Today's Mainstream Music Redux

[retrokid67]

Today's mainstream music does indeed suck. None of the greatest songs written today even make the charts. It's all very same-y.  What modern pop audiences want to hear are very obvious hooks and dubstep arrangements. It's as banal as you can get.

I completely agree.  the fact that you have to "search" for a good song most of the time now is ridiculous when 10 years ago and before you didn't have to

[the captain]

Today's mainstream music does indeed suck. None of the greatest songs written today even make the charts. It's all very same-y.  What modern pop audiences want to hear are very obvious hooks and dubstep arrangements. It's as banal as you can get.

I completely agree.  the fact that you have to "search" for a good song most of the time now is ridiculous when 10 years ago and before you didn't have to

Now that is hilarious. What was so much better or different 10 years ago? The Billboard pop chart's highest rated singles were:

"Yeah!" Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris
"Burn" Usher
"If I Ain't Got You" Alicia Keys
"This Love" Maroon 5
"The Way You Move" Outkast feat. Sleepy Brown
"The Reason" Hoobastank
"Hey Ya" Outkast
"Goodies" Ciara
"Lean Back" Terror Squad
"Tipsy" J-Kwom
"Confessions Part II" Usher
"Slow Motion" Juveline feat. Soulja Slim
"Freek a Leek" Petey Paulo
"Here Without You" 3 Doors Down

That is a comedically awful list. I count one really strong song--Hey Ya--and a few talented artists (Usher and Alicia Keys). But there is nothing different from today: Outkast would top the charts if they released anything, and the other two still do when they release anything. So unless you miss the grand ol' days of Hoobastank...

[Gabo]

Stuff like Maroon 5 makes my ears bleed. How do you assess modern mainstream music, captain?

I love simple pop music, and electronics, but I just don't like the mainstream approach. It is marketed toward the same group of people who enjoy Michael Bay films... loud, dramatic, all flash..
 

[the captain]

Stuff like Maroon 5 makes my ears bleed.

No matter how open-minded and open-eared I work to be, I can't help but agree.

How do you assess modern mainstream music, captain?

Honestly? I don't. Or at least I try not to, not any more than I want to hear about what "the 60s" or "the 80s" sound like. (The former wasn't all Beatles; the latter wasn't all Madonna.) To me, that generalization makes no sense: music is always almost inconceivably diverse--great, terrible, and everywhere in between, spanning styles, besides. Increasingly over the years I try to hear everything individually, and as much in good faith and as it was intended as possible. I'd rather find something I like in everything than not find anything I like in anything. Inclusive, not exclusive. It doesn't mean I want to listen to everything out there, or that I'll praise whatever comes around, but it does help me find things that are of some value (whether to me or to someone else). And if it's not for me? Meh, has nothing to do with it--it has only to do with me. It's not worse for it, you know what I mean?

That's my philosophy on it these days. And I'm happier that way than I was, say, 10-15 years ago as a total elitist asshole.

[Jim Rockford]

I don't get to listen to much mainstream pop. The only mainstream music I hear anymore is country. Most of it makes me want to vomit.  It's so formulaic.  A lot of it sounds the same. I don't see why people like it. I really hope it's ignorance on their part.

It could just as easily be ignorance on your part. The "sounds the same" argument, as is the case with its visual equivalent, seems most common among people not especially familiar. The more into something one is, the more obvious the differences become.

I hope you understand I'm not attacking you, just using your post to make a point. And of course there are examples of truly uncreative works that do sound the same. Mostly I must saying it's a big world with a lot of great stuff to like, yet it's no big deal where we differ on it.

I'd say that I am more than familiar with it. I hear it all the time. It's not like I hear it once every now and then. I hear it 40+ hours a week. I am not ignorant about this at all.

[retrokid67]

Today's mainstream music does indeed suck. None of the greatest songs written today even make the charts. It's all very same-y.  What modern pop audiences want to hear are very obvious hooks and dubstep arrangements. It's as banal as you can get.

I completely agree.  the fact that you have to "search" for a good song most of the time now is ridiculous when 10 years ago and before you didn't have to

Now that is hilarious. What was so much better or different 10 years ago? The Billboard pop chart's highest rated singles were:

"Yeah!" Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris
"Burn" Usher
"If I Ain't Got You" Alicia Keys
"This Love" Maroon 5
"The Way You Move" Outkast feat. Sleepy Brown
"The Reason" Hoobastank
"Hey Ya" Outkast
"Goodies" Ciara
"Lean Back" Terror Squad
"Tipsy" J-Kwom
"Confessions Part II" Usher
"Slow Motion" Juveline feat. Soulja Slim
"Freek a Leek" Petey Paulo
"Here Without You" 3 Doors Down

That is a comedically awful list. I count one really strong song--Hey Ya--and a few talented artists (Usher and Alicia Keys). But there is nothing different from today: Outkast would top the charts if they released anything, and the other two still do when they release anything. So unless you miss the grand ol' days of Hoobastank...

ok ok 13 years and before then.  and what about "Breakaway" by Kelly Clarkson?  that came out 10 years ago, you wouldn't consider that a good song?

[the captain]

I don't get to listen to much mainstream pop. The only mainstream music I hear anymore is country. Most of it makes me want to vomit.  It's so formulaic.  A lot of it sounds the same. I don't see why people like it. I really hope it's ignorance on their part.

It could just as easily be ignorance on your part. The "sounds the same" argument, as is the case with its visual equivalent, seems most common among people not especially familiar. The more into something one is, the more obvious the differences become.

I hope you understand I'm not attacking you, just using your post to make a point. And of course there are examples of truly uncreative works that do sound the same. Mostly I must saying it's a big world with a lot of great stuff to like, yet it's no big deal where we differ on it.

I'd say that I am more than familiar with it. I hear it all the time. It's not like I hear it once every now and then. I hear it 40+ hours a week. I am not ignorant about this at all.

As I said, I was primarily using your point to make a more general point; I don't know you or what you know.

[the captain]

ok ok 13 years and before then.  and what about "Breakaway" by Kelly Clarkson?  that came out 10 years ago, you wouldn't consider that a good song?

13 years ago, 2001.

1. Lifehouse, Hanging By a Moment
2. Alicia Keys, Fallin
3. Janet, All For You
4. Train, Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)
5. Jennifer Lopez feat. Ja Rule, I'm Real
6. Matchbox Twenty, If You're Gone
7. Eve feat. Gwen Stefani, Let Me Blow Ya Mind
8. Dido, Thank You
9. Lenny Kravitz, Again
10. Destiny's Child, Independent Woman, Part I
11. Blue Cantrell, Hit Em Up Style (oops!)
12. Shaggy feat. Ricardo Ducent, It Wasn't Me
13. Joe feat. Mystikal, Stutter
14. Staind, It's Been Awhile
15. Usher, U Remind Me

The scene wasn't particularly grand 13 years ago, either... In fact, that seems like a worse batch than the '04 collection.

As for naming particular songs, that's a weak way out, because you can find a single great pop song any year. It doesn't matter whether one particular one can be found, that doesn't mean that things were better "way back then" when it was out.

[retrokid67]

ok ok 13 years and before then.  and what about "Breakaway" by Kelly Clarkson?  that came out 10 years ago, you wouldn't consider that a good song?

13 years ago, 2001.

1. Lifehouse, Hanging By a Moment
2. Alicia Keys, Fallin
3. Janet, All For You
4. Train, Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)
5. Jennifer Lopez feat. Ja Rule, I'm Real
6. Matchbox Twenty, If You're Gone
7. Eve feat. Gwen Stefani, Let Me Blow Ya Mind
8. Dido, Thank You
9. Lenny Kravitz, Again
10. Destiny's Child, Independent Woman, Part I
11. Blue Cantrell, Hit Em Up Style (oops!)
12. Shaggy feat. Ricardo Ducent, It Wasn't Me
13. Joe feat. Mystikal, Stutter
14. Staind, It's Been Awhile
15. Usher, U Remind Me

The scene wasn't particularly grand 13 years ago, either... In fact, that seems like a worse batch than the '04 collection.

As for naming particular songs, that's a weak way out, because you can find a single great pop song any year. It doesn't matter whether one particular one can be found, that doesn't mean that things were better "way back then" when it was out.

well I'm lookin at that list and I see three songs on there that I actually like so I guess it comes down to personal taste 

[Niko]

well I'm lookin at that list and I see three songs on there that I actually like so I guess it comes down to personal taste 

That's music for you!! 

[the captain]

Obviously it always comes down to personal taste, but if you like three of 15 songs versus maybe one or two (for example, the 04 list had Hey Ya, which I thought was a great, great single, as well as another decent tune or two), is that really so different? That's the only point I was making: the general landscape of the pop charts isn't much different now than 10 (or 13) years ago.

[Myk Luhv]

Shouldn't it tell you something that, in order to get away from the fact that top 40 radio stations play the same handful of songs in a set rotation throughout the day, there had to be a shift towards extraterrestrial radio before variety in music programming could occur? I think I'd be more salty at the corporations who own most radio stations and who hedge their bets rather than take risks; maybe labels for similar reasons too. There will never be a short supply of music, both good and bad. I'd rather be positive about music and (like the captain said) place more emphasis on things I like about a song than too much on what I don't.

[retrokid67]

Obviously it always comes down to personal taste, but if you like three of 15 songs versus maybe one or two (for example, the 04 list had Hey Ya, which I thought was a great, great single, as well as another decent tune or two), is that really so different? That's the only point I was making: the general landscape of the pop charts isn't much different now than 10 (or 13) years ago.

I actually like Hey Ya too