Helpful ReplyWhy is modern pop music so terrible?

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bitflipper
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2017/08/30 12:39:00 (permalink)

Why is modern pop music so terrible?

Does modern pop music all sound the same, or are you just a grumpy old man?
 
It's usually explained away as a generational thing. As the story goes, each generation needs to adopt their own musical motif, preferably something their parents hate.
 
But I've long suspected a fatal flaw in that theory, based on the observation that I actually like my parents' (and grandparents') music. Furthermore, my kids and my grandchildren prefer L. Zeppelin over J. Bieber. I've observed the same phenomenon with my friends' kids and grandkids, many of whom echo Homer Simpson's famous observation that
"Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact."
 



All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. 

My Stuff
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BobF
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 12:53:17 (permalink)
Good post!

Bob  --
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 13:03:31 (permalink)
Please stand by, an official/in depth review on "Pop Music" is forthcoming.
 
On a different musical? note, has anyone seen Pedro?

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bapu
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 13:31:21 (permalink)
Hi,
 
Carmen
Gong
Amon Duul 2
 
 
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Voda La Void
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 14:17:10 (permalink)
...

Voda La Void...experiments in disturbing frequencies...
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bapu
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 14:46:26 (permalink)
Voda La Void
...


You're initial response was better.
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Voda La Void
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 15:06:01 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby bapu 2017/08/30 15:07:13
bapu
Voda La Void
...


You're initial response was better.




I predicted a bad reaction from others...so I chose peace and quiet.  ha ha. 

Voda La Void...experiments in disturbing frequencies...
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bapu
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 15:11:17 (permalink)
bitflipper
"Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact."

Really?
 
Check this out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1974
 
Or, if you prefer albums:
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_200_number-one_albums_of_1974
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BobF
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 15:14:10 (permalink)
bapu
bitflipper
"Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact."

Really?
 
Check this out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1974
 
Or, if you prefer albums:
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_200_number-one_albums_of_1974




He said 'perfection', not peak popularity with the unwashed masses.

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bapu
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 15:16:46 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby BobF 2017/08/30 15:45:30
Excuse me whilst I go wash up.
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bapu
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 15:20:27 (permalink)
bitflipper
 
"Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact."
 
 

Of course it did.  I was born that year, and music was in a downward spiral afterwards.

http://www.MattSwiftMusic.com
 
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BobF
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 15:46:32 (permalink)
bapu
How's this?
 
https://www.besteveralbums.com/yearstats.php?y=1974




Hi,
 
If this isn't Pedro's list it doesn't count

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jamesg1213
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 15:50:24 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby SteveStrummerUK 2017/08/31 00:57:04
There's always been a lot of terrible pop music. Even when I was 11 or 12 I knew Paper Lace and Chicory Tip were pants. I watched a 1984 episode of Top of The Pops last night, and it was pretty bad ('Breakdance Party', anyone?) with a couple of decent tunes from Marillion and Ultravox (toe curling videos for both mind you).
 
I do wonder where the good pop songwriters are now though - Ed Sheeran and his contemporaries can't hold a candle to Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Chrissie Hynde or Difford & Tilbrook. There also seems to be a marked lack of any kind of sense of humour or 'fun' in the pop that I hear now, it all seems to be angsty imaginary relationship problems. 
 
Likewise, no-one appears to be interested in writing anything political; I can't imagine a song like 'Shipbuilding' or 'London Calling' getting airplay nowadays.

 
Jyemz
 
 
 



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bapu
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 15:58:50 (permalink)
Where's Pedro's tl;dr post?
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bapu
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 15:59:04 (permalink)
POP goes the weasel?
 
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jamesg1213
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 16:00:22 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby bapu 2017/08/30 16:01:15
bapu
Where's Pedro's tl;dr post?


 
Oh, it's coming...
 
 

 
Jyemz
 
 
 



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michaelhanson
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 16:27:52 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby jude77 2017/09/01 02:47:29
It seems like music turned a corner for the worst when it was no longer about the music; when it became more about which Disney Star we could turn into the next Pop Star and how the beat would work with dance moves.

Talent no longer seems to be a measurement of whether or not the person can actually write their own tune, then play an actual instrument while singing the song without auto tune.

Mike

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bapu
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 16:29:06 (permalink)
michaelhanson
Talent no longer seems to be a measurement of whether or not the person can actually write their own tune, then play an actual instrument while singing the song without auto tune.

I'll get me coat.
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craigb
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 16:30:39 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby BobF 2017/08/30 16:39:07


 
Time for all of you to head over to Beyond My DAW!
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 16:39:33 (permalink)
craigb





"Best Answer"

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bapu
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 16:48:15 (permalink)
craigb



What, me worry?
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 16:55:07 (permalink)
bapu
michaelhanson
Talent no longer seems to be a measurement of whether or not the person can actually write their own tune, then play an actual instrument while singing the song without auto tune.

I'll get me coat.


You are too hard on yourself. You play a mean Am.


On a side note, singing Lead and playing Bass, I have found to be quite challenging. I'm amazed by the guys that can do that.

Mike

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drewfx1
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 17:11:47 (permalink)
Since I'd have to actually listen to some modern pop music to have an opinion here, instead I'll share my opinions on Instabooker or whatever social media platform pop fans share their opinions on today.
 
Is it nap time yet?

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sharke
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 17:27:57 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby michaelhanson 2017/08/30 17:37:38
Everything is becoming blander and more homogenized with globalization. Look at cars. When I look back on footage of the 60's to the 80's, cars had so much more charm and character. Many of them were intensely cool looking. And when I saw footage from the US growing up in the UK, I always loved how the cars were so much different to the cars in Europe. They had America written all over them. Sometime in the late 80's/early 90's, cars began taking on this kind of bland, nondescript look. Soap bar shapes replaced the more angular lines of yesteryear, and the generic SUV look took off. Now all traffic looks the same to me. And you probably wouldn't see much different on the roads of New York as you would in London or Paris. 
 
The fact is that most people have very bland, uninteresting tastes, and the market was bound to end up here eventually. Why bother going to the effort of writing and producing interesting, artistic music when you can just snap a bunch of generic sounds together and have a generic singer do that generic American Idol style warbling over the top? Why write a melody when you can simply give the singer a nursery rhyme tune and have them embellish it with sickly ornamentation? Why write interesting musical parts and look for talented musicians to play them when 99% of people don't give a damn? Just bung in a few obvious notes in the right key, and as long it's a sound that people recognize as pop they'll sing right along. 
 
The sad thing is that society does not value music as an intellectual art form in the same way it views things like literature. Imagine if, at the age of 40, you told someone that your all time favorite book was The Little Hungry Caterpillar. People would look at you askew and wonder why you hadn't developed a more adult taste in fiction. But apparently it's quite acceptable for someone's musical taste to freeze at the age of 10 and never develop any further. Some of the crap I hear on the radio now really is the melodic equivalent of a child's nursery rhyme, and yet I frequently meet grown adults who listen to it out of choice. If you suggest to them that perhaps it's time to develop a more mature taste in music, you get the usual "who are you to say your music is better than mine, it's all subjective." 

James
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 17:30:11 (permalink)
drewfx1
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bapu
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 17:37:14 (permalink) ☄ Helpfulby craigb 2017/08/30 17:44:49

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outland144k
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 17:38:48 (permalink)
bitflipper
I've observed the same phenomenon with my friends' kids and grandkids, many of whom echo Homer Simpson's famous observation that
"Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact."
 




That's weird; I've always assumed that the mid-80's was when rock truly matured (I'm not sure that we can assign a year): Synchronicity by the Police, Joshua Tree by U2, So by Peter Gabriel, and Thriller by Michael Jackson, No Jacket Required by Phil Collins, 1999 by Prince, Little Creatures by Talking Heads, and Jump by Van Halen (and others I'm forgetting for the moment). It's always seemed to me that a certain non-formulaic maturity in songwriting came about in the 80's enhanced by production techniques and the musical use of synthesizers which was heretofore unknown in rock.
 
I'd hate to contradict an authority like Homer Simpson, however.

“Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy” is attributed to Benjamin Franklin perhaps in error, but the thought remains a worthy sentiment nonetheless.

 
 
 
 
 
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 17:51:01 (permalink)
sharke
Everything is becoming blander and more homogenized with globalization. Look at cars. When I look back on footage of the 60's to the 80's, cars had so much more charm and character. Many of them were intensely cool looking. And when I saw footage from the US growing up in the UK, I always loved how the cars were so much different to the cars in Europe. They had America written all over them. Sometime in the late 80's/early 90's, cars began taking on this kind of bland, nondescript look. Soap bar shapes replaced the more angular lines of yesteryear, and the generic SUV look took off. Now all traffic looks the same to me. And you probably wouldn't see much different on the roads of New York as you would in London or Paris. 
 
The fact is that most people have very bland, uninteresting tastes, and the market was bound to end up here eventually. Why bother going to the effort of writing and producing interesting, artistic music when you can just snap a bunch of generic sounds together and have a generic singer do that generic American Idol style warbling over the top? Why write a melody when you can simply give the singer a nursery rhyme tune and have them embellish it with sickly ornamentation? Why write interesting musical parts and look for talented musicians to play them when 99% of people don't give a damn? Just bung in a few obvious notes in the right key, and as long it's a sound that people recognize as pop they'll sing right along. 
 
The sad thing is that society does not value music as an intellectual art form in the same way it views things like literature. Imagine if, at the age of 40, you told someone that your all time favorite book was The Little Hungry Caterpillar. People would look at you askew and wonder why you hadn't developed a more adult taste in fiction. But apparently it's quite acceptable for someone's musical taste to freeze at the age of 10 and never develop any further. Some of the crap I hear on the radio now really is the melodic equivalent of a child's nursery rhyme, and yet I frequently meet grown adults who listen to it out of choice. If you suggest to them that perhaps it's time to develop a more mature taste in music, you get the usual "who are you to say your music is better than mine, it's all subjective." 




Nice observation!
 
We should have some fun and make some pop songs.  A good band name would be "Generic" (or "Generic-X").  All we need are a handful of nonsensical but rhyming expletive lyrics, a beat loop, vocal correction and some T&A to dance on the video and adorn the album cover (with some bling, the fake band members should be pictured on the back cover and all should be "selfies").  We won't feel proud, but we'd make a quick million bucks... 

 
Time for all of you to head over to Beyond My DAW!
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outland144k
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Re: Why is modern pop music so terrible? 2017/08/30 17:52:43 (permalink)
michaelhanson
It seems like music turned a corner for the worst when it was no longer about the music; when it became more about which Disney Star we could turn into the next Pop Star and how the beat would work with dance moves.

Talent no longer seems to be a measurement of whether or not the person can actually write their own tune, then play an actual instrument while singing the song without auto tune.

 
Miles Davis said something like, "Eighty percent of everything is crap".
 
He used a stronger word than "crap", however. If memory serves, he said that in an interview in Downbeat in the mid-70's. Of the remaining 20%, he said about 15% was "good" and the remaining 5% was excellent. This still sounds about right, though I'm not sure he'd say even 5% is excellent anymore. 
 


“Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy” is attributed to Benjamin Franklin perhaps in error, but the thought remains a worthy sentiment nonetheless.

 
 
 
 
 
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