Somebody Left The Gate Open

[Darrell]

I couldn't get to sleep last night, so was up late surfing the web and half watching TV. That Citibank commercial with the female rock climber came on for the upteenth time, the one with the "Somebody left the gate open" song. I looked up the song, it's actually called Into The Wild, by LP. Here's the song, with lyrics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCQhoEwrc_E

Quite different than the bit you hear in the commercial, it's actually rather sad and depressing. Interesting singer. Here's the official music vid version, a take off of Thelma and Louise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRtWInxI1pg

LP is Laura Pergolizzi, she's a NYer. She plays the ukulele.

[308Mike]

Sorry, not all of us know what an "Earworm" is, until we look it up, as I had to (various links omitted). So don't be too surprised if you don't get many responses unless it starts getting a lot of replies (you might want to reconsider the title of your post for clarification):

Earworm
43 up, 78 down

(N.) A terrible song usually made by a terrible artist that despite it's awfulness, seems to be catchy enough to get stuck in your head until the point you can't get it out. You soon start to hum it all the time, even if you don't like it and may even eventually get used to it. Earworms usually last anywhere between 2 to 6 weeks (based on how often the song plays) and occur about every other month.

Examples: Britney Spears: "Toxic", J-Ho: "Jenny From The Block", and any Justin Timberlake song after 2002.
Hey Ya isn't an Earworm. It's just a damn catchy song! Toxic, now that's an Earworm! Despite Britney's terrible singing voice, the hot, secret-agent like beat will turn it into an Earworm.

[Darrell]

Point taken, Mike, I always thought an earworm to be one of those songs or jingles that you can't get out of your head, not necessarily that it's a bad piece of music in and of itself.

[Catbird]

Radiolab has a good, short podcast on earworms.

[308Mike]

Point taken, Mike, I always thought an earworm to be one of those songs or jingles that you can't get out of your head, not necessarily that it's a bad piece of music in and of itself.

As much as I might get your changed title, more people might get a title to the effect of: "Songs Stuck in Your Head" or "Song You Can't Get Out of Your Head", or even "Annoying Songs You Can't forget or Get Rid Of), etc., etc.

Consider your audience when thinking about who's going to be seeing the subject title. Once you get them to the page, THEN let them know what you're talking about. Don't go for the geeky or narrow subject people at the outset (but once some of us discover what you're talking about, we might be intrigued). Once you get them to read what you're talking about (THEN), let them know what you're discussing. You need to give them a little bit of a descriptive title to get them interested, without over-running the title space (or making it shorter so folks will still be interested in what you're saying).

After all, EVERYONE KNOWS what you mean when you talk about having a song stuck in your head. And sometimes those songs might even stick around for several days until you actually hear the song being discussed. The Lord knows I've had several of the Disney songs stuck in my head at various times, and I just CAN. NOT. GET. THEM. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD (especially that damned Small World song, or the Pirates of the Caribbean song).

Having songs stuck in your heard can be INCREDIBLY annoying - but this is my education to having them called "EARWORMS".

[Jered]

This one

It's been stuck in my head for weeks.

[Yogimus]

I wonder if the banks find any irony in using the lyrics "SOMEBODY LEFT THE GATE OPEN" after the shit they did.

[randy]

I couldn't get to sleep last night, so was up late surfing the web and half watching TV. That Citibank commercial with the female rock climber came on for the upteenth time, the one with the "Somebody left the gate open" song.

AKA Somebody Mashed Potatoes

[randy]

And I have to say that I do not agree with the definition you got from the Urban Dictionary Mike.

For instance, several songs will sometimes populate my awareness to the point of being an earworm, but I would not call them terrible songs (Money for Nothing for instance is one that hits me often). They just kind of stick there until replaced.

I have a feeling that the "terrible" definition came because some people just remember the bad ones that get stuck in their mind as they are the most annoying and tend to forget the ones they like since they are just background, and don't fully come to the forefront of their perception.

Oh, and to truly qualify as an earworm, it has to be passed on to someone else ("I can't get this song out of my head. Oh great! Now I've got stuck in mine! Thanks a lot!)

[Darrell]

I couldn't get to sleep last night, so was up late surfing the web and half watching TV. That Citibank commercial with the female rock climber came on for the upteenth time, the one with the "Somebody left the gate open" song.

AKA Somebody Mashed Potatoes

The link at Tam's site shows a live version, which I also watched the other night. There are some hipsters in the audience I'd enjoy seeing smashed back to reality.