Well, I have many, but I experienced one firsthand on Saturday night. It was more of a combination of the environment, the people and the musical talent....

The situation was fucked up off the bat... a friend helped organize a 40th birthday party for a guy no one else knew. I knew my friend, and two other women that were there, and also my friend's ex who showed up, and who I've decided is a prick after talking with him only twice. The venue? A "lounge-like" place called Wilf's that's next to the train station. I'd never been there, and God knows I'll never go back. Imagine that this is the type of place your 60-70something parents/grandparents would have *loved* to go to for a nice steak dinner. I had to down 2 gin and tonics immediately to avoid scrutinizing the hideous wallpaper and accompanying (yet unrelated and un-complementary) modern painting that was hanging on the wall.

So I get a phone call from friend before we get to Wilf's, telling me that there's a cd release party going on at the place, but to tell the host that we're with the birthday party so we can avoid paying the $15 entry fee. $15 entry fee??? I don't pay that much to see most local bands.

Anyhow, the cd release party was for a woman named Cherie Price, who was touted as a "jazz singer." She was anything but. She was average at best, and she did more show tunes than she did jazz standards. Looking around the place, I noticed that there were a lot of older folks in attendance who seemed to be rabidly supportive of her. Turns out that this woman's claim to fame is.... she sings on a cruise ship.

That, my friends, is my hellish Saturday evening.

Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself? http://cdbaby.com/cd/cherieprice

A road trip with Billzebub and Radcliffe, probably.

the only thing that could have made it worse is if you actually were trapped on a cruise ship with this crowd.

i would have started pulling my eyelashes out...slowly...one at a time.

oh and my idea of musical hell was when my daughter was into the phantom of the opera and we had to hear it in the house constantly for over a month.

Actually this would probably be fun..those guys can crank ot road tunes with the best of em.

that does sound horrendous. i just heard the decemberists' "clementine" on woxy and that is pretty hellish, but probably not my ultimate musical hell.

So they only listen to "non-shit" when they're at home?

Right now I'm thinking musical argument with Haq.

I'm starting to have to do research before I post because I want to make sure I can back it up to Haq.

Speed deathmetal hell core or something like that. I'd crumble like a pineappely poxed Panamanian President.

music hell would listening be 20 drunk soprano vocal majors as college freshmen bonding over their love rodgers & hammerstein musicals.

WILF:

listening to a recording of a bunch of jam bands or bands with extended guitar solos. i arrived at a friend's house while he was listening to "z" by my morning jacket and the guitar solos were filling me with rage. at first i just asked him to skip through the song, but the solos were chasing me from song to song. ugh.

working on an artist profile for music that you HATE. the other day i had to work on one of those bubblegum teen pop-rcok artists and i had to listen to her music because i had no idea who she was. i wanted to cry, it was so horrible.

now, i get to work on a presentation for hair metal buttrock, oh yes.

oh, and sitting next to people who blast SHITTY music. the other day someone was bumping wilson phillips and haddaway.

I'm not thinking in terms of actual music here, but a conversation about music with most of my coworkers. One's a big Blink 182 fan - at 32 years old - but otherwise thinks any music that's older than about 4 years old is "outdated" and therefore must be made fun of (except for the first two 311 albums and a couple Beastie Boys albums, which he loves. Not a slam against the band, because those albums are okay, but just another facet to his personality.) The others are pretty typical office-type people, if such a judgement can be made - adult-contemporary, modern-country, etc. I simply cannot hold a conversation about music with most of these people, and when I get labelled "the music guy" they inevitably come to me to talk, then I start mentioning what I listen to and their eyes gloss over.

Oh, we'd be cranking the shit all right. And arguing about every song - except for those bonding moments when we'd point and laugh at the buzzkill in the back seat.

• Jann Arden
• The Obner Top 20 (probably)

I've already experienced hell:

Celine Dion featuring Il Divo

Thank you. That shit is funny.

You need to make that exact same post in the "Exactly As Shitty As You Expected" thread - it'll make peoples' heads explode.

it's not funny when you have to experience it.

Being helplessly hungover and having a song stuck in your head/neighbours playing house music loudly.

dri you might wanna watch this stuff. It's probably just my Squirrgle paranoia, but i'm sure there's someone out there googling that broad's name right now to check what the internet says...

but again, i'm the one who put a pic of the deformed tumor lady out, so yeah.

marlyn manson/back street boys collabo.

When I'm in the car with my father and he puts Yanni on.

(Daddy, what happened? You used to be cool...)

i remember the days when my dad and i would listen to 60s soul or the beach boys in the car every single morning when he drove me to school. and now we have agreed to not listen to music when we're both in the car. although, i did get him to listen to the coast is never clear on a 9-hour roadtrip. and he seems to like big sandy & the fly-rite boys. otherwise, his tastes are pretty forgettable. it's unfortunate.