Pop Music And The Science As To Why It Sucks

Post Reply New Topic

80's pop is simple and stupid, but at least I find it pretty. Modern pop is hideous, it's got no good melody or harmonies, just obnoxious beats and obnoxious "singers".

Thanks for posting this thread -- it's pretty interesting to break down what's going on here.

Hopefully we can agree, autotune aside, a lot of what's wrong with pop music today is the same thing that has been wrong with pop music at least since the '50s. It's mass-marketed music to teenagers by music merchants focused on making money. It's catchy and fun, and it makes you want to dance.

Those who like pop music: there is nothing wrong with liking something likable. Feel free to love pop music.

Those who don't like pop music: I think we are looking for art, not a feel-good experience. Is that right?

I personally think a lot of music's social purpose is to bring people together and create a congenial vibe. Before Beethoven, it kind of just did that: folk music for dancing, church music for praying, concert music for the rich, silly operas for the crowds (in Italy, anyway). Everything kind of sounded the same, and it was trying to (yes, even awesome Mozart). If you were good, you took that sound and did something really clever and awesome sounding with it.

Beethoven was a misanthrope who broke all the rules and got away with it. From him, we got the idea (in the Western musical tradition anyway) that there was an Artist, and his Art should reflect his Vision. (And, for better or worse, all this enabled that jerk, Wagner.)

For example, I like Feist because she has a vision and her music is like very personal poetry (and her song "1234" makes fun of pop music, too). I don't like Robin Thicke because it sounds like shiny, pointless noise produced by a computer.

But I think pop music is like those pre-Beethoven works that are all trying to sound the same, for a social and commercial purpose. Some, like Mozart, are fantastic even though they play by the rules and have that "same" sound. Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" is a great pop song, even if Barkley is no Mozart, and it still has that same "pop music" sound as everything else around it.

I think it's OK that some music plays by the rules and sounds the same. I think it's like going back deep into our musical roots. When I hear a terrible pop song with a really good beat and lots of flashy sounds, I think how it's similar to what our hunter-gatherer forebears played around the campfire: good music to dance to, something everyone could take part in. And something kind of sexy, or which at least gets the blood pumping for love or war.

Maybe most people's minds need that blood-pumping, social-bonding sound playing the soundtrack to their lives.

I don't.

But I'm probably also talking out of my hat. I'm no music major.

I turned off my radio a few years ago, stopped listening to Pandora and such, and now simply explore "that side" of youtube where all the indie/unsigned acts are. I'm discovered bands that emulate the late 70s-early 80s postpunk/new wave sound that I fell in love with almost ten years ago. Bands like Linea Aspera, She Past Away, Winter Severity Index, Django Django, Broken Bells, etc. just simply are wonderful to my ears.

I still listen to a little bit that falls well outside of postpunk/new wave's sphere of influence such as Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Keane, and such though.

Also to the OP: I found it ironic that you posted a link from a country music website. Now that is repetitive garbage. Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash must be rolling in their graves to hear what country has become.

I know it sux but I really like pop music.

All I see most pop as nowadays is just talentless models who only made it big because they had money and people would listen to anything that comes out of a pretty face. They focus more on having a catchy hook then actually taking time to make a good song. As a musician myself, I can tell there's usually not a lot of thought that goes into it. When I compose my music, I spend up to a month, 1 to 4 hours a day, to get just ONE single song done on guitar because I don't want it to be simplistic. I want it to be as good as it can possibly get. But at least 10 years from now, half these BS pop stars like Nikki Manaj, Blood on the Dance floor, and One Direction will be gone. Look at Justin Bieber, only reason you hear about him is when he acts like a f*****g idiot, you never hear any news about his music anymore.

It sucks because it's popular.