Dear Musicans of the World

[james_davis_nicoll]

Stop putting sequences of notes that sound like my telephone ringing into your songs.

Comments

[yhlee]

James, we are of one mind on this matter. May I subscribe to your newsletter? :-]

[konsectatrix]

Yes. Also, sirens and car horns are right out.

And I'm not sure if it's even on purpose, but every now and then people slip in some really high-frequency beeps or tones in a mix that drive me absolutely nuts. Despite the fact that various sources insist adults can't hear those, I can and it makes me grind my teeth.

(edit: oddly that maddening, weird "ghost" tone doesn't figure much in the electronica i listen to, but tends to appear rather in heavily overproduced post-grunge radio rock songs. go figure.)

Similarly

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Dear Radio Producers Of The World,

Please stop putting sirens into your stories. Some of us drive while listening.

No love,
Me.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

the ones with police sirens are annoying too, I hear and start to look for the emergency vehicle.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

There's a background phone noise in the police station set on Psych that sounds exactly like my wife's phone. Drives her nuts.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

This! Phones, sirens, horns -- not helpful; not amusing.

[pauldormer.livejournal.com]

Conversely, my mobile went rang whilst I was watching the TV a few months ago. No one ever rings me on my mobile so I didn't at first recognise it and I thought it was a phone on the TV.

[jwgh]

I remember that while I was playing the 'Dark Forces' video game quite intensively, a song started getting a lot of airplay which included a sequence that sounded an awful lot like a I.M mine being triggered (which, in the game, meant you had a couple of seconds to get clear). Whenever the song came on and that bit started I always would briefly look around in a panic until I realized what I was doing.

I don't remember what song it was, but some examples of IM mines being triggered can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJgJJ3C09MQ&t=11m45s

[thesaucernews.livejournal.com]

Do you have the amen break as your ringtone?|

'cause that's just asking for it.

Re: Similarly

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

Hates, hates them, we do. Especially in the morning commute...at 7 b.c.

Re: Similarly

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Also, drive-time producers who keep inserting car-horn sounds. Not helpful.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

I will agree with you by proxy for my husband, who has removed songs from the music mix for that very reason.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

and sirens. No more sirens in song neither.

[vass]

As always, there's an xkcd on that subject.

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

Piffle - child's play. The bastard with a ringtone that sounds exactly like a submarine's general alarm... he needs to have his phone smashed with a thermonuclear weapon.

Twenty five years plus since I last heard that alarm for real, and it's still driven so deep in my psyche that I react.

[http://users.livejournal.com/krin_o_o_/]

I just with the makers of fans and air conditioners would stop making their hums interact with my tinnitus to play the chorus from "Time Warp" or sound like the front door bell.

[barb-krasnoff.livejournal.com]

The phone ringing sound that they use as background for the police department scenes in Castle is exactly like our phone -- it took weeks before we stopped jumping up at least once per episode.