💬 Clive Thompson on Everybody Hurts
Are there any songs in your life that got so overplayed you can never listen to them again?
For me, it’s “Everybody Hurts” by REM
genuinely a great song
but it was so exhaustively overplayed back in the 90s — licensed for just about every single weepy scene in any TV show or movie, on infinite loop on terrestrial radio — that I reached some sort of lifetime saturation
I cannot abide it, even decades on now, a single time
it’s like an allergic reaction
I need to *leave* the goddamn *room*
Clive, at fear of oversharing, I thought I would share my funny ‘Everybody Hurts’ experience. For music at school, every class had to sing a song together. Mr. F chose Bryan Adam’s ‘Everything I Do I Do It For You’. I cannot remember it was voted on, probably was. Anyway, my mother was mortified why a bunch of Year 7’s were singing a song about love and romance and complained to the school that it was inappropriate. So instead, my teacher had us sing ‘Everybody Hurts’. I guess that hurt and pain is something does not require age and maturity to appreciate?
Oh so interesting!!
also, I would say, “everybody hurts” is just astronomically a better song than that Bryan Adams tune
I am no hater on Bryan Adams; I’m Canadian and actually grew up with his music 😅 so I like quite a lot of of it
but that song — man, that song is *hot garbage*