blender?
Apparently I am the only one who reads this blog that is not also a woman. "Oh no, we don't get to see the same mouthbreathing hicks everyday who only held us back anymore." Who cares. And why are you talking in the 2nd person. It's creepy.
(Though I fail to see how Sarah McLachlan and Alice Cooper, and FRIGGING Nickelback of all people, edged out Green Day for nostalgic music to play over a slideshow. "Time of your life" is clearly one of the top songs in the genre.)
- Scott
P.S. You need to hear the magic of Nickelback. At this site two Nickelback songs play simultaneously through your computer speakers. On the left "How you remind me" on the right "Someday." Your homework is to listen to it and see if anything is... familiar. Trust me, it's worth it.
boo, scott. That's old news. Why didn't you just put a link up for a Star Wars kid video??
I don't know about graduation, but I think Ben Folds "Song for the Dumped" might work for the end of summer camp/late september of freshman year. That's just an observation. It would be even better if if was "Song for the dumped via text message/facebook."
^^woops, didn't sign that. ^^
I also wanted to say that you can layer Avril Lavigne's Complicated over almost any hit nickelback single. I think it's "complicated" anyway...
Keri
The Nickelback thing was pretty awesome. Oh and the song at my Graduation was "Good Riddance". Good Riddance! I wanted 'It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I feel fine)' but luckily we didn't get "At the Crossroads" by Bone Thugs in Harmony which was also on the ballot. Yes, we were very into the democratic process. Another good one I thought would work was 'No Such Thing' by John Mayer. By the way, those PSAs with the cast of The Office were absolutely brilliant. I saw them on TV when they aired and laughed very hard, then I promptly watched the rest of them online. My favorite is probably Dwights educational bear one, or Jim's jelly bean one. Ok, so I don't get out much... Bye-bye!
~#2
I got to admit, the Magic of Nickleback wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. I mean, if all you're proving is that their songs are in 16 bar ABA style... I'm just saying you could pull it off just as well with:
Green Day
Bush
Alkaline Trio
Our Lady Peace
Cold
Papa Roach
ANY MUCH MUCH MORE!!!
(sorry, felt like an infomercial)
j fi, I totally agree. Eve 6's use of vocabulary was one of the primary appeals of that song. Heh heh. Blender.
Scotty, I don't think a single one of us was actually BEING nostalgic. We were just talking about the means through which a vast percentage of the population are manipulated into being nostalgic. Clearly two different things.
Keri - Be cool, Star Wars Kid. This isn't Raph we're talking about. I had heard about the Nickelback phenomenon, but never actually heard it. So I appreciate the link. I found it quite fascinating.
Rob - Your face is in 16 bar ABA style.
i give good description.
...but being nostalgic.
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