Why does mordern pop music suck?

[osv]

I just saw this video and my suspicions were reinforced by it. There is a bit to digest here, but I think the video sums things up quite nicely. One thing I really miss is dynamic range in recordings. Why does every sound have to be in your face?
Anyway, Get Off My Lawn!

 

[Killed_by_Death]

money, that's the reason
the record companies are sapping all the originality from everyone & just want to churn out hits
Frank Zappa had a good take on it, saying that the guy starts at the record company as a mailroom guy & thinks he's going to change the place

he moves up the ranks, becoming a scout & finding news bands, and on up,
but at the top he decides to play it safe like his predecessors, because the stockholders care a lot about making money

 

[ZenG]

It's our fault.

We pampered our children and spoiled them rotten. Turning them into walking vegetables who are completely incapable of creative thought.

 

[MrLenny1]

Producers. They only allow money tunes and it is worse then ever.

 

[bass12]

The monopolization of record labels by a very small number of corporations, limited budgets, mainstreaming of radio playlists and consumers who don't demand better music.

 

[Diamond_Dave]

Did anyone watch the video? I'm two minutes in and he's comparing the Beatles, Dylan, Zeppelin and the Kinks to Bieber, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga to make the point that the music of the '60s is better than the music of today. Problem is, there was pop junk on the radio in the '60s too. Record companies were just as shady. Lust for money and wowing the consumer with shiny yet worthless baubles wasn't invented yesterday. Likewise, there's great rock and roll being made today, by innovative bands who are pushing the boundaries.

Some say rock died an early death, but they keep filling up the classic rock airwaves with music. When I was a kid, classic rock stopped in the '70s. Now, it's Pearl Jam. Everything gets old. Some of it ages well and we wax nostalgic for it. The rest becomes Captain and Tennille.

I'd watch the rest but I'm pretty sure I've seen this video before.

 

[fdeck]

How much does the typical consumer pay for an album's worth of pop music today?

 

[Munjibunga]

Because the people who buy that stuff never had a music appreciation class, so they don't even know how bad it sucks. On the other hand, my generation had the Monkees and the Archies. Sadly, the music was played by very talented studio musicians but, again, money.

 

[catcauphonic]

It has to appeal to the least common denominator to have the biggest chance of selling the most units ... it used to be whole albums (LPs), now its singles, or full blown video spectacles where the music is not as important as the distractions of pyrotechnics, flashy lights, scantily clad choreographed dancers, etc.

As long as an enormous chunk of the music buying public just wants something they can shake their booty to, or so Susie Homemaker can hum along to something uplifting while she's making dinner or housecleaning all day (< that is my Mom to a T!), or the management of a store that wants to make everybody that comes in comfortable enough to spend their money there ... they're going to stick with sounds that are safe, and don't make people think too much, or offend their delicate sensibilities.

Barf

 

[SteveCS]

 

[hrodbert696]

That video has made the rounds already, a few times. It has some OK points but there are some major flaws with it. Most of all the apples-to-apples problem, like @Diamond_Dave said. Go to any thrift shop and start leafing through the bins of old vinyl records. You'll find heaps upon heaps of recordings by pop stars you never heard of from the 50s and 60s, turning out utter schlock. There are a handful of artists from any given era, who often were not actually the best sellers of their era (Elvis and the Beatles being the major exceptions), who had an influence that makes their memory endure while we consign their contemporaries to oblivion. Did you know the Who, for instance, had only ONE top-ten single? "I Can See for Miles" peaked at #9 in the US. They were more of an album-driven band, of course, and a number of albums went top ten and multi-platinum; even so, no Who album ever made #1 in the American market and only "Who's Next" reached the top spot in the UK. That should give us some perspective on what we imagine the "popular music" of the past was that we're comparing modern hits to.

The other thing is the structure of the market is so much different. The internet changed everything, particularly Napster. The top 40 of today simply is nothing like the top 40 of past decades, in terms of what it shows about the overall music market. The gatekeepers have become virtually irrelevant, people rarely rely on the radio to feed them their musical preferences, there are a million other routes through which to find and consume music. Everything has broken out into niche markets and what continues to prevail on the airwaves and grammies - the Biebers and Katy Perrys and whatever - are a relic of an industry that clings to the most risk-averse formulae it can to keep its head above water.

So at one level, I agree - I find modern radio pop to be virtually unlistenable, and maybe it's nostalgia, but I would agree that when I was younger it was easier to find music I liked on the radio dial. There's an awful lot of crap out there. But there's an awful lot of great stuff too. Most of the music I listen to and enjoy today was produced in the last five years. It's just not on the radio.

 

[JimK]

Did anyone watch the video? I'm two minutes in and he's comparing the Beatles, Dylan, Zeppelin and the Kinks to Bieber, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga to make the point that the music of the '60s is better than the music of today. Problem is, there was pop junk on the radio in the '60s too. Record companies were just as shady. Lust for money and wowing the consumer with shiny yet worthless baubles wasn't invented yesterday. Likewise, there's great rock and roll being made today, by innovative bands who are pushing the boundaries.

The video is making those comparisons because those were/are the artists on the then/current Charts.
The "great/innovative Rock 'n' Roll bands" today? They're not on the Charts, right?

 

[JimK]

It's our fault.

We pampered our children and spoiled them rotten. Turning them into walking vegetables who are completely incapable of creative thought.

We are all lazy...anything that takes some effort, time, knowledge, etc? Why do all that hard work?
The musical equivalent of McDonald's is soooo much easier.

 

[Watchootognbout]

It has to appeal to the least common denominator to have the biggest chance of selling the most units ... it used to be whole albums (LPs), now its singles, or full blown video spectacles where the music is not as important as the distractions of pyrotechnics, flashy lights, scantily clad choreographed dancers, etc.

As long as an enormous chunk of the music buying public just wants something they can shake their booty to, or so Susie Homemaker can hum along to something uplifting while she's making dinner or housecleaning all day (< that is my Mom to a T!), or the management of a store that wants to make everybody that comes in comfortable enough to spend their money there ... they're going to stick with sounds that are safe, and don't make people think too much, or offend their delicate sensibilities.

Barf

THIS.....is it folks!!
And that's a wrap!

 

[franklindayala]

Commercial music. What concerns me is the message they have in their lirycs. This one talks about young women liking old men because of money. In my book this sucks big time.

 

[brianrost]

the guy starts at the record company as a mailroom guy & think he's going to change the place

That's exactly how David Geffen got his start!!!

 

[morgansterne]

My daughter is a heavy fan of pop music. A couple years ago she was into One Direction -- take a listen to "story of my life" and compare it to anything comparable bands of the past did. N'Sync or new kids on the block? Yikes!

Now she's into K-pop, which is probably the single most corporatized genre on the planet. But I give them credit, they are very talented people.

Today's pop music is in many cases better than yesterday's.

 

[Roland GR 88]

I dunno, go ask your father......

 

[40Hz]

How much does the typical consumer pay for an album's worth of pop music today?

Pay? For music? People do that? Why?

And what’s an album? Is that like when you download a bunch of tracks and make a playlist?

 

[bouncy]

I generally have no issue with the music, new generation, new style. Don't forget Elvis and Hendrix's music was considered new too.
It is the lyric bother me the most as another poster mentioned. By saying that, we should look at it at different way, the lyrics just reflect the life style of new generation.