The upside to having a roughly thirty-minute commute is I've been catching up on a lot of missed podcasts. Mostly Radio Lab and This American Life. I just finished the "Numbers" episode of TAL, featuring "The Most Wanted Song" and "The Most Unwanted Song". From TAL,
[Alex Melamid and Vitaly Koma] surveyed audiences about what kind of instruments and topics they liked most in their songs. Then [with the help of composer David Soldier] they produced one song based on what people most want to hear--and one song based on what they hate the most. The one people hate includes bagpipes, children singing, lyrics about holidays and religion, wild volume and tempo changes.
The most "wanted" song dances somewhere between smooth, corny and muzak. The most "unwanted"? Well, have a listen for yourself:
The Most Unwanted Song on Last.fm in its 21 minute and 53 second entirety
Maybe Melamid and Koma are right that I only like this song because I want to think I'm elite and think my musical tastes are all weird and different, but it really is quite amazing.
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