It's not just us, the popular music IS getting worse

[PotatoSalad]

An interesting study for those of us who change the station when yet another monotonous pop hit indistinguishable from dozens of other pop hits comes on the radio:

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep00521


And a video version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVME_l4IwII



Finally we have a scientific proof that today's popular music is crap.

[mybrainhurts]

Didn't need proof....

Can't spell, either. They missed the C off rap

[languagetimothy]

Yes.... there's always been some ste stuff around and novelty records but what with the likes of Mr Cowell and before him pete waterman and his gang it's become mainstream, and with everyone singing in the same safe club stylie, despite coming from all parts of the country.

Back in the day, you could hear a difference in the artist singing style.

The YouTube link you provided shows why. Music industry is a business and it makes sense to push out cheap to make and low maintenance stuff to get the profits.
The punters are part of the throwaway society. But who buys this stuff?i would suggest mostly younger girls, because the boy band are lovely and they are going to marry them, and the girl bands are grown up and confident role models blah blah. I can't see that blokes would buy it...
They might be more interested in proper bands, even if its Metal or rap. Am I wrong?

Look at chart listings from a few decades back and it was mostly artists and bands. These were real people who had written songs and probably grafted for a number of years.

When I was a youngster (yawn...) I would buy things like Bowie, Lou Reed but I had to buy the vinyl album (quite an investment as the vid described) and sit and listen to it. I cldnt just skip to the next track or artist on my iPod.
I was fortunate in that I come from a family who liked their music and so now I have broad tastes. I play guitar in a covers band, and listen to all sorts of stuff, for example at home there might be some Radiohead blasting out, but my car is generally fixed to Classic FM.

[Billsnemesis]

I am going to show this to the rest of our house band

When choosing songs to play I have likened the recent stuff chosen by the younger members to the musical equivalent of a Subway sandwich - homogenised mass produced tasteless se

Even people who ought to know better seem to be at it. Ed Sheeran clearly has some talent and I watched the whole of his Glasto show on TV but if it weren't for someone trying to get us to do Shape of You I would not be able to tell you what a single one of his songs sounded like, or maybe I could tell you what they all sound like just from hearing one of them.

[mcdonaa]

There are luckily a few exceptions...coincidentally, Steven Wilson thinks the same about modern 'Pop' music. He has a new album out Friday:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to...

[PotatoSalad]

I've got tickets to see Steven in March, some of his solo albums are excellent, proper prog rock. I saw him live on Hand Cannot Erase tour with Guthrie on the guitar, it still gives me chills.

[xjay1337]

Anything Ed Sheeran gets right on my tits.

But I agree with the video - they are all pretty much the same.

[PotatoSalad]

xjay1337 said:

Anything Ed Sheeran gets right on my tits.

But I agree with the video - they are all pretty much the same.

And he still gathers larger audience at Wembley than Queen ever did..


"Back in my days" we had pop music, but even ABBA had to at least sing in tune without relying on computer software. You could easily tell A-ha from Culture Club after three seconds, there was no way to mistake Madonna for Cyndi Laupher on the radio like with all those Rihannas and Beyonces. No autotunes, no clever software fixing drummer's poor timing, you were good or out.


Fun fact: Beyonce needed to employ FIVE MALE songwriters to come up with this utter sh*t:

Beyonce said:

Girls, we run this motha (yeah!)
Girls, we run this motha (yeah!)
Girls, we run this motha (yeah!)
Girls, we run this motha girls
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run this motha? Girls!
Who run this motha? Girls!
Who run this motha? Girls!
Who run this motha? Girls!
Who run this motha? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!

She can't even run her own album..

[mcdonaa]

PotatoSalad said:

I've got tickets to see Steven in March, some of his solo albums are excellent, proper prog rock. I saw him live on Hand Cannot Erase tour with Guthrie on the guitar, it still gives me chills.

I've seen him live a couple of times - once with Porcupine Tree (long time fan), and again at the Albert Hall. Both gigs were exceptional.

This man has real talent, and his latest offering is certainly getting people talking - if not mainly his die hard 'prog' fans. This album is certainly not prog....but still, this isn't your normal disposable, conveyor-belt generated music like most is nowadays.

I recommend it to anyone - and certainly a lot of his back catalogue.

The article was pretty much spot on - "...probably the most successful British artist you’ve never heard of"

[Evangelion]

Pop music has always been ste to some extent. It's never been born out of a wish to create anything of lasting quality or artistic merit, rather to just generate some cash by keeping the punter interested until the next load of ste is ready for release.

This is of course simplistic, there is more to it than that The great variety of music that was produced in the past meant that some of it was better than the rest so the cream rose to the top. But it's become so homogenised, to the extent that now there is no cream.

[vournikas]

PotatoSalad said:

Fun fact: Beyonce needed to employ FIVE MALE songwriters to come up with this utter sh*t:

Beyonce said:

Girls, we run this motha (yeah!)
Girls, we run this motha (yeah!)
Girls, we run this motha (yeah!)
Girls, we run this motha girls
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run this motha? Girls!
Who run this motha? Girls!
Who run this motha? Girls!
Who run this motha? Girls!
Who run this motha? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!

She can't even run her own album..

Seriously?!?!

"Songwriters" to table that st??!?!

fk me, the Macc Lads have come up with more eloquent stuff than that bilge

[OldSkoolRS]

vournikas said:

Seriously?!?!

"Songwriters" to table that st??!?!

fk me, the Macc Lads have come up with more eloquent stuff than that bilge

"She bangs like the sthouse door when the plague's in town" is one of my favourite Macc Lads lines; the peak of eloquence.

[JLC25]

Everything Everything - A Fever Dream came out today. It'll bother the big places in the charts (like their previous album Get To Heaven did).

Lorde released Melodrama this year, Kendrick Lamar released Damn, The XX Released I See You. All bothered the big places worldwide. All critically and commercially successful. Great albums and singles still being released every year. Yes, a lot of popular music has got caught up in the loudness wars and following patterns, but an awful lot hasn't and is still doing well.

[iSore]

I don't know a single Ed Sheeran track. Not one.

There is still some good stuff, stuff I've seen on Later with JH and picked up on.

[gmaz]

Just listening to Steven Wilson's new album.. thankfully he is one of the few decent musicians around.

[andy_s]

JLC25 said:

Everything Everything - A Fever Dream came out today. It'll bother the big places in the charts (like their previous album Get To Heaven did).

Lorde released Melodrama this year, Kendrick Lamar released Damn, The XX Released I See You. All bothered the big places worldwide. All critically and commercially successful. Great albums and singles still being released every year. Yes, a lot of popular music has got caught up in the loudness wars and following patterns, but an awful lot hasn't and is still doing well.

Funny enough just got that one myself [Everything Everything] - as an aside their first album, on vinyl, is now about £200+ :shock:

I can't abide the majority of stuff on the popular side, it's so shallow and transparently self-serving for the 'artist' (a term I use loosely) rather than borne of any societal angst or genuine emotion about something - it's very manufactured and designed purely to make money. There is so little originality that it's painful to see people 'get into' a song as you think 'you're being mugged off'.

BUT - as above - there are still good artists writing and playing very well - I just think they are underappreciated (maybe it's a perception thing) amongst the generation of today. AND, even though I hark back to the good old days, I still remember that an awful lot of music from a generation or so ago was utter tripe as well.

I guess we can't have a Dylan/Young/Floyd all the time, but I think of most stuff now as 'corporate' music, and that puts me off, wrongly or rightly - you have to dig deeper to find the gems I feel.

"Bernie Rhodes knows, don't argue"

[Yipper]

Music always changes due to new technology -- not new musicians.

Music changed a lot as it shifted from mechanical to analog to digital in 1500 to 2000.

Guitars sounded different to harps, while decks / synths / PCs sounded different to guitars.

Everything now, in the 21st century, is digital, and everyone has the same kit (laptops, etc.), hence why it all sounds the same.

The next change in music will come from robots or AI bots, but could be decades away for popular music (the robobands today are rubbish).

[andy_s]

Yipper said:

Music always changes due to new technology -- not new musicians.

New 'instruments' make a different sound, but I disagree that new musicians don't have impact - look back at the seventies and you had new sounds created by Ramones, Iggy Pop, Malcolm McLaren, Dexys, the Jam, Bowie etc etc. New wave that embraced electronica (Kraftwerk et al) sounded different due to the tech, but I would say it wasn't the tech alone that made them - they still had to create their sound - Joy Division and Black Lace both used synths....

[vournikas]

Yipper said:

Everything now, in the 21st century, is digital

Try telling that to the Berlin Philharmonic

[suthol]

The only thing I know about Ed Sheeran is he looks like James Graham and I'm not a fan of either