Image from Say Anything… used in accordance with fair use laws for academic analysis
I got out of the shower, threw on some clothes and found Susan in the kitchen brewing coffee. The question burned a hole down to my soul. “If Lloyd Dobler is so cool, why does he play that lame-ass song on his boombox?” Susan knew this reference, do you? John Cusack in the movie Say Anything… stands on Diane Court’s (Ione Skye) lawn, tape deck held above his head, and blasts out In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel. This might be THE iconic scene, the crown jewel of the eighties Brat Pack romance memories. An image immediately recognizable by anyone born between 1960 and 1985. And it’s ruined by the blandest song imaginable.
Actual Lyrics from In Your Eyes:
In your eyes
In your eyes
In your eyes
In your eyes (in your eyes)
In your eyes
In your eyes (in your eyes)
In your eyes (in your eyes)
Okay, I might have cherry-picked those lyrics from the closing bars of the song, but seriously, they use the phrase thirty-one times in the song. Repetitive. Dull. Annoying.
The rest of the music in that movie has an edge. The soundtrack offers a round-up of eighties alternative bands that scream cool: Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Replacements, Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden and Fishbone. Other John Cusack films follow suit. Grosse Point Blank features recurrent soundtrack appearances from the Clash, the Specials, the Pixies, the Jam, and the Violent Femmes. Sort of a who’s who of my Spotify playlist.
In 1989, this music was fringe. In my rural town, it’s still fringe. It’s outside the mainstream, unfamiliar, banished from commercial radio, not pop or country or classic rock, but undeniably hip. People like me, and I suppose the Lloyd Doblers and John Cusacks of the world, think: if everyone could just hear this music, they’d be hooked.
Just like his music, Lloyd Dobler has edge. He’s an outsider looking in, trying to fight conformity in his corner of the world. As a recent high school graduate, when asked what his future plans entail, he replies:
“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.”
He’s the anti-capitalist, a backlash against Reagan’s America.
As a thirty-five-year-old, I played a bar game with friends. We each needed to make a case for which actor would play us in a movie about our life. Naturally, I selected John Cusack. We’re about the same age, the same build, we identify as off-beat outsiders, and we seemingly possess identical taste in music. Same-same, twinsies, why wouldn’t he play me.
And this brings me back to my point. Did Cusack have any creative control in Say Anything…? If so, why did he film such an important scene with THAT song? I wouldn’t have used that song. I would have chosen from hundreds of better, more interesting, livelier eighties love songs. A handful of suggestions off the top of my head:
Obsession by Animotion
Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar
Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper
When Doves Cry by Prince
Almost anything by the Cure
Susan responded to my post-shower question: “The chicks dig it.” OK, she didn’t say “the chicks dig it,” that’s something I would say. She said something along the lines of “people love that song.” So Cusack green-lit In Your Eyes because it’s a crowd-pleaser, something for the masses, even though it’s a song Lloyd Dobler would never listen to. I’m going to name this phenomenon the Dobler Effect—when someone prefers fringe music but blanderizes their musical taste to accommodate the people around them.
Yes, this is a play on words, a nod to the Doppler Effect. Doppler Effect (n): the change in the frequency of a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the source of the wave. Did that make any sense? It’s just a complicated way of describing something we already innately know. Think of a British ambulance. As the ambulance approaches, the neee-nuuu neee-nuuu pitch becomes higher and higher. After the ambulance passes, it gets lower and lower.
In each of these effects—Dobler and Doppler—a person’s perspective impacts the way they hear the sound. Susan points this out frequently. While listening to the same song, we hear very different music. I hear an intricate guitar solo in the random feedback of the Dream Syndicate. I conjure a melody in the jangly, atonal stummings of the Gang of Four. I pick up crooning in Johnny Lydon’s grating voice. I find solace and relaxation in the scraping guitars and screamed lyrics of Sonic Youth. Someone else considers In Your Eyes symphonic. I want to yawn.
Is it my neurodiversity? My rebellious nature? The fact that I was raised by a man who listened to Herb Albert and the Tiajuana Brass? I’m not sure, but I think genetics play a role. I can almost discern a member of my tribe just by looking at them.
It doesn’t surprise me that Lloyd Dobler woos Diane Court with a boring hit single. I do this all the time. As I create the playlists for the indoor cycle (spin) classes I instruct, I make sure I include four or five accessible songs, the crowd pleasers. Not boring songs, certainly, but songs everybody knows and likes. When someone walks away from my class thinking “what the hell was that,” I also want them thinking “oh, right, he played X, Y and Z, too.” We all do this, I think, those of us outside mainstream music. I have separate playlists in Spotify to play when I’m around other people. My principal playlist, Radio Jeff, is just for me. No one else would tolerate it.
I suspect the Dobler Effect and its non-musical cousins are familiar to most of us. We constantly make concessions to ease the discomfort of those around us. We drive slower for our spouse. We cook simpler meals for our kids. We dress in ways our boss deems appropriate. I’m sure each of us has an area where we naturally bend the norms of society. What’s telling is how we deal with that desire. Do we steadfastly plow ahead, refusing to give in, or do we recognize that compromise is necessary for civil society. Hopefully the latter, but Christ, In Your Eyes? C’mon Lloyd, you can do better than that.
Below is a recent spin playlist, one of my most accessible, actually. Constructing this mix was what got me thinking about the Dobler Effect and music-for-the-masses in the first place. Yes, this is what I consider music-for-the-masses.
The Other Stuff 
Now I’ll watch the movie.
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Well obviously geared towards a younger audience, but I’m interested in seeing it again too. Not sure I saw it since it came out.
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You make some interesting points about what we perceive as listeners to music, and our choices in different situations. I’ll mull them over – in my own way.
I’ve played a lot of Ambient ‘music’ whilst doing stretch and strengthening exercises, physio and occupational therapy routines with Zsor-zsor. I never really bothered with Ambient before. But I’ve also CHOSEN lots of soul (often with Hammond organ) and, often for the energetic bits, Sons of Kemet.
In reality, I’m accommodating by guesswork – mainly due to Zsor-zsor’s Aphasia. But I’ve also pushed her boundaries. But now I wonder what she hears!
As to THAT song choice, I blame it on Rio (not Tijuana) …
When my baby
When my baby smiles at me, I go to Rio
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Zsor Zsor could let you know if she was unhappy with the music, right? I find being in charge of the music to be uncomfortable as are many other aspects of instructing classes. But for some reason I really like it. Susan’s point of us hearing different things surprised me. I guess it’s like colors. Who knows what the next person sees.
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I know what to avoid. Some of it stuff I love l.
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But more to the point, she will let me know if she doesn’t like it.
BTW A new Speech therapist started and it’s looking promising. I’ll do an update post on WP.
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That song immediately makes me think of that scene. I happen to love John Cusack, and think that song was perfect. I also like all the other bands.
I do compromise and turn Metallica off when Daughter is in the car, but Ben always asks me to turn it up if she’s not there. I think some compromises are how we all get along. Maybe Dobler played that song because he knew SHE would like it.
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See, the chicks dig that song! Oh, wait, no. I get that it’s a very popular song and if the scene was filmed with Just Like Heaven, it might not have turned into the global icon it is today. Yes, if Lloyd played the song for Diane because *she* liked it, well that’s nice, but when a couple has an ‘our song’ shouldn’t it be a song meaningful to both parties? Susan and my ‘our song’ is Sweet Potato by Cracker. I would ask you to turn up Metallica too. Must be played loud! I Think of how many times my coworkers pull up next to me in the parking lot in the morning and I’m rocking out to a punk or heavy metal song.
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Compromise? Yup, I do. It is hard to live among people and not compromise at least once in a while. I never saw Say Anything. I was never big on romantic flicks. But occasionally, I “compromised” and saw one (and sometimes liked it). The same with music–I tend to listen to what others like when around them. BTW, I probably would have gone to see The Silence of the Lambs back instead of a romance flick. Hmm, I wonder what the soundtrack was to the Silence of the Lambs?
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So, as someone not familiar with Say Anything, did this work for you? Because something is present in my mind, I assume it is in everyone else’s mind too. That Susan instantly knew what I was talking about reinforced this. Last week at work, I asked a few people if they knew who Lloyd Dobler was and I got 100% NOs. Compromise… when I was Lloyd’s age, I didn’t do this. I was obnoxiously steadfast in my opinions. Yes, I still may be, but the scope of change from then to now has been stunning.
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Yes, I fully understood your point. It didn’t matter if I saw the movie. What you said resonated with me and probably would with most.
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I love this essay, Jeff, and the way you tie these phenomena in this line: “In each of these effects—Dobler and Doppler—a person’s perspective impacts the way they hear the sound.” Brilliant. Also loved being brought back to these films, and this music. Even “Your Eyes”!
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Thank you Stacey. Positive reaction to this essay has been… limited. I appreciate your support. Those eighties movies truly had *something* that resonated and wove into our collective DNA (despite their now-apparent flaws). I’d like to watch those two John Cusack movies again.
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Truly, this is one of my all-time faves. And I think you’re onto something about re-watching those films. : )
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I really enjoyed reading your blog post and found your analysis of the “Dobler Effect” to be quite insightful and relatable. The connection you made between Lloyd Dobler’s musical choice and the broader concept of adjusting one’s preferences for others was cleverly done. writing style is engaging and makes even a great idea of yours like this very accessible.
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Well, that’s really nice. I came to work in a pretty bad mood, and you just made my whole day. Thank you.
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Cusack is one of my favorite actors. There were only two songs I could really get into by Peter Gabriel. The most popular one (to me) was the one MTV blasted almost everyday in the 80s and because I loved his style and creativity, that song was Sledgehammer. Since you mentioned the song not being the right fit, I’ve been trying to figure out what might be… still out on that.
There’s an internet channel called PlutoTV that has an 80s station in which Say Anything has been playing lately, well that and Better Off Dead (me screaming “I want my two dollars!”). If you get it, you get it…if not watch the movie. Lol
I saw the movie (Say Anything) when I was younger and I had beef with the female lead. I felt like she was stressing him out and stringing him along. I need to watch it again to see if my findings were correct and just might do that today. However, I’m hoping they play High Fidelity. I feel like they gave John free reign over the music in that film. And there was a lot. He and Jack Black, whom I have a love/hate relationship with are music officianados who run a record store. It’s a quality offering to those who set soundtracks to our lives or daily living.
If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it. I feel like you’d get enjoyment from the film.
(Sorry this was so long, I had a lot to say lol)
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I know I’ve seen High Fidelity (and read the book), but it all starts to blur together after a while. I really need to revisit a lot of those old movies. Whenever we have a movie night my wife and I sit around complaining that there’s nothing to watch, but there are really a thousand great movies that we barely remember.
I like Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill, but I prefer it sung by Sarah McLachlan 😂
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fun post to read, Jeff. I am also a fan of John Cusack. Dobler effect – clever.
Have you thought about sharing one of your spin class playlists?
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Hi Jim, I just went back and added to the bottom of the post the playlist I was constructing when I wrote this. I was shooting for accessible music for the participants with this one. Used it in two classes. Went over well in one, the other class I couldn’t tell. My mixes are all over the place including classic rock, southern rock, alt country, reggae, 90s alternative, new wave, etc and lots of punk.
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thanks for posting your playlist!
my first thought was that WOW! I need to update my music habits. I think I only recognized two songs, but they are both sung by artists other than the ones I associate the tunes with (Country Roads and Have You Ever Seen the Rain). I’ll give the playlist a listen this weekend,
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