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>Article claims that the 1995 No Doubt song, Spiderwebs, references Caller ID. Clearly, the song is about an implausible excuse recorded as an outgoing answerin
by SilasX 7y ago
>Article claims that the 1995 No Doubt song, Spiderwebs, references Caller ID. Clearly, the song is about an implausible excuse recorded as an outgoing answering machine message, not Caller ID.
You're referring to this part of the article?
>> No Doubt’s “Spiderwebs,” featured a protagonist, Gwen Stefani, who was screening her phone calls—something made easier with Caller ID.
The article is correct, some of the lyrics explicitly refer to screening calls[1]:
"And it's all your fault/ I screen my phone calls/ No matter who calls/ I gotta screen my phone calls"
In common parlance, that means checking who's calling you before deciding if you'll take the call, which involves Caller ID. [2]
I don't know where you're getting the song being about implausible excuse from the caller -- the song is about Gwen not wanting to talk to someone who thinks she's interested (and Genius confirms):
"You think that we connect ... Your words walk right through my ears/ Presuming I like what I hear".
And later in verse 2:
"Don't have the courage inside me/ To tell you please let me be"
If you're referring to the "a likely story", look at the surrounding lines:
"Sorry I'm not home right now ... So leave a message and I'll call you back/ A likely story, but leave a message/ And I'll call you back."
That is, she's recognizing that her claim of not being available is implausible.
Finally, my love of that song paid off on HN!
[1] https://genius.com/No-doubt-spiderwebs-lyrics https://genius.com/No-doubt-spiderwebs-lyrics
[2] EDIT: A now-deleted reply pointed out that at the time it wouldn't be understood as referring to caller ID, as it wasn't very common to have, and most people screened by listening to the message. I stand corrected.
Still, the article only says that screening is made easier with caller ID, which is correct, and the song is still about screening calls because of unwanted attention, not, as was claimed, about the implausible content of said message.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- 0xffff2 7y ago>I don't know where you're getting the song being about implausible excuse from the caller GP is saying it's an implausible excuse from the callee.
- dionidium 7y ago> In common parlance, that means checking who's calling you before deciding if you'll take the call, which involves Caller ID. [2] Not true! "Screening your phone calls" in those days meant waiting for someone to start leaving a message on your answering machine, which you could hear in the room in real time [0], and then only picking up the phone if it was someone you wanted to talk to. [0] Messages weren't left on a server that you'd access later. They were recorded on a physical tape in your house. You could hear the person leaving the message as they did it.
- SilasX 7y agoHence the correction in the footnote.
- dionidium 7y agoYou're right. Sorry!
- cardiffspaceman 7y agoAnd callers would start their "message" with "Pick up! Pick up!" as if that was going to convince the callee that the call was important enough to pick up.
- logfromblammo 7y agoI messaged the author on Twitter and he changed the text of the article. "Eh, you could argue it either way. Answering machines + Caller ID often used together." "I added a line about Scream and gave "Spiderwebs" a little clarification. Thanks for keeping me honest!" + image of "Author's Note" at bottom of article. The content of the song is that the singer just had a breakup, and recorded "a likely story" as the outgoing message on her answering machine, for the purpose of screening incoming calls. So when he calls, she won't pick up. "It's all your fault." Take it from someone who heard it over and over on the radio at the time it was released as a single.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- SilasX 7y ago>The content of the song is that the singer just had a breakup, ... Oh, I wasn't disputing that part, I just thought you were describing it as being about a message someone left on someone else's machine.