Today's Mainstream Music

[bluesno1fann]

Kids have always been like that. When I was in high school in the 1990's other kids laughed about my Beatles/Elvis obsession. It's part of the circle of life, I think.

Now if I had told them I was also into Gregorian Chants, JS Bach, and Eric Satie I can only imagine what their reactions would have been.

  we were listening to an Simon and Garfunkel song in English class and I was the only one who knew them,  and my friends were like "of course she knows it"  then my friend that didn't know Mick Jagger told me that in her class period she was the only one who knew it.......because she saw something about them on Glee 

Simon And Garfunkel was the artist that actually got me into music, so to them I will forever be grateful.
3 of my friends introduced them to me, and that's where it began. Beforehand, I liked Pink Floyd, Queen, John Lennon, David Bowie, and Lou Reed, but I just didn't like Music in General.
I guess there are still many people in our generation who still has good taste. But the vast, vast majority...

[retrokid67]

Kids have always been like that. When I was in high school in the 1990's other kids laughed about my Beatles/Elvis obsession. It's part of the circle of life, I think.

Now if I had told them I was also into Gregorian Chants, JS Bach, and Eric Satie I can only imagine what their reactions would have been.

  we were listening to an Simon and Garfunkel song in English class and I was the only one who knew them,  and my friends were like "of course she knows it"  then my friend that didn't know Mick Jagger told me that in her class period she was the only one who knew it.......because she saw something about them on Glee 

Simon And Garfunkel was the artist that actually got me into music, so to them I will forever be grateful.
3 of my friends introduced them to me, and that's where it began. Beforehand, I liked Pink Floyd, Queen, John Lennon, David Bowie, and Lou Reed, but I just didn't like Music in General.
I guess there are still many people in our generation who still has good taste. But the vast, vast majority...

I know right and did you see Mick Jagger's interview talking about Harry Stlyes portraying him in a movie his reaction was priceless  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt2XPAZpCyU

[Menace Wilson]

It seems to me that one of the biggest problems with modern music is the general tendency to emphasize style over substance.  It's all about affectation, posing, and playing a role of some kind.  I hate it.

[JohnMill]

I think it all comes down to supply and demand really.  The general public these days seems to skew more towards wanting "singers" and having less interest in musicians or bands.  As long as Taylor Swift and Beyonce and whomever else keep selling their records, we can expect more of the same with little deviation.  Not to get this thread off track onto a S&G topic but I've always been a fan as well primarily because Paul Simon is one of the few singers that I can actually emulate his vocal style so those songs are a breeze for me to sing along with.  See the thing I fear alongside the notion that so many bands from the sixties will become positively antiquated in another thirty years is that as keyboardist extraordinaire Benmont Tench put it and I'm paraphrasing:

"There are less and less kids today showing a real interest in getting out there and starting a band and taking the time to learn their craft.  It seems like everyone is interested in how fast can I get myself a record or get my face on television."

[retrokid67]

yea right now it seems that the industry has become more about "swag" than music.  to me "swag" has lost its true meaning 

[bluesno1fann]

I think it all comes down to supply and demand really.  The general public these days seems to skew more towards wanting "singers" and having less interest in musicians or bands.  As long as Taylor Swift and Beyonce and whomever else keep selling their records, we can expect more of the same with little deviation.  Not to get this thread off track onto a S&G topic but I've always been a fan as well primarily because Paul Simon is one of the few singers that I can actually emulate his vocal style so those songs are a breeze for me to sing along with.  See the thing I fear alongside the notion that so many bands from the sixties will become positively antiquated in another thirty years is that as keyboardist extraordinaire Benmont Tench put it and I'm paraphrasing:

"There are less and less kids today showing a real interest in getting out there and starting a band and taking the time to learn their craft.  It seems like everyone is interested in how fast can I get myself a record or get my face on television."

It's also how a lot of "singers" these days actually can't sing, which is most likely the main reason why there is so much auto-tune and effects put on singers now

[bluesno1fann]

yea right now it seems that the industry has become more about "swag" than music.  to me "swag" has lost its true meaning 

Hearing the word "Swag" pisses me off lol.
When I think of Swag, I think of trendy douchebags

[retrokid67]

yea right now it seems that the industry has become more about "swag" than music.  to me "swag" has lost its true meaning 

Hearing the word "Swag" pisses me off lol.
When I think of Swag, I think of trendy douchebags

yea they use it over and over again in songs and it's getting really old  and if Gabo thinks the lyrics of All I Want to Do are offensive, let him listen to a modern day rap song  a lot of the songs today make All I Want to Do sound like a song on kids show 

[bluesno1fann]

yea right now it seems that the industry has become more about "swag" than music.  to me "swag" has lost its true meaning 

Hearing the word "Swag" pisses me off lol.
When I think of Swag, I think of trendy douchebags

yea they use it over and over again in songs and it's getting really old  and if Gabo thinks the lyrics of All I Want to Do are offensive, let him listen to a modern day rap song  a lot of the songs today make All I Want to Do sound like a song on kids show 

I don't find lyrics in modern songs offensive. It's more how unimaginative and repetitive it has become that pisses me off

[retrokid67]

yea right now it seems that the industry has become more about "swag" than music.  to me "swag" has lost its true meaning 

Hearing the word "Swag" pisses me off lol.
When I think of Swag, I think of trendy douchebags

yea they use it over and over again in songs and it's getting really old  and if Gabo thinks the lyrics of All I Want to Do are offensive, let him listen to a modern day rap song  a lot of the songs today make All I Want to Do sound like a song on kids show 

I don't find lyrics in modern songs offensive. It's more how unimaginative and repetitive it has become that pisses me off

I should've been more specific, I was referring to rap songs

[Myk Luhv]

I used to care about "authenticity" in music too but I don't any more since I think it's sort of ridiculous to expect every performer to be good at every other aspect of music-making too. No one minds when someone doesn't produce their own material, do they? Or mix or engineer it? And no one minds if someone doesn't write their own songs, or provide instrumentation? Do you like anything Motown put out in the 1960s? Most of that, with some exceptions, wasn't mixed or engineered or written by The Supremes or whoever else... yet nobody minds! (Of course, that The Funk Brothers get their proper credits is important but not the issue we're discussing here.)

I don't care who does what for a single, album, or anything else. I'm becoming more inclined towards something like a radical subjectivity when it comes to musical tastes and preferences. I didn't like Danny Brown when I first heard him using his high-pitched voice but now I can't get enough of him -- and his beats, which he doesn't make himself, are fire. I think artistry is as much about knowing what you're good at and being selective and collaborative as it is about having your own vision. Isn't this why we like Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, after all? Do we really care that it's not The Beach Boys playing on the majority of Pet Sounds or Today!? Maybe some people... but not the majority of us, and especially not causal listeners.

These threads are tiring and it invariably begins and ends with people going, "Music today sucks, it was so much better in ___" which isn't even fucking true. Come on folks.

[JohnMill]

I used to care about "authenticity" in music too but I don't any more since I think it's sort of ridiculous to expect every performer to be good at every other aspect of music-making too. No one minds when someone doesn't produce their own material, do they? Or mix or engineer it? And no one minds if someone doesn't write their own songs, or provide instrumentation? Do you like anything Motown put out in the 1960s? Most of that, with some exceptions, wasn't mixed or engineered or written by The Supremes or whoever else... yet nobody minds! (Of course, that The Funk Brothers get their proper credits is important but not the issue we're discussing here.)

The mixing/producing/engineering thing doesn't bother me as much as the songwriting aspect.  Regardless of what era the band or singer performed in, if they didn't write their own material to me that is a strike against them and I tend to look at them as a bit of a lesser act than the singers or bands who write their own material.  In fact to be quite honest I can't think of one band or artist that I regularly listen to that didn't have at least some significant hand in writing their own material.  Bands or artists that don't write their own material just don't seem to have much staying power with me. 

[Myk Luhv]

Do you figure out if a performer has (co-)written their own material before listening to them or, if you hear a song you like by some performer, once you find out that they didn't (co-)write it themselves do you go, "Oh, well, I suppose I can't listen to this any more!" and cast them away? I'm confused as to why this should be considered a "strike against them" beyond your personal preference for that being the case.

edit: Which I should say, is not a bad thing. You are free to have your preference be what they are obviously, I just don't understand why they should also be universalised for pop music in general.

[JohnMill]

Do you figure out if a performer has (co-)written their own material before listening to them or, if you hear a song you like by some performer, once you find out that they didn't (co-)write it themselves do you go, "Oh, well, I suppose I can't listen to this any more!" and cast them away? I'm confused as to why this should be considered a "strike against them" beyond your personal preference for that being the case.

edit: Which I should say, is not a bad thing. You are free to have your preference be what they are obviously, I just don't understand why they should also be universalised for pop music in general.

I think just generally speaking the musicians or bands I listen to write their own material.  That is really the long and the short of it.  I'm trying to rack my brain to think of a band or artist that I listen to with any degree of regularity or that occupies a copious amount of room in my cd/record collection that does not generate their own original music and I can't think of one.  To answer your question though I probably wouldn't invest a lot of time in an artist or band that didn't generate their own original material.  Maybe I would purchase a song or two of Itunes if I really liked a particular track but I can't see myself actually going out and acquiring catalog of an artist or band whom did not contribute in some significant way to their own music.

[pixletwin]

I used to care about "authenticity" in music too but I don't any more since I think it's sort of ridiculous to expect every performer to be good at every other aspect of music-making too. No one minds when someone doesn't produce their own material, do they? Or mix or engineer it? And no one minds if someone doesn't write their own songs, or provide instrumentation? Do you like anything Motown put out in the 1960s? Most of that, with some exceptions, wasn't mixed or engineered or written by The Supremes or whoever else... yet nobody minds! (Of course, that The Funk Brothers get their proper credits is important but not the issue we're discussing here.)

The mixing/producing/engineering thing doesn't bother me as much as the songwriting aspect.  Regardless of what era the band or singer performed in, if they didn't write their own material to me that is a strike against them and I tend to look at them as a bit of a lesser act than the singers or bands who write their own material.  In fact to be quite honest I can't think of one band or artist that I regularly listen to that didn't have at least some significant hand in writing their own material.  Bands or artists that don't write their own material just don't seem to have much staying power with me. 

I understand where John is coming from but damn if he is missing a lot of great music if that's the case.

Ella Fitzgerald will forever be one of all time favorites. I don't believe she ever write any of her own songs. Does that apply to classical performers? Cecilia Bartoli or Horowitz. Are they lesser artists because the interpreted other peoples music rather than writing their own. I don't know if I can dig that kind of thinking.

[JohnMill]

I used to care about "authenticity" in music too but I don't any more since I think it's sort of ridiculous to expect every performer to be good at every other aspect of music-making too. No one minds when someone doesn't produce their own material, do they? Or mix or engineer it? And no one minds if someone doesn't write their own songs, or provide instrumentation? Do you like anything Motown put out in the 1960s? Most of that, with some exceptions, wasn't mixed or engineered or written by The Supremes or whoever else... yet nobody minds! (Of course, that The Funk Brothers get their proper credits is important but not the issue we're discussing here.)

The mixing/producing/engineering thing doesn't bother me as much as the songwriting aspect.  Regardless of what era the band or singer performed in, if they didn't write their own material to me that is a strike against them and I tend to look at them as a bit of a lesser act than the singers or bands who write their own material.  In fact to be quite honest I can't think of one band or artist that I regularly listen to that didn't have at least some significant hand in writing their own material.  Bands or artists that don't write their own material just don't seem to have much staying power with me.  

I understand where John is coming from but damn if he is missing a lot of great music if that's the case.

Ella Fitzgerald will forever be one of all time favorites. I don't believe she ever write any of her own songs. Does that apply to classical performers? Cecilia Bartoli or Horowitz. Are they lesser artists because the interpreted other peoples music rather than writing their own. I don't know if I can dig that kind of thinking.

In my opinion they are lesser artists because they aren't as complete artists as those who actually generate their own material.  There is a reason why many baseball fans consider Babe Ruth to be the greatest baseball player of all time and while much of that has to do with his ability to hit prodigiously and to have basically facilitated the popularity of the home run, do you realize that given his stats as a pitcher, that even if Ruth never swung a bat in his life a case could be made for him going into the HOF as a pitcher?  Versatility counts.

Individuals who for the most part shy away from artists who don't generate their own original material may be missing out on some great music but the fact remains that there is more than enough great music written by acts that do generate their own original material to make up for it.  I'll also admit that in many ways it comes down to the era of music in which you were first inoculated into and what the standards were for that era.  So if the first band you were exposed to for instance was The Beatles and from there you progressed to the other mainstream rock acts of the sixties you'd find that the majority of acts that did not generate their own original material during that era, really didn't survive that era.  Some of them did but they are more exceptions to the rule than anything else.  Then again if you enjoy an era in which singers (and if we are to be honest with ourselves it's mainly acts that we would classify as "singers" that don't generate their own original material) commonly sang someone else's tune, then I can see how you could be a bit more forgiving.    

[Moon Dawg]

  Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley...lesser artists?


  Would Grizzly Bear be considered "mainstream"?

[JohnMill]

 Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley...lesser artists?

You can quote whatever names you want whether it be Taylor Swift or Ella Fitzgerald and the number still comes up the same.  What is good for the goose has to be good for the gander.  I love Frank Sinatra and think as far as vocals go that he certainly one of the best singers the world has ever known but that being said when all is said in done he's really not in the same league as someone like Paul McCartney.  The reason being Paul McCartney wrote his own songs, was known as one of the best bass players of his generation, exhibited either depending on your point of view competence or mastery of several instruments and a solid knowledge of how to produce his own music, something I'm sure he picked up from working alongside George Martin all of those years.

So yes they are lesser artists.  In fact that has actually been the word of Elvis Presley for years now, that he might be the king of rock and roll but he was hardly the greatest musical act to come from his era's talent pool so to speak.  To go a bit further, there has always been speculation that if the times were different and racial equality had come about sooner, then Elvis Presley may have not have been necessary at all.  I'm not saying that he wouldn't have found success but I think his success would have been tempered if artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Fats Domino were looked upon differently than they were at the time.

[Jim Rockford]

It's sad what has happened to mainstream music. However, I have hopes that things might change.

[retrokid67]

It's sad what has happened to mainstream music. However, I have hopes that things might change.

Yea we've had almost a full decade of mediocre crap.   in 2007 mainstream rap music turned to garbage thanks to people like Soulja Boy  .  I know there was crappy music in every decade, but the good music always overshadowed the bad.  Most of the artists in my generation won't even last 5 years from now.  One thing I hate is how a song could come out today, and then in two weeks it's considered "old"  what? 

[bluesno1fann]

It's sad what has happened to mainstream music. However, I have hopes that things might change.

Yea we've had almost a full decade of mediocre crap.   in 2007 mainstream rap music turned to garbage thanks to people like Soulja Boy  .  I know there was crappy music in every decade, but the good music always overshadowed the bad.  Most of the artists in my generation won't even last 5 years from now.  One thing I hate is how a song could come out today, and then in two weeks it's considered "old"  what? 

True. The Jonas Brothers, which was huge a few years ago, are literally history now. The overrated Psy proved to be a one-hit wonder, all the artists from the much-derided ARK Music Factory have suffered great ridicule and slid into obscurity. Kesha has also slid into obscurity.

Justin Bieber and One Direction should go next I hope. Them and Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, and all the other jokes who are ruining music as we know it

[retrokid67]

It's sad what has happened to mainstream music. However, I have hopes that things might change.

Yea we've had almost a full decade of mediocre crap.   in 2007 mainstream rap music turned to garbage thanks to people like Soulja Boy  .  I know there was crappy music in every decade, but the good music always overshadowed the bad.  Most of the artists in my generation won't even last 5 years from now.  One thing I hate is how a song could come out today, and then in two weeks it's considered "old"  what? 

True. The Jonas Brothers, which was huge a few years ago, are literally history now. The overrated Psy proved to be a one-hit wonder, all the artists from the much-derided ARK Music Factory have suffered great ridicule and slid into obscurity. Kesha has also slid into obscurity.

Justin Bieber and One Direction should go next I hope. Them and Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, and all the other jokes who are ruining music as we know it

Justin said about a week ago that he was "retiring"  it's about time  when I first saw him I thought he was one of those Kidz Bop kids

[bluesno1fann]

It's sad what has happened to mainstream music. However, I have hopes that things might change.

Yea we've had almost a full decade of mediocre crap.   in 2007 mainstream rap music turned to garbage thanks to people like Soulja Boy  .  I know there was crappy music in every decade, but the good music always overshadowed the bad.  Most of the artists in my generation won't even last 5 years from now.  One thing I hate is how a song could come out today, and then in two weeks it's considered "old"  what? 

True. The Jonas Brothers, which was huge a few years ago, are literally history now. The overrated Psy proved to be a one-hit wonder, all the artists from the much-derided ARK Music Factory have suffered great ridicule and slid into obscurity. Kesha has also slid into obscurity.

Justin Bieber and One Direction should go next I hope. Them and Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, and all the other jokes who are ruining music as we know it

Justin said about a week ago that he was "retiring"  it's about time  when I first saw him I thought he was one of those Kidz Bop kids

I hope he really is!
If he doesn't, I'll be pissed off 

[retrokid67]

It's sad what has happened to mainstream music. However, I have hopes that things might change.

Yea we've had almost a full decade of mediocre crap.   in 2007 mainstream rap music turned to garbage thanks to people like Soulja Boy  .  I know there was crappy music in every decade, but the good music always overshadowed the bad.  Most of the artists in my generation won't even last 5 years from now.  One thing I hate is how a song could come out today, and then in two weeks it's considered "old"  what? 

True. The Jonas Brothers, which was huge a few years ago, are literally history now. The overrated Psy proved to be a one-hit wonder, all the artists from the much-derided ARK Music Factory have suffered great ridicule and slid into obscurity. Kesha has also slid into obscurity.

Justin Bieber and One Direction should go next I hope. Them and Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, and all the other jokes who are ruining music as we know it

Justin said about a week ago that he was "retiring"  it's about time  when I first saw him I thought he was one of those Kidz Bop kids

I hope he really is!
If he doesn't, I'll be pissed off 

Some dude on the news said it was a gimmick because his new movie didn't do well at the box office....and I don't know what he and Miley Cyrus are trying to do they're both getting on my nerves with this "gangsta badass" stuff

[bluesno1fann]

It's sad what has happened to mainstream music. However, I have hopes that things might change.

Yea we've had almost a full decade of mediocre crap.   in 2007 mainstream rap music turned to garbage thanks to people like Soulja Boy  .  I know there was crappy music in every decade, but the good music always overshadowed the bad.  Most of the artists in my generation won't even last 5 years from now.  One thing I hate is how a song could come out today, and then in two weeks it's considered "old"  what? 

True. The Jonas Brothers, which was huge a few years ago, are literally history now. The overrated Psy proved to be a one-hit wonder, all the artists from the much-derided ARK Music Factory have suffered great ridicule and slid into obscurity. Kesha has also slid into obscurity.

Justin Bieber and One Direction should go next I hope. Them and Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, and all the other jokes who are ruining music as we know it

Justin said about a week ago that he was "retiring"  it's about time  when I first saw him I thought he was one of those Kidz Bop kids

I hope he really is!
If he doesn't, I'll be pissed off 

Some dude on the news said it was a gimmick because his new movie didn't do well at the box office....and I don't know what he and Miley Cyrus are trying to do they're both getting on my nerves with this "gangsta badass" stuff

They were both incredibly annoying even before they became like that, especially Bieber.
I wish they'd just disappear!