"The Most Unwanted Song"
Song by Komar and Melamid and Dave Soldier
from the album The People's Choice: Music
Released1997 (1997)
Genre"Unwanted":

"Wanted":
Length21:58 ("Unwanted")
5:09 ("Wanted")
Label
Composer(s)Dave Soldier
Lyricist(s)Nina Mankin

"The Most Unwanted Song" is an avant-garde novelty song created by artists Komar and Melamid and composer Dave Soldier in 1997. The song was written to incorporate lyrical and musical elements that were disliked by most respondents to a poll, including bagpipes, cowboy music, an opera singer rapping, and a children's choir that urged listeners to "do all [their] shopping at Walmart!"[1][2]

Along with its counterpart "The Most Wanted Song", it was released on the CD The People's Choice Music in 1997, which was sold at the Dia Art Foundation bookstore and later through Soldier's Mulatta Records.[3][4] Although deliberately designed to be as unpleasant as possible, "The Most Unwanted Song" is the more popular of The People's Choice Music songs. The album has been praised for its comedic value and as a social statement criticizing the influence of market research and opinion polls on people's lives.

In 2019, The People's Choice: Music was remastered and reissued on vinyl, CD, and cassette by Needlejuice Records.[5]

Background

Beginning in 1994, Russian-American graphic artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid created a series of "most wanted" and "least wanted" paintings ("Выбор народа"), based on visual aspects found to be most "wanted" and "unwanted" by the public according to professional opinion polls. These paintings were published in the book Painting by Numbers: Komar and Melamid's Scientific Guide to Art in 1997.[6]

Asked by an art gallery owner to make a CD for him, Komar and Melamid approached American neuroscientist and musician David Sulzer (known in his musical career as Dave Soldier), with whom they were working on the opera Naked Revolution for The Kitchen in Manhattan. Soldier suggested adapting the concept of The People's Choice painting series to music, to be titled The People's Choice: Music. This project again used the opinions of the public, as measured by polling surveys, to determine which elements of the medium were "most" or "least wanted". The polls were written by Soldier and taken via the Dia Art Foundation in the spring of 1996.[1][3]

The online survey of approximately 500 Dia visitors and participators revealed that the themes, instruments and other musical and lyrical aspects that people least wanted to hear included cowboy music, bagpipes, accordions, opera, rapping, children's voices, tubas, drum machines, and advertising jingles. The artists then incorporated all of these elements into "The Most Unwanted Song", which lasts almost twenty-two minutes as recorded.[7]

Soldier wrote "The Most Unwanted Song" and its companion "The Most Wanted Song" with lyricist Nina Mankin. They debuted the songs at a 1997 performance in New York with soprano Dina Emerson, a large ensemble conducted by Norman Yamada, and a children's choir; Soldier played banjo, while Komar and Melamid jointly played a bass drum.[7]

"The Most Unwanted Song" and "The Most Wanted Song" were performed live for the first time since 1997 at a concert to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Manhattan arts venue (Le) Poisson Rouge in June 2023, alongside other works by Soldier.[8]

Lyrics and music

"The Most Unwanted Song"

Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (pictured in 1929) is referenced in both "The Most Wanted Song" and "The Most Unwanted Song".[9]

According to the survey, the most unwanted music is "over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition". The most unwanted orchestras are large and feature the accordion and the bagpipes, with other unpopular instruments including the banjo, flute, tuba, harp, pipe organ and synthesizer. The least desirable singers are the operatic soprano and the children's choir, who sing atonal melodies and rap. The most unwanted genres are commercial jingles, political slogans and elevator music. The most unwanted lyrical subjects are cowboys and holidays, and the most unpleasant listening circumstance is involuntary exposure to commercials and elevator music.[10]

"The Most Unwanted Song" lasts 22 minutes.[11] Soprano Dina Emerson is the song's lead singer, rapping lyrics about the American frontier. The narrator of the song is a cowboy who kills bears, deer and snakes with a big knife, lassos cows and rides in the wilderness "wild and free". On the plain, the cowboy rests for a while by reading Wittgenstein and pondering the philosophy of language. After singing a few verses in German, he returns home to make love to a woman named Miss Kitty. He also shoots a suspicious stranger and fights Indians. The plot is repeatedly interrupted by a children's choir that rejoices in various religious and public holidays and urges listeners to do their shopping at Walmart. Norman Yamada was the conductor of the 18-piece orchestra. In the song, Komar and Melamid play bass drum and Soldier plays the banjo.[10] Towards the end, there is a long spoken-word segment during which Nina Mankin shouts political slogans into a megaphone.[1] According to Soldier, in 1997 there were less than 200 people in the world who could be expected to like "The Most Unwanted Song".[10]

"The Most Wanted Song"

According to Soldier, the survey confirmed that "today’s popular music indeed provides an accurate estimate of the wishes of the vox populi". Based on the responses, the most desired lineup is between 3 and 10 instruments, the most popular of which are (starting with the most liked) guitar, piano, saxophone, bass guitar, drums, violin, cello, and synthesizer. The latter was the only instrument that was both wanted and unwanted. The most sought-after singer is a low-pitched male or female voice whose technique is drawn from rock and R&B music. The most popular lyrical subject is love, and the music is preferably listened to at home. The only lyrical topic that appeared in both the most wanted and unwanted categories was “intellectual stimulation”.[10] For this reason, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is referenced in both songs.[9] According to a survey, people prefer medium-sized tunes that are around five minutes long. Regarding the pitch of the voice, it was hoped that it would not be particularly low or high. Likewise, regarding the tempo, it was hoped that it would not be particularly fast or slow. Songs deviating from moderate tempo and pitch were viewed very negatively.[10]

"The Most Wanted Song" has two singers, a man (Ronnie Gent) and a woman (Ada Dyer). When writing the lyrics, Mankin imagined Whitney Houston as the female singer and Bruce Springsteen as the male singer. "The Most Wanted Song" tells a simple and emotional story with clear rhymes, whereas "The Most Unwanted Song" tells a complex and non-rhyming story.[1] The song is reminiscent of songs by Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey,[11] and Celine Dion that were popular at the time.[12] The lyrics are about a woman in love who meets a lonely traveler. Both like to read Wittgenstein and notice that they are "exactly alike". At the end, guitar and saxophone solos are heard, after which Dyer and Gent sing in unison. The last chorus is played half a step higher and is accompanied by a louder synthesizer than before. According to Soldier, 72 ± 12% of listeners like the song "unavoidably and uncontrollably".[10]

Reception

Stewart Mason of AllMusic described The People's Choice Music as "a hilarious parody of the concept of 'art for the people' and a pointed critique of how thoroughly market research and polling influences daily life". According to Mason, The People's Choice Music's songs were "even more conceptually brilliant" than Komar & Melamid's paintings, and "The Most Wanted Song" could very well have become a hit. Mason considered "The Most Unwanted Song" to be the better song on the album, describing it as "epic". According to him, "a coloratura soprano rapping about life on the prairie" was an unforgettable experience.[11]

Nina Mankin was not surprised that "The Most Unwanted Song" was the more popular recording.[1] Michael Colton of The Washington Post called "The Most Wanted Song" clichéd and boring, which he interpreted as reflecting the lyricist's attitude towards vox populi and the contemporary state of the music charts. On the other hand, Colton regarded "The Most Unwanted Song" as "anything but boring" and "hilarious in its atrociousness".[9] Sarah Vowell of Salon pondered whether the music audience is divided into those who focus on what they hear and those who do not. According to Vowell, "The Most Wanted Song" is not significantly different from the radio hits of the time, causing her attention to falter. Vowell considered the song's undisturbing nature a weakness rather a strength, whereas she called "The Most Unwanted Song" "a real crackup". According to Vowell, Komar and Melamid pondered questions important to both art and society: "What would art look like if it were to please the greatest number of people? Or conversely: What kind of culture is produced by a society that lives and governs itself by opinion polls?"[12]

Eliot van Buskirk of Wired described "The Most Unwanted Song" as "a scientific attempt to create the most annoying song ever",[13] but ironically deemed "The Most Wanted Song" "horrible" and "a way rougher listen" than "The Most Unwanted Song".[14] Jordie Yow of The Tyee described "The Most Wanted Song" as "bland, boring, and completely terrible" and "The Most Unwanted Song" as "so bad it's good", explaining that "It takes all the qualities that make songs stand out and combines them together." According to Yow, "true music lovers" enjoy music that challenges the conventional understanding of music, and "The Most Unwanted Song" was deliberately designed to be as challenging as possible.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Mankin, Nina. "America's Most Unwanted Song". Archived from the original on March 11, 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
  2. ↑ Soldier, Dave (June 2, 2008). "The Most Unwanted Music: Full Score" (PDF). davesoldier.com. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Dave Soldier and Komar & Melamid: The People's Choice Music". Dia Center for the Arts. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  4. ↑ "Komar & Melamid and Dave Soldier "The People's Choice: Music"". Artists : Release. Mulatta.org. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  5. ↑ "The Most Unwanted Song coming vinyl/CD/cassette". Needlejuice Records. 8 January 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  6. ↑ Wypijewski, JoAnn, ed. (1997). Painting by Numbers: Komar & Melamid's Scientific Guide to Art. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-22880-9.
  7. 1 2 Wolk, Douglas (December 1997). "The Most Unwanted Song: Focus Group Rock". CMJ New Music Monthly (52): 12–13.
  8. ↑ "LPR 15: Dave Soldier Orchestra". LPR. Retrieved 2023-09-14.
  9. 1 2 3 Colton, Michael (January 21, 1998). "'People's Choice': The Ears Have It". Washington Post. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Dave Soldier and Komar & Melamid: The People's Choice Music". Dia Center for the Arts. January 2, 1998. Archived from the original on January 17, 1999. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  11. 1 2 3 Mason, Stewart. "The People's Choice Music: The Most Wanted Song, The Most Unwanted Song". AllMusic. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  12. 1 2 Vowell, Sarah (December 12, 1997). "Survey Says...Give the People What They Want". Salon. Archived from the original on August 17, 2000. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  13. ↑ Van Buskirk, Eliot (April 18, 2008). "MP3: Scientific Attempt To Create Most Annoying Song Ever". Wired.com. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
  14. ↑ Van Buskirk, Eliot (May 19, 2008). "Survey-Produced 'Most Wanted Song' Sounds Horrible". Wired. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  15. ↑ Yow, Jordie (September 18, 2008). "When Science and Research Are Wrong". The Tyee. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
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