Spotify Playlist, etc

I started working a ridiculous Spotify playlist that I based on my own findings of what I've heard at work (past and present) and also a master list I found on one of the SiriusXM message boards. I take screen shots (as I'm sure you've noticed) of what's "Now Playing", because without that, I probably would have no clue who sings most of the songs I hear while at work. Most contemporary, radio-friendly music just goes over my head, I'm not really into it. Certain songs will sometimes age okay, but as a whole, meh, not too interested. You'll this gargantuan playlist (and it's not done, it's a work in progress), at top right of the blog page, or just below this text for your convenience. I guess I'd suggest hearing snippets of it to the get the general idea. I can't imagine anyone reading this blog would actually want to thoroughly listen to this playlist, but hey, you never know. There are a few good songs on there to be fair, some I don't personally remember ever hearing at work, but have apparently been played on "The Blend" at some point. Any-hoo, enjoy (or not)! Let me know if there's something missing. There is a particular song I used to hear at my old job at TJ Maxx. I have no idea who sang it, but I'm guessing it's from the late 1990s and it's a dance type of song, you know really artificial sounding. The only lyrics I unfortunately remember are just "nah nah nah-nah" and something along the lines of "we're going round the world again..". I also heard that same song at Universal Studios once when I stepped onto one of those flat escalators into the park from the parking garage. Any ideas?

When Smokey Sings by ABC

I used to hear "When Smokey Sings" by ABC at TJ Maxx when I worked there in 2001-2002. I think its in my top ten songs that I hate the most. I'm sorry guys, but this song is horrible. I can't even bring myself to re-listen to the song for this post. I don't think I've heard this song in 13 years. The radio feed at TJ Maxx was all their own. It wasn't commonplace for businesses to use SiriusXM at the time, even though it existed then.  I remember the first commercials I used to see for the satellite radio service featured David Bowie.

Nice Chanel guitar! *barfs*

UPDATE:
Do yourself a favor and just listen to the original Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. For cryin' out loud, the guy's still alive, I don't care what ABC was thinking.

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.