Sarahel's Semiotics 4U

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I just remember growing up listening to Top 40 radio (until about age 12 when there was an "alternative" station), and being annoyed at all the "love you baby ooh" songs. It was a serious epiphany when I discovered that plenty of people wrote rock/pop songs about other things.

think that love you baby ooh songs are no better or worse than non love you baby ooh songs by definition

I think I also have issues with "baby" as a term of endearment.

semiotically speaking?

yes! There's a song by The Pop Group, that I thought the lyrics were "Don't call me baby" (I think it's actually "don't call me pain") ...

I think I also have issues with "baby" as a term of endearment.

Hahaha! I've recently asked a few female friends of mine whether this bothers them and it doesn't for the most part. I think it should.

Love crops up quite a lot as something to sing about,
cos most groups make most of their songs about falling in love
or how happy they are to be in love,
you occasionally wonder why these groups do sing about it all the time -
it's because these groups think there's something very special about it
either that or else it's because everybody else sings about it and always has,
you know to burst into song you have to be inspired
and nothing inspires quite like love.
These groups and singers think that they appeal to everyone
by singing about love because apparently everyone has or can love
or so they would have you believe anyway
but these groups seem to go along with what, the belief
that love is deep in everyone's personality.
I don't think we're saying there's anything wrong with love,
we just don't think that what goes on between two people
should be shrouded with mystery.

xp -I don't hate all songs that use "baby" as a term of endearment, but if a romantic partner were to call me that, I'd have problems with that.

The Pop Group song is still a really good song.

i like when songs use "sugar"

I support "sugar"

"light of my life"

I dated a guy that referred to me as "she who must be obeyed" ... it wasn't as annoying as some of his other traits.

do you still have his number?

this was a guy that recently went to therapy for "internet addiction" ... he also suffered from "executive function disorder" (this is not the boarding school guy from the other thread) ... at one point I figured I would end up marrying him.

"cui parendum est"

if he had manifested all his endearments in Latin he would have been a right old catch imo

I went to a crappy American public high school ... I have no idea what that means, except for est = some version of the verb "to be" because that's what it is in French.

xp he liked croquet ... I was down with some of the fey anglophilia, but croquet ... too much.

It means "she (or he) who must be obeyed", weirdly enough. Literally, "for whom it is obligated to obey". Croquet is really good fun but I can go months, even years, without playing it. It's actually quite big in some American circles.

it just bugged me in the same way white hipster guys' excessive appropriation of black street slang annoys me.

yo, feelin u freals

lol - it isn't like any cultural appropriation bothers me, there's just this invisible line where it becomes too much ...

i dunno, i tend to slip into neurotic jewish best friend type (weak woody allen really) as the default easily digestible capsule version of myself for parties, and I am very not jewish.

no offense, but my better half will occasionally do that "tawk amongst yerselves" thing in that accent, and that's the one speech mannerism thing of his that annoys me. I'm still not sure why.

oh, the party thing is one of those things that makes me hate myself a little bit afterwards, but I can usually scrub it off in the shower

related to annoying use of "baby" in love songs: why so much 2nd person for all time?

I'm trying to think if I have a party persona ... as opposed to me, only louder and more talkative

btw nice use of the gerundive periphrastic there lj

xxp um lol?

the 2nd person usage is all about identification and such

aw elmo 'twas nothing *blushes*

back to the waffl3 sh0p thing:
"Waffle Shop is an experimental platform for media production and public dialogue that combines a restaurant with the production of a talk show directly on the premises.

At Waffle Shop, our customers are also our stars, as we film each night, inviting interested patrons to express their unique opinions and personalities. These recordings are streamed live through this very website during our open hours, and then produced into episodes which are broadcast publicly 24 hours a day in the windows of the storefront, and made available through our online archive.

Upcoming plans include: a changeable analog phrase system designed for the vacant billboard space above the shop, a live weekend world news show, an independent record label that produces and distributes music recorded live during our nighttime show, and a weekly radio show."

2nd person is problematic, though -- its use often leads to the assumption that the song is romantic in nature, even if the addressee of the song is not a romantic object

do you mean 2nd person in love songs, or 2nd person in general? I mean, there are plenty of songs about "you" that are very obviously not romantic.

Waffle Shop thing sounds like a packaging of what oughtn't be packaged

a former collaborator of mine did something there recently, and I was trying to come up with a way to do something in a talk show format that would be a relatively subtle critique of banal positivism. There's this focus on "service" ... that art has to be a service to its audience, hence the restaurant idea. There was a guy locally that did an ice cream stand as an art project.

It just seems to me like they're trying to package the 'human drama' of an easily-accessible social situation...it's like selling us air, or erecting a viewing stand on a busy high street

definitely ... one of the guys behind it is the dude that did that "Learning to Love You More" project with Miranda July

I know you linked that earlier...but what was that again? A crash-course in endearments which would supposedly strengthen love's bonds with their proscribed multiplicity?

no, I didn't ... it was a web project and then became a book

http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/

the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience.

urrrrrrgh this is still patently about the collectivism of experience

besides the fact that it is implying what one's experience should be like.

"baby" is favored in music for its simple, melodic capabilities. Nice alliteration and two different vowels that can stretch on forever. Ref: Everly Bros

is "two princes" by spin doctors based on something literary?

One, two, princes kneel before you
(thats what I said, now)
Princes, princes who adore you
(just go ahead, now)
One has diamonds in his pockets
(that sounds great, now)
This one, said he wants to buy you lockets
(aint in his head, now)

This one, he got a princely racket
(thats what I said, now)
Got some big seal upon his jacket
(aint in his head, now)
Marry him, your father will condone you
(how bout that, now)
Marry me, your father will disown you
(hell eat his hat, now)

The best art and writing is almost like an assignment; it is so vibrant that you feel compelled to make something in response. Suddenly it is clear what you have to do. For a brief moment it seems wonderfully easy to live and love and create breathtaking things. In this section we have archived some of the work that has commanded us in this way. In a sense, these are assignments -- in the same way that the ocean gives the assignment of breathing deeply, and kissing instructs us to stop thinking.

holy hell who are these dipshits

"ee" is actually not the easiest vowel to stretch out vocally ...

him

and her

xp: well all you have to do is dreeeeeeeeeam, dreeeeeeeeeeam, dreeeeeeeeeam, dreeeeeeeam, dreeeeeeeeeeam, dreeeeeeeeeeeeam, dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam

serious about the "ee" ... probably why a lot of pop singers sing "bay beh"