this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Well the greatest song in the world was famously performed by Jack Black and Kyle Gass, and they can't remember how it went

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago

Luckily they wrote a tribute

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

A wild D reference appears...

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago

In fact, the odds are you will never hear the song you'd like best.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago (1 children)

What about the past 250,000 years of lost music?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

They didn't have auto tune so is it really music

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I’m an uber driver. I had a passenger and we got to discussing what kind of music she likes. She said “Little Wing” so I told Siri to play some “Little Wing”. Of course Siri knew what I was asking for and played some Lil Wayne.

Passenger said she liked Lil Wayne because he’s got different moods. “Sometimes I just wanna chill, you know? Like it ain’t gotta be all go-go-go all the time you know?”

So I asked her if she’d heard any BB King before. She said “Who’s that?” So I told Siri to play The Thrill is Gone by BB King.

She was like “Ooooooh! This is chill as fuck thank you!”

I had just learned about BB King the previous day from another passenger, when I had the Grateful Dead playing some blues. The passenger from the day before was an old hippie, and she was telling me about seeing BB King and Led Zeppelin at a place called The Psychedelic Supermarket in Salem, MA back in the 70s.

I also showed this younger passenger Since I’ve Been Loving You by Led Zeppelin. She was so stoked to have some new music to get her friends to chill to, since they all into that go-go-go music all the time.

I love being someone in a position to introduce people to new music. I love my job.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Congrats on hearing BB King! The dude is a legend, basically creating a whole new genre. Imagine making music so good that it becomes a genre. That's BB King.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

+1 for a new aspiring guitarist. Never cared for the blues until I tried playing along with thrill is gone and it blew my mind.

Anyone reading this wondering if they should check him out, do it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

weird it didn't play Hendrix - Little Wing.

Still a great song and v chill

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I've already heard All Star by Smash Mouth.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Rip Mr mouth

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The pedant in me has to point our that if it's the "best song we've ever heard..." then we already heard it, and it isn't still "out there" as in unheard and waiting to be listened to.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is not the best song in the world, it’s just a tribute

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Might not even be in your language

[–] MrBusiness 3 points 6 months ago

Teenage me could never have imagined how much I love city pop now.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Nope. I'm pretty sure everyone has heard that chumbawumba song.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Pissing the night awayyy...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

There's a good chance that you'd a have a new favorite song every day if you could listen to all of them. We're constantly changing and they would probably speak to us differently on different days.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Reminds me of a saying, "that some of the best days of our lives haven't happened yet".

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

There's sort of an observer effect at play too though.

The more you hear it, the less interesting it is to you. The song doesn't change, but your perception does, and you develop an acquired taste in music that way.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

While true for some songs, others grow on you or stay good for eternity. My favourite all-time song hasn't changed in 30 years: Black (Colin Vearncombe) - Wonderful Life

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That song had a revival recently. I don't remember hearing it when it came out, but it has been on my coworkers radio every day for the last couple of months. Maybe it has been on a TV show or something. Great song.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

In the past two decades there's been a bunch covers that I know of (or just learned of):

  • Ace of Base
  • Seeed
  • Zucchero (didn't even know about this one until now)
  • Katie Melua
  • Smith & Burrows (the one you heard on your coworker's radio?)
  • Imany (or did you hear this one?)

and then a bunch of electronic music mixes.

I love that song since the 80s; and for a long time - until the early 2000s I knew no covers - so I am very happy that there's a lot of tributes to Black with lots of different styles :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I just heard it again my radio on my way home. I still don't know why it's so suddenly popular again right now and it's puzzling me.

Anyway, it has stood the test of time, and I think that's about the only way to actually find the greatest songs.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Sorry I disagree. Barbie girl - Aqua has already been written, and most people know it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I was gonna go with Macarena, it has a dance!

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

It might not even be written yet.

I don't know why, but it just seems so weird that you can go back 30 years and no one would have any awareness of a lot of songs that everyone knows today. They were only up to like Mambo Number 2 or Hey I'll Think About It! Nickelback didn't yet exist but if they did, they'd be singing to look at this thing they are doing right now, maybe take a photograph.

Go back 100 years and no one has any awareness of entire genres of music loved by billions today. It was almost an entirely different culture with popular hits like classical music, Take Me Out To The Ballgame, or You Are My Sunshine and other songs that are considered children's music today.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Same with books and reading.

[–] 404 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The best songs we've ever heard are the ones we listened to as teenagers. You'll never get a dopamine rush like that again.

https://slate.com/technology/2014/08/musical-nostalgia-the-psychology-and-neuroscience-for-song-preference-and-the-reminiscence-bump.html

Brain imaging studies show that our favorite songs stimulate the brain’s pleasure circuit, which releases an influx of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and other neurochemicals that make us feel good. The more we like a song, the more we get treated to neurochemical bliss, flooding our brains with some of the same neurotransmitters that cocaine chases after.

Music lights these sparks of neural activity in everybody. But in young people, the spark turns into a fireworks show. Between the ages of 12 and 22, our brains undergo rapid neurological development—and the music we love during that decade seems to get wired into our lobes for good.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (5 children)

I disagree. When I was a teenager, I loved Green Day, Nirvana, The Offspring, and The Sex Pistols. I went through a heavy phase in my early 20s.

While I still like those artists and songs, there are other bands and songs that I like more now. (The Rumjacks are a great band if anyone's looking for something new).

The music I listened to when I was in my teens and early 20s will always be special to me, and shaped my tastes, but now that I'm in my 40s, my life is vastly different to how it was back then, and other songs speak to me more now than those songs do.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah there’s other music that I enjoy more now, but I put on Nevermind the other day and my voice was hoarse within ten minutes. Sang that whole thing through at maximum volume in the car.

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[–] 404 3 points 6 months ago

Interesting. What did you listen to in your 30's? Do you remember it as vividly as you do the music you listened to in your teenage years? Can you sing along the same way? How will the music you listen to now compare when you're in your 50's?

Not saying the music is objectively better or suitable for all points in life. Just pointing to studies saying teenagers have a huge emotional response to music. IIRC there have been studies showing dementia patients kind of wake up when you start playing music they listened to in their teens.

It's "better = more suitable here and now" vs "better = more impactful" I guess.

[–] MrBusiness 2 points 6 months ago

I agree with you. Back then my preference was pretty narrow, but I still love most of what I listened to. Now there's something in almost every genre that I really like.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

But there are also many that are "among the greatest I will ever hear".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Just heard Plaineclothes Man for the first time last week. I love it when I find new music that really speaks to me, there's so much good stuff out there right now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I just heard of reverend beat-man from watching righteous gemstones. That song black metal is sick

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)
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[–] BumpingFuglies 2 points 6 months ago

Doubtful. I already own Echolyn's "Mei". Hard to believe there's any song I'd like more.

That being said, I'm always on the lookout for new music. I'd love to find a song better than "Mei", despite how impossible that seems to me.

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