Random Topic Generator: My Once Biggest Pet Peeve

During high school, I had a massive pet peeve about how songs ended on CDs, by fading out. This bugged me for quite some time, and really only grew stronger the more CDs I listened to where the songs faced out instead of coming to a complete end. It was as if there was more song to go, but we weren’t allowed to hear the end; we brought the CD, but only received bits of the song. I spent my money on that CD, I should have complete songs instead of fading away into nothingness. What only increased the pet peeve’s strength was certain programs that showcased the songs to promote the artist latest CD. We were allowed to listen to the entire song then – so why are we given what essentially is a teaser for the album with a song that ends properly only to have the exact same song fade away, as if the promotion gave us more song than what the CD did – that to me, didn’t make any sense.

What made things worse was when some CDs had both unfading out songs and fading out songs all mixed together, so some songs were complete, whereas others teased more song. If they were capable of making sure some songs ended properly, then why not make all of them do the same?

As the title of this article implies, this was once my biggest pet peeve, meaning it has slid down the list. As I’ve grown older, plenty more have taking have overtaken it. However, occasionally, if I were listening to a song that I particularly enjoyed, it did ruin my experience of said song by having it fade out, given the impression there was more of what I was enjoying. If it had ended definitively, then I would have enjoyed the song and can now move on to another or replay said song. Now and again that pet peeve poked its head up to see just how much impact it still had – turns out, it has quite a lot more impact yet.

So, instead of just complaining about the songs fading out and claiming it’s a lazy way of ending a song, I thought about finding an answer to the question. I did a bit of research and I found: multiple answers. Unfortunately, there isn’t a definitive answer. There are many reasons as to why a song fades away, and the one reason that stood out the most was because the artist didn’t know how to end the song. OK, except, the majority of the songs that faded away into nothingness were only but repeating the chorus, so why not end the song after the chorus before it started fading away?

The other biggest reason was because of artistic reasons, which I’m fine with. If the artists incorporate the fade as part of their song, then that’s a definitive ending in my books. It is hard to know when a song is using the fade in that way though, considering about 99.9% of songs do just that, but there are a few that do stand out from the rest, you just have to listen out for them.

The third main reason why the fade is so popular is because the radio stations do it. The majority of songs run longer than what the radio stations can allow, and so a fade is required otherwise the DJs will run out of time with their segments between songs. We listen to the radio more than CDs so the CDs are basically just copying what we’ve become used to. No, we’re used to people talking after the song fades away. Radio stations use the fade as a transition between the DJs talking. Occasionally they use the fade to transition from one song to another, making it easier for the listener. Constant endings can make for a clunky experience. So are CDs preventing the listeners having a clunky experience by definitely ending each and every one of their songs? The fade is used as a way of transitioning from one song to another in such a way it doesn’t sound off. If that’s the case, then why aren’t more people questioning when artists end their songs instead of fading them out. Somehow, I’m not so sure that reason has the weight it believes it does.

I do understand each reason though and how it interweaved itself into certain CDs. However, I having a definitive ending to a song has more weight and impact than fading the song out.

As strong as that pet peeve was back when I was younger, I doubt it would be going away any time soon, and even though my researching the reason why also hasn’t given me a definitive ending to the matter, instead of just getting angry with the song that I’m enjoying fading away into nothingness, at least I can apply one of those three reasons. Them being lazy may well be the reason why the song is fading away, but at least it’s an actual reason instead of me just jumping to conclusions and stating it without actually knowing it is a real reason – as weird as that sounds.

I will always prefer songs that have definitive ends, but if I can differentiate between those songs that use the fading out for artistic reasons, then maybe I can reduce the strength of the pet peeve some more.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)