Thursday, May 01, 2008

Can You Change the Default Song?

The Default Song is a phenomenon that I'm pretty sure doesn't apply strictly to me. Its that song that you just sing. All the time. Whenever you aren't actively thinking about a song on the radio, or something you just heard on your iPod, the default song pops to the forefront. I have brought this up to other people (who are as-or-slightly-more sane than me and therefore a good test), and most of them admit to having a default song of some sort...although not everyone was willing to own up to what theirs was. A quick Google search would indicate that the default song is well-known and documented - at least on the interwebs (see this article for instance).

Now, for as long as I can remember, I've had a pretty respectable default song. Note I said pretty. Respectable for the Beatles, the "pretty" thrown in for it being "Yellow Submarine." Its catchy. Its changeable. And its great while unpacking to walk around singing

...We all live in a yellow submarine (a what?)
...a bubble gum machine (a where?)
...a giant tambourine *weird face and imagined cackling*

Thank two years of working in a dueling piano club for that little gem. But seriously. Its easy to remember and peppy enough to bring you out of most any funk. And its followed me for years. Until now.

My default song has been invaded. Replaced. Usurped. In a bad way. My happy peppy place (which I assume exists as a counterbalance to my generally evil nature) is gone and displaced by what can only be called torture. For the last two weeks, anytime I am not actively trying not to, my brain spouts off the horror of horrors..."Picture to Burn".

If you've never listened to country radio (as I assume is the case for most of you) grab a clip of that hotness here. Its basically everything that people think is wrong with country music, pop music, teenage music and breathy talking pretending to BE music all in one. And it won't get out of my head. Even as I type this, my brain is chanting "I really really hate that stupid old pickup truck" in a crappy country twang (not to be confused with the awesome Texas drawl that I used to sport). I am spiraling into insanity faster than I ever thought possible. Not that ever I thought wouldn't get there, just not this fast.

So I beg you, if you are aware of the default song and have any idea how to reset it, please tell me! The voice in my head is driving me crazy(er than expected!)! I've always heard that if you pass on the song, you go back to default...so here's hoping one of you poor bastages picked it up from this post and are, at best, fixing my problem, at worst, suffering along with me. Tole ya I was evil.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I've recently undergone a default song shift. For the better part of a decade it was "what a day, what a day for an auto-de-fe!" from Candide which was fine, as far as that goes, except it's awkward to be caught singing that in the shower.

More recently it has been "Springtime for Hitler." Again, fine, except that I don't really like the movie.

The sift is probably just due to some combination of random brain cell death and the birth of Prubear. Suddenly, everything that could be said is sung to improbable melodies and "Springtime for Hitler" is pretty easily transformed to "Bathtime for Prudence" or "Diaper for Prudence and her clean bum" or... yeah. I imagine you get the point.