Africa by Toto

 

There is nothing worse than when the internet drags a terrible song out of the past for ironic amusement and turns it into a meme, where it then becomes so ubiquitous that it can no longer be escaped via space nor time. Africa frequently appears in grocery stores, commercials and wherever there are drunken idiots in the vicinity of a jukebox.

This song would have become a footnote in the playlist of classic rock stations had it not been for its meme resurgence a few years back, which was amplified by a cover version from Weezer, a band who made two good albums and then spent decades becoming a self-referential joke.

First of all it is just a boring song. Imagine that half a dozen middle aged high school band teachers got together to form a rock band. Africa is the first song they write. It is lukewarm operatic silliness with unnecessary vocal histrionics atop the most grating keyboard sounds to ever exist.

Don't spend too much time trying to figure out what the song is about, because it is about nothing. It is two or three ill-formed ideas held together with literary duct tape. Even the guitar player in this band has called it a "dumb song".

Also, who the hell does this guy think he is that the rain needs his blessing? What a fugkn dork.

If you had to explain what a dork is to someone, you could just use this song as a reference.