Why does mordern pop music suck?

[Herrick]

Just wanted to echo this. Everyone thinks the pop music that came out when they were younger is the good stuff and that the new stuff is terrible. This has always been the case.

To that end, my beef with a lot of modern music is it's totally low effort. I'm running on three hours of sleep so bear with me on this one, I may not explain it well, but, every modern pop singer sounds like they just got wheeled out of oral surgery, propped up in front of the microphone, and told they only got one take. Everyone sounds sleepy, mumbles, trips over words, sings off key and off beat even with heavy use of autotune and quantization. I imagine some of this is an intentional decision in order to make stuff sound more "real" and "authentic," especially with how digital all the backing music is, but it just sounds lame as hell. And between the constant flubs left in the final take, the general half-assedness of the performances, and the trend towards sparse and/or "experimental" instrumentation, every slick, glossy, high-budget pop record now sounds like an unfinished demo tape. (EDIT: Lady Gaga is a notable exception to this rule. Lady Gaga whips ass.)

YouTube doesn't work from my work computer, but two examples that stand out to me are "Work" by Rihanna and "Hold Up" by Beyoncé. "Work" is not only totally incomprehensible and suffering from a melody that doesn't really work with the music, but Drake's verse is frequently just completely off beat. It's not like, an interesting syncopation, he's just... off beat. "Hold Up" sounds like five or six different songs stitched together as a series of bedroom ideas and the fact that it was on a grammy winning album and took fourteen people to write is the most insane thing in the world to me.

Of course, most modern rock sucks too, but for different reasons.

I'm often subjected to modern pop music but it's of the hip hop variety. This type of "Hip Pop" has rappers who think they can sing. It's very bad and whiny and when they do rap, there's no balls or aggression. I'm not a fan of Hip Hop but if I have to listen to it, I'd rather hear some strength and power in the music. I realize that could be worthless criticism because maybe these "Hip Pop" guys aren't supposed to be angry.

Anyway as terrible as this stuff is, it doesn't sound like unfinished demos to me. Even if the rappers are bad singers, they don't sound off key or off beat to me. I think that Drake guy is one of the people my kids listen to. I don't know. Maybe since I'm always trying to tune that music out, I don't notice all the mistakes in it.

 

[inanimate_carb]

We get the music we deserve. See this post:

Why does mordern pop music suck?

 

[Liam Wald]

Not saying that I particularly like modern POP but a lot of people do.
And it could be said that it is more performance art than music.
Like any other art form appreciation of it is a personal thing.
Art patrons vote with their dollars.
Dollars equal success.
Critics criticize success.

 

[J-Bassomatic]

uhhh nope

Sorry but I have to disagree. I have a pretty good background in art. The 'ranter' was not looking at the whole of modern (or any) art. He was picking things that he didn't agree with and not backing anything up with historical facts (much like Nazi ranters do, look it up. Have you forgotten your history already???). Matisse was a pioneering giant in art whether this idiot thinks so or not. No one on earth is making a comparison about the sculptor and Matisse, they are BOTH fine artists. I don't know what put the burr up his a$$ but you need to stand back and look at the big picture. What is your art background?
EDIT: I don't mean to 'attack'. The person in that video had absolutely NO platform except his own personal invective. At no time did he back up his rant with ANYTHING that made sense. You are looking at an absolutely ignorant idiot and agreeing with him based on WHAT???? This is the danger of listening to snake oil salesmen. PM me if you want clarification

 

[noahw1]

I think there’s a lot of great pop music out there but what is pushed to the masses via the record industry/radio play is mostly crap.

 

[erbesoderpayaso]

It seems to gete over the head of many old people here that music is now just a comodity that you throw in the trash can once you're done with it unlike in your time when there wasn't a lot of stuff and so appreciate more this stuff.

There is so much stuff to do now that music is more of a background stuff you listen in the bus to work or school so you don't have to hear the bus or people talk. So yeah ... music became louder.

Getting angry at it and being like :It was so much better in my time, won't solve anything.

I can buy whatever music that fits my fancy and so I don't have to hear Pop music at all while in your old time you couldn't do that stuff.

Anyway, I'll play whatever I want, when I want and listen to whatever I want when I want the rest of the world could burn I couldn't care less.

i think that you are wrong. people DOESN'T care about music, i know because i've done formal questions to people for stadistics and most of them doesn't care. Besides that, im trying to make a living about music and hasn't been a easy task when talking about money. But people likes to suffer (i believe that) or they just dont know how to enjoy life. Music can make life fun or intense but more important is life can have a aestetics sounding or can help people to show their feelings. BUT THEY DONT KNOW BECAUSE ALL GOES AROUND MONEY (like actual pop music).

@wishforbass

Sorry to burst your bubble but music never been about Art ... it was a business and still is a business. Those old classical composers did write music for money and did write music that was hip with the monarchy.

Many rich monarch did hire a composer and paid him to write music that would blow other composer and so they could brag at other monarch that his composer was the best.

this is all wrong. its not about money but they needed to EAT, Please.

 

[bluesblaster]

FZ was right all along , not only does the slime ooze from the TV it seems..... it oozes perfusly from all media sources run by big corporate bozo's

 

[MultiScaleMale]

People always want their nostalgia to be better than today. So they compare all of the good things from an entire decade or two against a snapshot of today's top 40 chart. See?? It's better!!! Today's pop music is fine if not better than what was played in the past. Trim your ear hair.

 

[Two-Spirit]

When I was 25 we didnt have every possible song on the internet or xm radio. People have choices now.

 

[Diamond_Dave]

You know what I mean! XD

But yeah. Derogatory terms are being thrown around casually and so loosely and it’s not just the N word.

All thanks to that goofball in DC.

I know what you mean Hip-hop lyrics can be pretty crude. But so was the talk at band practice tonight! And we’re all feminist liberals. We’re also musicians with alcohol...

 

[azureblue]

a reliance on samples - "get some loopz dude and throw them together and rap on it." The turning of music from an art into a product - "Gotta move these microwave ovens".. a lack of music training, whether it be years of slogging it out in bar bands or in music school. A total revulsion for the art of arranging. And groove. A lot of bands consisting of musicians who are playing the same song, but not playing together - iow "man I got some hot chops here, so I'm gonna throw every lick I got into this song." It's almost like modern players are afraid of dead air - they have to play something all the way through the tune. And a total lack of new ideas.. Face it, we are so constantly bombarded with stimuli that we rarely have time to think, much less time to create. Zappa warned us.....

 

[Ric5]

Sorry but I have to disagree. I have a pretty good background in art. The 'ranter' was not looking at the whole of modern (or any) art. He was picking things that he didn't agree with and not backing anything up with historical facts (much like Nazi ranters do, look it up. Have you forgotten your history already???). Matisse was a pioneering giant in art whether this idiot thinks so or not. No one on earth is making a comparison about the sculptor and Matisse, they are BOTH fine artists. I don't know what put the burr up his a$$ but you need to stand back and look at the big picture. What is your art background?
EDIT: I don't mean to 'attack'. The person in that video had absolutely NO platform except his own personal invective. At no time did he back up his rant with ANYTHING that made sense. You are looking at an absolutely ignorant idiot and agreeing with him based on WHAT???? This is the danger of listening to snake oil salesmen. PM me if you want clarification

I also studied art and architecture at a major university and I agree with Paul Joseph Watson ...

So we will have to agree to disagree. I am willing to tolerate opinions that are different than mine. Are you?

Also remember whoever uses the word nazi first always loses the argument ... And according to history the nazi party meant National Socialist Party ... and Paul is not a socialist and he is not ignorant and his IQ level is way above the idiot level, and he is not selling any snake oil ... he is commenting on culture. If you are intent on shutting down his voice simply based on the fact that you disagree with him then it makes you look like the things you accuse him of.

Also I do not require clarification of any kind.

The video I posted simply reinforces the opinion of the original poster. You may not like the politics of the guy in the video ... but it wasn't a political video it was a commentary on flaws in our culture.

 

[J-Bassomatic]

I also studied art and architecture at a major university and I agree with Paul Joseph Watson ...

So we will have to agree to disagree. I am willing to tolerate opinions that are different than mine. Are you?

Also remember whoever uses the word nazi first always loses the argument ... And according to history the nazi party meant National Socialist Party ... and Paul is not a socialist and he is not ignorant and his IQ level is way above the idiot level, and he is not selling any snake oil ... he is commenting on culture. If you are intent on shutting down his voice simply based on the fact that you disagree with him then it makes you look like the things you accuse him of.

Also I do not require clarification of any kind.

The video I posted simply reinforces the opinion of the original poster. You may not like the politics of the guy in the video ... but it wasn't a political video it was a commentary on flaws in our culture.

OK, I will concede, however, anyone who discredits Matisse like that is puzzling at best. I studied at RISD but I am not an architect, I can barely pitch a tent, but to hear this guy disparage modern art like that is disturbing. I will not back down on the Nazi reference, it seemed to me this guy has hate as his main motivator. Unacceptable.

 

[bassliner50]

Qualatative discussion aside, I think it is fair to say that music has become increasingly "visual" (MTV, VH1, BET, Idol, youtube, etc.) in the last 35 years. I believe this "visual" component changes how people make and listen to music.

Marshall McLuhan - Wikipedia

Good point!

 

[pie_man_25]

I am not an architect, I can barely pitch a tent

I'd wager many architects couldn't pitch a tent themselves - they'd leave that to the engineers and craftsmen that actually put the buildings up

That being said, haters are going to hate. I'm not big on pop - but I was always a weirdo and like to do my own thing. With that said, "pop" was always a thing, and a lot of it was maligned until it became oldschool or good or whatever - and people are always crap until they're also old enough to complain about people these days. It kinda makes you wonder if people were basically always the same, or if people really were better - and if people really were better, where we went wrong. Chances are the ghosts of a bunch of old farts have been bleating on about how humanity went to crap ever since dirt was invented - maybe those guys really were the best humans to have ever lived.

People need art to speak to the animal inside of them, we always have and always will. Whether it's a few words tied to a beat and a melody or a whole orchestra performing the ancient compositions of the unpronounceable composer, it was designed to move us in ways that words can't always describe, and tuned to whatever format people could digest. The subjectivity of profundity is highly volatile, the only constant being that all people need it to keep going.

 

[Ric5]

OK, I will concede, however, anyone who discredits Matisse like that is puzzling at best. I studied at RISD but I am not an architect, I can barely pitch a tent, but to hear this guy disparage modern art like that is disturbing. I will not back down on the Nazi reference, it seemed to me this guy has hate as his main motivator. Unacceptable.

ya ... a lot of this is subjective ... I prefer the impressionists and I don't like the cubists ...

He is not a hater ... but rather uses angry rants to get an audience ... think of him as a punk rocker with an attitude ... but in a non music field ...

In this day a lot of media types are "over the top" Like Matisse was "over the top" when he did the portrait of the woman's face with the green stripe.

And remember the Nazis were not conservatives. They were big government socialists who implemented gun control.

And all people hate something ... Me ... I hate TV commercials, and Friday by Rebecca Black.

 

[Ric5]

I'd wager many architects couldn't pitch a tent themselves - they'd leave that to the engineers and craftsmen that actually put the buildings up

If the Architect does the engineering the building falls down ... If the engineer does the architecture then they have to tear the building down.

 

[Ric5]

People need art to speak to the animal inside of them, we always have and always will. Whether it's a few words tied to a beat and a melody or a whole orchestra performing the ancient compositions of the unpronounceable composer, it was designed to move us in ways that words can't always describe, and tuned to whatever format people could digest. The subjectivity of profundity is highly volatile, the only constant being that all people need it to keep going.

good writing dude

 

[Acoustic356]

Watch the documentary “Before The Music Dies” it will explain it all...

 

[bass12]

This. We don't remember the dreck that populated the airwaves before, during, and after the Beatles and the rise of rock n roll in the 60s and 70s.

You know what was Record of the Year in 1964 (the year A Hard Days Night was released)? The Girl From Ipanema.

"The Girl From Ipanema": a very well-written song with a melody and chord progression that are anything but dumbed down. I'd love to hear something remotely as complex on top 40 radio today.