'Obsolete' songs?

[7/8]

Just thought of another one: "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits
"We gotta move these colour TV's"

Nowadays it would be HDTV's, or maybe even 4KTV's 

[1995hoo]

Just thought of another one: "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits
"We gotta move these colour TV's"

Nowadays it would be HDTV's, or maybe even 4KTV's 

The reference in the same song to "the little faggot with the earring and the makeup" would probably confuse some younger listeners who would never have found it odd for a male to wear an earring nor associated such with being homosexual.

[jwolfer]

"Hey, Western Union Man" by Jerry Butler and "Western Union" by the Five Americans both refer to telegrams, which are now obsolete, even in developing countries.

In Australia flip flops are still thongs

"All Summer Long" by the Beach Boys might not be "obsolete," but one of the lyrics definitely means something very different to today's listener than it did in the 1960s:

"T-shirts, cutoffs, and a pair of thongs ...."



Another that occurred to me after MASN aired a commercial involving Samuel L. Jackson:

Rupert Holmes's "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" is somewhat obsolete with its references to the singer reading the personal ads in the newspaper and then writing to the paper to take out his own personal ad. Nowadays that would all be on some dating website.

(That song occurred to me because I thought of the ad that ran during the NCAA Tournament with Jackson, Charles Barkley, and Spike Lee singing that song.)

[Roadrunner75]

With the advent of mandatory 10 digit dialing and overlays, '867-5309/Jenny' needs to be updated to include the area code.

[Duke87]

Weird Al's "It's All About the Pentiums" is dated in several ways, not the least of which being that Intel's Pentium line of processors was discontinued years ago.

Also of note is the singer saying he "ain't afraid of Y2K" (the song is from 1999), and the line "In a 32 bit world you're a 2 bit user, you've got your own newsgroup alt.total.loser" (it's a 64 bit world nowadays, and who still uses newsgroups?).

Perhaps most amusingly though, is the fact that the singer's assertion that he has "100 gigabytes of RAM" remains nearly as absurd today as it was 17 years ago.

[DandyDan]

I Love Rock N' Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts "I love rock n' roll, so put another dime in the jukebox, baby"

[CNGL-Leudimin]

You're probably thinking of "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles

Thanks. And this one also goes on Misheard song lyrics, as I swear I heard 'media' instead of 'video'.

[Thing 342]

Perhaps most amusingly though, is the fact that the singer's assertion that he has "100 gigabytes of RAM" remains nearly as absurd today as it was 17 years ago.

Not as absurd as you might think: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2923033/ram-for-the-rich-and-nerdy-128gb-ddr4-memory-kits-become-reality.html
Though it only works on Xeon processors, so not really for the high-end consumer market, I guess.

[noelbotevera]

Frank Sinatra's song "Come Fly With Me":
"There's a bar in far Bombay"

It will always be Bombay to me.

[Henry]

I think any song that mentions things that are no longer manufactured can be considered obsolete. One prominent example is In My Merry Oldsmobile, which refers to a car that was last made in 2004; another is that GTO song, as both the namesake Pontiac car and the manufacturer itself are also now things of the past.

[mgk920]

A couple more:

- Nikita (1985) by Elton John - about a Western Iron Curtain border guard's lust for a hot East German/Soviet border guard and all of the song's other late Cold War references.

- See You In September (1966) by The Happenings - about the then universal worry that your (especially non-local) high school/university flame will or will not still be 'available' at the end of summer break back when the only way to keep in touch was via the Post Office or *expensive* phone calls, nonsensical with today's comm tech.

Mike

[kurumi]

Back in the USSR, the Beatles

[PHLBOS]

- See You In September (1966) by The Happenings - about the then universal worry that your (especially non-local) high school/university flame will or will not still be 'available' at the end of summer break back when the only way to keep in touch was via the Post Office or *expensive* phone calls, nonsensical with today's comm tech.

FWIW, that song was originally done by The Tempos circa 1959.

Oldies songs from the '50s-'60s with references to the girl sitting at home or near a telephone waiting for the boyfriend to call them.

Even songs from the late 80s (Heart's Alone for example) makes reference to such; although in that case, its the girl calling the guy.

I wonder where you are tonight
No answer on the telephone

[lepidopteran]

I think any song that mentions things that are no longer manufactured can be considered obsolete.

In "All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow, she refers to people driving those "shiny Datsuns and Buicks".  The Datsun marque was retired in favor of Nissan -- several years before this song was released, actually.  I remember reading that Nissan never got near the level of brand-recognition as Datsun.  (NB - the Datsun name was revived a few years ago, but not for the U.S. market.)

[8.Lug]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet. At the age of 37, I don't know half of what's in this song, but someone who's half my age probably doesn't know anything in this song.

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire

[noelbotevera]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet. At the age of 37, I don't know half of what's in this song, but someone who's half my age probably doesn't know anything in this song.

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire

I know at least half of the things mentioned in the song. More on the historical side than on the cultural side.

[74/171FAN]

I would say the lyric "Shake it like a Polaroid Picture" from "Hey Ya!" by Outkast, but "Out of the Woods" by Taylor Swift from her latest album 1989 has the lyric "You took a Polaroid of us" in the first verse.

[amroad17]

Asia--"Heat of the Moment ".  "And now you find yourself in '82..."

[Max Rockatansky]

How about 409?  Not many people even really remember the 409CI Impala much less care given the higher popularity of 1960s Muscle Cars.  I suppose if someone gets creative it could have a dual meaning for Formula 409 for those household cleaning needs. 

[Duke87]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet. At the age of 37, I don't know half of what's in this song, but someone who's half my age probably doesn't know anything in this song.

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire

See I wouldn't say anything in that song is "obsolete" since it is naming historical events chronologically from the mid-40s through the 80s. It no longer ends in the present as it did when it was released, but every event described still happened as it is described. No one revised history. 

[noelbotevera]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet. At the age of 37, I don't know half of what's in this song, but someone who's half my age probably doesn't know anything in this song.

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire

See I wouldn't say anything in that song is "obsolete" since it is naming historical events chronologically from the mid-40s through the 80s. It no longer ends in the present as it did when it was released, but every event described still happened as it is described. No one revised history. 

Does the Bill of Rights count as revised history (the amendment about bearing arms  commonly omits "in militia" at the end.)?

[1995hoo]

What does that have to do with that song, unless you construe Bernie Goetz as a reference to bearing arms? BTW, "A well-regulated militia" are the first words in the Second Amendment, not the final words.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Asia--"Heat of the Moment ".  "And now you find yourself in '82..."

When Greg Lake briefly fronted Asia in 1983 for some live shows in Japan he changed the line to "And now you find yourself in 83, the disco hotspots hold no charm for me."

[mgk920]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet. At the age of 37, I don't know half of what's in this song, but someone who's half my age probably doesn't know anything in this song.

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire

I know at least half of the things mentioned in the song. More on the historical side than on the cultural side.

It is chronological from the early 1950s into the then current early 1980s.

Mike

[1995hoo]

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet. At the age of 37, I don't know half of what's in this song, but someone who's half my age probably doesn't know anything in this song.

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire

I know at least half of the things mentioned in the song. More on the historical side than on the cultural side.

It is chronological from the early 1950s into the then current early 1980s.

Mike

1989, actually. "China's under martial law" refers to Tiananmen Square. The massacre there occurred on June 4, 1989.