Amusing/confusing Spotify ideas
April 29, 2014 10:33 PM   Subscribe

What unlikely songs should I listen to with the goal of gaming my Spotify ticker?

I use Spotify in the classroom, so many of my students follow me because of the playlists I've created that are connected to particular lessons.

This has led me to start messing around with what I play to confuse and/or amuse them when they appear in the Spotify ticker. Lately, it has mostly consisted of alternating from song to song between Lawrence Welk and experimental metal band Sunno))). But I want to take it up a notch.

What unlikely songs, or sequences of songs should I listen to?
posted by umbú to Media & Arts (13 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: See if you can pick a theme you might not notice if you weren't looking closely. Just an example: songs with rhetorical questions for titles ("Have You Ever Seen the Rain," "Who Put the Bomp?").
posted by argybarg at 11:01 PM on April 29, 2014




You should start doing Before They Became that Band Everyone Knows songs: Lizzy Grant, Y Can't Tori Read, World Class Wrecking Cru, Stefani Germanotta, Karas Flowers

Once they've figured it out you could throw in some bands who totally changed style too like INXS or the Beastie Boys.
posted by fshgrl at 11:29 PM on April 29, 2014


You could alternate for a few plays between Dave Soldier's Most Wanted Song and Most Unwanted Song, both of which are capable of bemusing any high schooler.
posted by Sonny Jim at 11:47 PM on April 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


The appropriateness of this idea probably depends on the age of your students, but you could alternate between Lust for Life and Lust for Death.

The Independents do a pretty great cover of C is for Cookie. Maybe you could combine that with other covers of Sesame Street songs?
posted by neushoorn at 12:14 AM on April 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Forgotify plays songs that have never been played on Spotify before. So you are going to get some very obscure stuff. I've actually found some interesting songs this way.
posted by univac at 12:52 AM on April 30, 2014


Best answer: Not sure exactly what's on Spotify, but:

- Rap in other languages
- Covers in different genres from the original. Weird Al polkas are a nice easy source for this.
- 4'33"
- Phase experiments like Come Out
- Two-second songs
- Bosnian Ganga music
- Swedish folk music
- Troll humppa/metal
- Two MCs rapping simultaneously
posted by ignignokt at 5:45 AM on April 30, 2014


Answer songs!

Not on Wikipedia's list:

The Dandy Warhols - Not If You Were the Last Junkie On Earth, written about Anton Newcombe, front man of BJM
Brian Jonestown Massacre - Not If You Were the Last Dandy On Earth, a reply to the above.
[Though both are about drugs and may not be appropriate, depending].

And (sadly not on Spotify) Everyone Was In the French Resistance... Now!'s entire album Fixin' the Charts, Vol. 1. For example "Billy's Genes" is a response to "Billy Jean", written about the kid who is very clearly his son.
posted by mountmccabe at 6:00 AM on April 30, 2014


And this may not quite fit amusing or confusing but could be interesting anyway, you could listen to pairs of songs from this sample/song playlist, though your followers may have to listen to "Sang and Dance" by the Bar-Kays and "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" by Will Smith to realize the latter sampled the former.

Not on that playlist would be "Amen, Brother" by the Winstons and any/all of the 1000+ songs that have sampled the Amen break.
posted by mountmccabe at 6:17 AM on April 30, 2014


Best answer: Horse and bear. (work link, scroll down for Spotify playlists)
posted by mkb at 7:01 AM on April 30, 2014


Best answer: This guy.
posted by dekathelon at 7:20 AM on April 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


Throw some John Philip Sousa in there. Sprinkle with Screamin Jay Hawkins.
posted by WeekendJen at 8:37 AM on April 30, 2014


Finnish folk music is pretty unusual. And awesome.
posted by BrashTech at 4:52 PM on April 30, 2014


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