A Maddening Melody.

I had to call my doctor's surgery today to give them my new mobile phone number. They have a new jingle playing which is presumably intended to keep the caller entertained between the various recorded announcements being repeated pointlessly about every twenty seconds.

The new jingle is about as bad as anyone could possibly make it. It’s so bad that I was tempted to wonder whether there was a touch of malevolent genius involved in its creation. We hear a synthesised guitar playing a simple rhythm as a simple chord which starts on the tonic, rises to the fifth, returns to the tonic, rises to the second, then returns to the tonic again. Repeated endlessly and with scant regard for the mental health of the poor caller.

It’s anything but entertaining. To anyone with the slightest grain of musical appreciation it’s maddening. If the call had been answered in less than ten minutes I would have explained the issue to the receptionist, but it wasn’t so I didn’t. And I’m sure my complaint would have fallen on deaf ears anyway. It’s just how things are.