12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Music

[Turock]

12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Music

[SteveC]

That was sad....

[Bulltrout]

My spirit has been crushed.

[64jazz]

Sad indeed, but how about the eBay link to this 1969 Boss 429 Mustang at the bottom of the page?!?!

Original 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 Unearthed On Ebay

[chris1125]

In fairness, I think if they had easily accessible inexpensive CDs at the time of most of those bands instead of big vinyl records it would change a lot of those statistics.

[champbassist]

I quite liked this:

BD Music News - '12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Music' - A Response

[stratovani]

That is extremely disappointing, until you remember that Rhianna has nicer boobies than Robert Plant, although to be fair he has nicer hair.

[bassophil]

First of all: if these "statistics" are based on facts, how can the music industry claim to be dying...? Doesn't go well together imo.

If you take into account that today a lot of record companies buy hundreds of thousands of copies of their own records just to make it to a good spot in the charts for more popularity, then it might make sense again. I don't know if that was a common procedure 30+ years ago too though...

[Kwesi]

Those are disappointing? Ha. Not even close. You want to know what's disappointing? The fact that, despite the internet and how it can connect us to damn near anything we could possibly want within seconds, people still can't help but whine about the state of popular music. What makes it even worse is that folks seem to do it as if were something new.

However, I'll have 4 helpings of the girl shown on #4's album cover.

[lowfreq33]

What's actually going on here is that people are buying fewer albums and more singles.

[CannyBusDriver]

yaaaa heard that... about the #4 girl... who is that?

dadaaaadaaadoonkk donk

[pklima]

Here's another fun fact: at least judging by Youtube views for their most popular songs Metallica, Paramore, Nirvana and Guns'N'Roses are all less popular than Daddy Yankee, Don Omar or Wisin y Yandel. I love pointing that out to rock fans.

[Richland123]

YIKES!!!!!!

[Zentner]

I think this is awesome. As music becomes more popular, it also becomes more diverse. Maybe I'm going out on a limb, but honestly people need to look at music as an art form that is substantially more involved than just some EMI employee's songwriting capabilities and the artist who performs it. Seriously, are we JUST realizing that the music industry has almost nothing to with with the actual music anymore?

This forum's a great example- 95% of the discussion is with regards to gear... people are putting a huge amount of value on the way their instrument sounds as opposed to how their song is written. The forum IS 'Talk Bass'.... not 'Talk Bass Gear', but this is what people obviously want to talk about- how to spend their money.

PS. Please listen to the new Bieber Christmas Album. It's Magical.

[SteveC]

Originally Posted by Zentner

..the music industry has almost nothing to with with the actual music anymore?

But it does decide what music is on heavy rotation - them, 12 year old girls and 40 year old women.

Oh, and yes, this forum and its members (myself included and often leading the way although now that I have quit my bands I would guess less so) are OBSESSED with gear, probably to the detriment of said members.

[carlthegroover]

Two things:

1) They forgot to mention that the compared groups/soloists are all part of the "popular music" universe. Only ones are crappy whereas the others aren't.

2) Who still believes that Justin Bieber is a "guy"?

[carlthegroover]

Originally Posted by pklima

Here's another fun fact: at least judging by Youtube views for their most popular songs Metallica, Paramore, Nirvana and Guns'N'Roses are all less popular than Daddy Yankee, Don Omar or Wisin y Yandel. I love pointing that out to rock fans.

Man, rock music should never be about popularity or sales (that's only a byproduct of rock's awesomeness!). As long as we rockers are still "sticking it to da Man" through music, who cares if rock is less popular than crap hop... ehm, sorry, hip hop.

[Zentner]

Originally Posted by SteveC

But it does decide what music is on heavy rotation - them, 12 year old girls and 40 year old women.

Oh, and yes, this forum and its members (myself included and often leading the way although now that I have quit my bands I would guess less so) are OBSESSED with gear, probably to the detriment of said members.

Oh me too dude... I'm a total gear whore...

I'm just trying to say 'I've given in' and chances are most people here have too without even knowing it.

[Frank Tuesday]

13. A Hard Day's Night sold more copies than every Charles Mingus album combined.

14. Michael Jackson sold more albums by his 22nd birthday than Fela Kuti did in his entire life.

15. U2 has won as many Best Albums Grammys as all Jazz Artists combined.

In the big picture, The Beatles, Elvis, and most of the other bands and artists listed in the list as beacons of good music are much closer to the maligned artists in the list than they are to Classical and Jazz musicians. Indicting pop music because one pop star has sold more than another pop star is silly.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Beatles, and think that they were brilliant pop stars. In fact, I like most of the "good" artists on the list. (Except Depeche Mode. They can suck it.) But they all write songs that are generally simple, unchallenging, and easy to sing along to. That is why they sold a lot of albums, and why we remember them now. They appealed to a large number of people. This isn't a criticism in any way. It is what pop music is. Pop music changes (a little), but the basic concept is the same. Sell many albums.

[ksandvik]

The music industry is very much the same operation as the industrial food industry. Make something that most people purchase.

While those who really like good food purchase from special stores, organic food and so on...