Pink + Nate Ruess/Chris Issak

I work retail. I've worked retail off and on for about 17 years. My first job at Ross was my real introduction to the redundancy of what a retail radio station was. A strange mix of mostly terrible, but some good, sometimes (if you're lucky) even great songs. It was 1998 or 1999 so by then, you would still hear songs from the 1960s and 1970s over the speakers embedded into the ceiling. Nowadays, like many "oldies" radio stations across the country (if you're lucky enough to spot one), having dropped the 1950s completely, and have mostly 1960s, 1970s and jeez, sometimes even 1980s. Similarly, work radio stations are composed of contemporary songs, "bright pop" (according to "SiriusXM The Blend" which is what they play at my current job) and some 1980s and 1990s.

With each entry here, I'm going to feature one song that is horrible and then another which is at least decent. I'm fairly convinced that these stations have subliminal messages ingrained into each note, otherwise why else would they play them so often? I was told, by comparison at Target where there is no overhead music played, that the lack of music actually keeps people shopping longer. Supposedly, when songs are played, a customer becomes aware of their time spent in one store, whereas silence makes that distinction murky. I worked at Target for 7 years and the only music you would hear was on the loop tape played on the electronics department televisions. There were 3 different TV's; the main channel broadcast across all the TV's for sale, then the next two over in the CD and DVD/Blu-Ray sections with different movie trailers and new music videos snippets. I didn't know most of the songs as a whole that were played, so I'd sometimes fill in the rest in my mind. I remember doing this growing up watching music compilation commercials (which I've always loved seeing). Particularly before I first heard about Blondie's "Heart Of Glass" from a disco compilation, I imagined it being totally different, although I can't remember how specifically. More recently, I recall "filling in the blank" with Bruno Mars' "Locked Out Of Heaven", which is a really terrible and weird song. It's most notable for it's near theft of The Police's distinct sound. I'm guessing imitation is the most sincere form of flattery? This is also comparable to "Blend" (or Bland as I call it sometimes) station favorite, Maroon 5's Adam Levine, who very much imitates Sting's oddball singing style in some of their godawful songs. Whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, oh oh uh uh oh.

Today's song I HATE is the most often repeated, "Just Give Me A Reason" by Pink and Nathan Ruess (aka that whiny dude from Fun., don't forget the period on the end). I say repeated because when work an 8 hour shift, I will definitely hear this at least 2 times. It's boring as hell, and seems to have won some acclaim, even being nominated at the Grammys (what does that really mean though?).

I remember Pink being considered some kind of pop rebel or something. She was an outcast in high school and has a dog named Fucker. When she was a teenager, she was in a group called Choice that was her first label backed music endeavor. 

They only had one song that was in Shaq's starring 1996 film, "Kazaam", which I'm sure will garner some sort of ironic "bad movie" resurgence as with train wreck "Space Jam". Pink was apparently told to either drop her group or break out solo on her own by bigwig LA Reid. I'm not sure of the specifics, but it sounds like a shitty thing to do to her fellow group members, Stephanie Galligan and Chrissy Conway. I wonder if there's any animosity whenever they go into a clothing store and hear this song, or "Try" or "True Love" which are all played multiple times on "The Blend". Conway found success in a Christian girl group called ZOEgirl, Galligan I'm not sure of her whereabouts. Pink can actually carry a tune which is the sad thing. The material she sings is just rotten.

Severely bland vocalist, Nathan Ruess who co-wrote and sang on this crappy song with Pink, is lead singer of his own aforementioned group called Fun. "We Are Young" is probably their most known hit, which apparently doesn't meet SiriusXM The Blend's guidelines since they've never played it. Maybe it's "too heavy"? ha. He started in a band called The Format in Arizona in the early 2000's. I've never heard them so I can't really comment on their musical prowess, or there lack of. "Blend" constantly plays another terrible Fun song called "Carry On", which I'm not sure even sure if it's considered a hit song by them. 

Many songs are placed on "The Blend" and sometimes are kept and others are taken out of rotation. The weird sounding female voice over (which might be the same lady who voices the cow in Lactaid milk commercials), explains the new crappy tracks that are "new" to the station.

The latest one is "Night Changes" by One Direction, which is still playing. Whereas, Macy Gray's ear gouging "Hands On You" is thankfully not played anymore. 

In the I LIKE category, we have the seldom played, "Wicked Games" by Chris Isaak. This came out in 1989 and I remember the video was considered super racy. It actually still is, even though it resembles a Calvin Klein ad. You may also remember this song was featured in Made For TV film, "The Preppie Murder" in which Isaak also did the score. Funny enough, in a scene in Lara Flynn Boyle's bedroom, you can see a Chris Isaak poster in the background. 

"Games" was also used in Lynch's "Wild At Heart", which to connect the dots has Boyle in his (Lynch's) TV series, "Twin Peaks", which was airing during this time. Even further, apparently Pink covers this song live. haha. Weird.