The term for a song that people quickly become tired of on the radio?

Question

Recently I was listening to the radio and the host used some expression (that now evades me) to explain that the song 7 Years by Lukas Graham quickly becomes uninteresting to listeners after a few plays - in other words the first few times you hear the song it is interesting but after that it becomes less interesting, compared to some songs that the user enjoys listening to over and over again.

I seem to recall that he used the word burn .e.g. the song's 'burn rate' however googling that only brings up references to a companies burn rate (the rate that it looses money), but not a song's.

So my question is just that, what is the term for this?

Answer 1

I think your best bet is to say that the song has been overplayed on the radio (or in other words, an overplayed song). While I don't consider Urban Dictionary to be a reputable source when it comes to definitions, the one they have posted certainly fits the use of the term:

used to describe a hit song that is played on the radio (in stores, on the internet, on iTunes, at parties, etc.) numerous times to the point of annoyance

Answer 2

I think the term used was probably burnout. This is one of the things measured in radio "callout" surveys of listeners (all bolding added):

Another type of data often obtained during callout is a fatigue or burnout measurement. Listeners are asked, "are you tied of hearing this song in the radio?" (The Concise Encyclopedia of American Radio, edited by Christopher H. Sterling, Cary O'Dell, 2010.)

If the host was talking more about why some songs lose their zest more quickly than others, he might have been talking about something like this:

Add all the scores together [rhythm, Melody, etc.] and you get a complexity score. Divide the score by the number of times the song will be exposed to it's target audience and you get the sing's burnout index for that audience on your station. The higher the score, the longer the song should take to burn out. (David MacFarland, Future Radio Programming Strategies: Cultivating Listenership in the Digital Age, 2013.)

For the question specifically in your title, a song that people get tired of quickly could be said to have a high/low/fast (depending on usage) burnout score (or rate).

Answer 3

Not specific for songs, but we can say that such melodies are passing fancies: they quickly become uninteresting because of repetition. Trite songs.

• a passing fancy is something that captures one's interest or enthusiasm for only a brief period of time.

• trite - (adj.) not evoking interest because of overuse or repetition

e.g. The lyrics on the second album are much better than the trite songs of the artist's early work. -------- GYV

Answer 4

A couple of words that would fit this situation are saturation and satiation.

saturation (n.):

...

5 : the supplying of a market with as much of a product as it will absorb

.

satiate (v.):

1. to supply with anything to excess, so as to disgust or weary; surfeit.

Answer 5

Hackneyed is another word for such a song. Among several references.

hackneyed in American English (ˈhækˌnid  ; hakˈnēdˌ) adjective

made trite by overuse

SIMILAR WORDS: trite Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hackneyed

Answer 6

"Played Out" or "Long Played Out" More urban sounding than the word you are trying to remember, but I took a shot.

Answer 7

Earworm:

Dictionary.com says that this is "a tune or part of a song that repeats in one’s mind"; and this is often used in a context where the song is considered highly annoying. You can easily get tired of something annoying.

Or, there is the word "passé" which Dictionary.com says means "no longer fashionable"; this can also refer to songs, and unfashionable songs soon grow tiresome.

Hope I could help you there!!!!!