Yeah, I'm often at least as embarassed by the interviewer as by the interviewee. In some contexts it's fine (radio interviews are usually okay) but the kind that usually end up in big RPF fandoms make me want to curl up and die, generally.

Britney and Pink I am fine with! I mean, sometimes the music is crap, but I can listen to it. The thing that gets me with song like Na Na Na is some kind of guitar distortion? Or maybe chord+rhythm pattern, I dunno? Which seems to turn up mostly in punk-influenced genres like alt rock and goth and emo, although it sometimes does elsewhere, that seriously just sounds to me like there's really loud static over what might otherwise be a good song. Also I think it's partly the way a certain type of (usually male) voice blends in with the staticky guitars so I can't really distinguish the lyrical line from the instrumental.

I think I agree with you that a lot of those kind of songs probably sound better live, though, 'cause at a rock gig I don't *expect* to actually get any kind of distinguishable sound other than a back beat and some shouting. (The last indoor rock performance I was at I sat in the basement of the venue the whole time, by the coat-check. That way I could actually get something from the music other than a headache. ... I am a deeply uncool person.)