Mainstream Music Stinks!

[GBBSbassist]

I was asked if I was a cashier. I am not. Nothing wrong with being a cashier. There is something wrong with a cashier who can't do simple math though. Working for the government certainly doesn't make someone "superior." Most in the private sector look down on government employees in my experience.

"most in the private sector...blah blah" Stop with the generalizations man... No one gives a crap about what you do for a living.

I asked you if you were a cashier, because after I said you sounded like a jaded old-timer (which I said because the video I linked has NOTHING whatsoever to do with age), you responded with this for some odd reason...

A jaded old timer who knows how to give correct change without a cash register.

I think I speak for several people in this thread when I say that attempting to discuss something with you is mentally exhausting.

The fact is, there was always crap music that got air play. There will always be crap music that gets air play. It's made and marketed with trends and fads in mind. If you're not the type of person to follow trends, then it's not made for your enjoyment.

 

[Kipp Harrington]

Everyone (or at least some of you)... sit down, take a deep breath and drink a beer! Or punch a hole in the wall; whatever works! lol.

 

[Glenn Johnson]

Every generation thinks the best music occurred when they were 17 years old. Everything else, older or newer sucks. Such narrow mindedness.

Hey, if bland "music" artificially produced electronically is your thing..... GREAT. Listening to certain types of music and not enjoying it is not being "narrow minded," in fact, it is just the opposite. Narrow minded would be the unwillingness to listen to something different. I've listened to mainstream music and I don't like it. It's my prerogative.

 

[Glenn Johnson]

Everyone (or at least some of you)... sit down, take a deep breath and drink a beer! Or punch a hole in the wall; whatever works! lol.

Lol! Humor much needed. Thanks.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

Sad, isn't it. This is really all about politics, which is about power, which is about money, but let's not go there! Cheers!

I remember when clear channel bought up or inheirited a lot of if not all of the radio stations & howard stern saying it was dangerous. he warned us this might happen. I think Pearl jam tried to fight them & lost then disappeared... I think We need a new genre of music to freshen things up! There are too many bedroom/garage producers making mainstream music. I wonder if thats the reason Rick Beato's "What Makes this Song Great"series,so popular. there's another guy that does the same thing on the local radio station here in L.A. showing how to do it right.

 

[LaklandLaksNADA]

You hipster.

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

I honestly have no sense of what mainstream is any more. Is there even a mainstream? Everything is so fragmented now.

 

[Glenn Johnson]

wow this got nasty fast. play nice, guys, or the mods will shut it down...

Wow. That was not my intention AT ALL!

 

[gln1955]

There's a reason threads like this are strongly discouraged by the mods.

It's been entertaining though.

 

[bass12]

It's everywhere. Everyone needs a billion percent return on investment so money only goes to stuff that is likely to yield a huge return. That's how we get a hundred movies about wolverine and whatever Adam Sandler does.

Which is precisely why I find it strange that so many people seem to deny that this is happening with the record industry. It's not just a question of changing tastes ("You're just old", "all older generations hate the younger generation's music", etc., etc.) it's a question of changing industry. Do these same people argue that household appliances are just as good as they were forty years ago? Standards can and often do change and the money and time that went into producing something in a past generation won't necessarily be put into the same product a generation later. Cheap and disposable is the order of the day. If money is going to be thrown at a project it will, as you've pointed out, be something where the level of risk is minimal. It seems a lot of people don't get that music is nothing more than a commodity for today's major labels. It has nothing to do with musical integrity. Nothing to do with quality or musical depth. It's simply about units. Why offer the more-expensive-to-produce fine Swiss chocolate when enough people will settle for a cheap-to-produce Hershey's bar? This process has become increasingly refined over the past decades and there are far fewer opportunities for a wild card to be thrown into the mix of mainstream programming than there were in past generations. It makes TOTAL sense that mainstream music would be more disposable - or at least predictably safe - now than ever before.

 

[thmsjordan]

Actually, it’s more about the personal tastes of station owners and the program directors they hire.

Methinks it goes far higher than that. There is a good documentary called "Before the music Dies". It sums things up pretty succinctly. Also, read anything Frank Zappa had to say about the industry. He was the real deal and he told it like it was.

 

[AboutSweetSue]

Yes, a strategy of the music business (mainstream, anyway) is to subject youth to crap till they start to actually like it. Youth have always been impressionable.

 

[brianrost]

popcorn-in-bucket-picture-id497857462

 

[oZZma]

You have to dumb down stuff if you want the great masses to like it.
Anything "mainstream" works that way. People are in the vast majority ignorant and stupid, let's face it.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Am I just getting old or is the current mainstream, over-produced drivel pretending to be music the garbage I believe it to be. Sure, once in a blue moon something halfway worthwhile mysteriously finds it's way onto the radio, clubs, etc. - but that's rare. It"s almost as if the music moguls have brainwashed our youth into thinking that what they're hearing is worthwhile.

Anyone agree/disagree? Thoughts? Comments?

Edit: Yes, I know I sound like my dad.

It always has

 

[tb4sbp]

There are a lot of reasons why the pop music of today sounds the way it does. Mainly due to money (IMO). The people that invest in a pop artist want a return on their money. Creating simple and catchy hooks for the trends of today or to create trends yield the greatest chance of big returns. This is not new. I do feel that there was more creative freedom for the artists of the past. But, as the music business became more expensive investors want a better assurance that they will get the interest of their investment(s). This leads to a more 'sure-fire' hit machine approach to song writing and producing.

I have no problem with pop music and lean more towards pop then any other genre. It makes people happy. And that is what I want to do when I play to a crowd.
I have played so many songs that it doesn't matter if it is a 3 or 4 chord trick or a very difficult prog song. So complexity or the lyrical content doesn't really fall into consideration. Some of my most favorite songs have the dumbest lyrics, about cars or whatever.

I have always liked a song for what it is and not trying to impose my own thoughts into it. And it comes down to personal tastes as well.

Thanks for reading

 

[Kmonk]

There hasn't much mainstream music released in the last 25 years that has interested me enough to want to buy it.

 

[JRA]

It's a boring opinion tediously rehashed every single week on here by old boomers. Cheer up man, you'll soon be dead!.......Not taking it personally, just sick of this forum turning into a retirement community.

dude: if you look at this from far enough away = you'll soon be dead, too! your issues are showing!

I am sorry I started this thread. I should have known better. Lesson learned.

yep. yep. yep!

sit down, take a deep breath and drink a beer!

It's been entertaining

 

[JimmyM]

Our parents said the same things about our music. Their parents said the same thing about theirs. And so on and so on and so on. I always say that if young people's music isn't pissing off the old folks, they're not doing their job.

 

[lfmn16]

Am I just getting old or is the current mainstream, over-produced drivel pretending to be music the garbage I believe it to be. Sure, once in a blue moon something halfway worthwhile mysteriously finds it's way onto the radio, clubs, etc. - but that's rare. It"s almost as if the music moguls have brainwashed our youth into thinking that what they're hearing is worthwhile.

Anyone agree/disagree? Thoughts? Comments?

Edit: Yes, I know I sound like my dad.

Mainstream music is a like a McDonalds hamburger. The purpose is not to be good, it's to not offend anyone. Generic puerile, pablum for the masses.