Sky News published an article in
the Entertainment section on 22 May 2016 with the headline: Lady Gaga’s Piano
Hits The Wrong Note At Sale. What does ‘the wrong note’ mean? On the front page,
the leading picture had the headline: Lady Gaga’s Piano Falls Flat At Auction.
What does ‘falls flat’ mean?
The Oxford Dictionary defines the phrase ‘hit the wrong note’ as ‘to say or
do something in a way that is very unsuitable for a particular audience or
occasion.’ The McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
indicates that to ‘strike the wrong note’ is ‘to achieve the undesired effect;
to do something unsuitable or displeasing.’
The Cambridge Advanced Learners’ Dictionary & Thesaurus defines ‘to
fall flat’ as something that ‘does not have the intended effect.’
AudioEnglish.org defines it as ‘to fail utterly’ or ‘to collapse.’
The article reports that an upright piano, owned by the entertainer Lady
Gaga, was offered for auction as part of a ‘Music Icons’ memorabilia sale. The
first sentence states: ‘Lady Gaga’s childhood piano failed to strike a chord
with buyers at an auction in New York.’ The sentence includes another idiom –
‘to strike a chord’ – which the Free Dictionary defines as ‘to create an
emotional response’ or ‘to refer to or be relevant or familiar to’ or ‘to evoke
a reaction, response, or emotion.’ Therefore no-one was emotional enough to
spend a lot of money to purchase the piano.
The article adds that the piano, which Lady Gaga used to write her first
song at the age of five, did not meet its reserve price at Julien’s Auctions at
the Hard Rock Cafe in New York. It was expected to sell for about $100,000 to
$200,000, and therefore it did not sell.
The Scorecard for the Sky News headline
is 100%. In such a brief article it has included three idioms – ‘to fall flat’
– ‘to strike a chord’ – and ‘to hit the wrong note.’ And all were relevant to
the article about the auction of Lady Gaga’s piano – it didn’t get an emotional
response from the audience and therefore it didn’t have the desired effect (a
sale). The lesson here is – if there is not much information, at least give the
readers a reason to smile – by providing lots of ‘cheesy’ idioms. Unlike Lady
Gaga’s 2011 song ‘Going, Gone’ – Baby B-B-B-Baby, Your Going Now Your Gone,
Going Gone, G-G-G-Going Gone – the piano isn’t going anywhere. And, as the
article states, ‘nor was it clear if the piano would be offered for sale
again.’
MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:-
The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends
(2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan
Curse (2009).
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