Songs with long titles
I don't know about anyone else, but I always find it interesting when songs with quite long names appear on music TV channels. The channel often opts to abridge said song name in some way, much as it does with band names. But whereas abbreviated band names have become part of the pop lexicon (SOAD; QOTSA; RHCP or The Chilis), this is less the case for song names.
Sure, if people know which artist you are talking about you can abbreviate song names and album names when chatting or writing: Dirk and Kings for Adam & The Ants' Dirk Wears White Søx and Kings of the Wild Frontier albums respectively, for example.
But going back quite a few months ago, when I first started seeing Trivium (right) on the Kerrang! channel, I noticed that the name of their song was very long: "A Gunshot to the Head of Trepida". Who or what is Trepida? I wondered. Is is a mythical beast? A Greek or Roman god from the old days? No, neither. It was a few weeks before I realized that the song title should rightly be "A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation". For me, though, it will always and forever be "A Gunshot to the Head of Trepida".
Sure, if people know which artist you are talking about you can abbreviate song names and album names when chatting or writing: Dirk and Kings for Adam & The Ants' Dirk Wears White Søx and Kings of the Wild Frontier albums respectively, for example.
But going back quite a few months ago, when I first started seeing Trivium (right) on the Kerrang! channel, I noticed that the name of their song was very long: "A Gunshot to the Head of Trepida". Who or what is Trepida? I wondered. Is is a mythical beast? A Greek or Roman god from the old days? No, neither. It was a few weeks before I realized that the song title should rightly be "A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation". For me, though, it will always and forever be "A Gunshot to the Head of Trepida".Labels: adam ant
permalink posted by * (asterisk) at 9:13 AM
6 Comments:
One of my fave songs, that, from probably my fave album of all time. You can check out my Six Line Review here if you want. Although the fact that they incorrectly put an apostrophe in "it's" does bug me. (I see you left it out.)
They do the same thing on the satellite tv guide. This mean that one of the lifestyle channels shows what appears to be 'the Art of Pain' at 9.30 in the morning. A little early for s&m I would have thought LOL
The rule is that there is no room for the long and the messy in corporate America. It has to be packaged and marketed and turned into a freakin ringtone...so when some musician (oh, sorry, er I mean "artist") gets long or messy, it becomes fodder for a marketing strategy. Even military campaigns are being branded now...Operations whatever....makes dirty ugly nastiness easier to sell. My father used to say, "Son, you can sell shit on a stick if it's packaged up and marketed right".....
Whiter just doesn't sound the same as whiter shade of pale does it? I guess thats why the band insists on its title of of white America being the whole thing. I love long song titles it reminds me of poetry titles...which of course, it is...
this also makes me think of seeminly funny e-mail subject lines. Often they are cut off in your inbox...and often can be hilarious till you open up your mail...
Yer can't do that!!!!
The Rise and Fall of Zig !!!
what happened to Zag?
Rattus Norv !!!
Duncan Norville in The Stranglers??
They'll be reducin' em to text titles soon...
Nvr Mnd T Blx Hrs T Sx Pstls
Pie: Ah, those backward Rs, yes...
Kate: True. I'd noticed that on the EPG entries and hadn't given it a thought.
Hi Mister Anchovy, and welcome. Without long and messy, where would we be? We've got to have unwieldy things! They come along so rarely these days, which makes them all the more interesting.
Candy: Yes, e-mail subjects, too. They always somehow seem more interesting! Maybe I should try it with my post headings...
4D: I know - it's a travesty. And don't get me started on txt spk.
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