The 'Shit Trend' in pop music right now

What are the characteristics of modern mainstream music that make it different?

I saw a 13 minute video on youtube yesterday where some teenagers walked around with canes, pretended to be blind, fell in the street and wailed in terrible Adam Sandler voices and it had a 98% like ratio

― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal)

it would be 99% if they had OWNED some SJWs along the way

What are the characteristics of modern mainstream music that make it different?

― (V) (;,,;) (V) (FlopsyDuck)

passover isn't for another three and a half months flopsyduck wait your turn

I know why we are sensitive about generalizing people but if we're too sensitive to generalize modern mainstream pop music by providing characteristics of how it differs from the past... and then admitting that that could be a possibility of why it sucks as opposed to "I'm close-minded", well we might as well start having our weekly faps while wearing kid gloves.

I don't know man. You're not making a lot of sense. You claim that you haven't heard any artists you like from the past decade (except for 3 songs) including underground and indie stuff, but then keep asking why "mainstream pop" is worse now. Worse than when? 1967? 2008?

The last Alice in Chains album is better than you might expect.

I don't even listen to pop and I have new pop artist trax in my Spotify

What led me here was googling "why do I dislike modern music"

new board description

What are the characteristics of modern mainstream music that make it different?

― (V) (;,,;) (V) (FlopsyDuck)

passover isn't for another three and a half months flopsyduck wait your turn

no, i'm not going to spoon-feed you.

i have no reason to believe that you're anything other than one of the many reactionary whiners such as one finds in great quantity on the internet. put in some good-faith effort and maybe people will be more inclined to engage with you in good faith. on the other hand, if you're looking for someone to drag you, kicking and screaming, into 2019, well, i suspect you will have a difficult time of it.

― errang (rushomancy) Thursday, January 3, 2019 6:12 PM

Your opinion is noted. I don't have the slightest idea how reviewing someone's top tracks, if they are interested in me doing so, equates to looking for someone to drag me kicking and screaming into 2019. I thought it would be a fun inner-discovery activity for me and I bet reviewing music could be kind of fun. However, I didn't think it would be as fun for the people giving me links and that's why I didn't bother starting a new thread.

As for the "I'm not going to spoon-feed you" comment, I literally thought you might be interested in my review after you posted your rym profile for me to check out. p.s. I came across your moniker on rym a couple months ago.

I don't know man. You're not making a lot of sense. You claim that you haven't heard any artists you like from the past decade (except for 3 songs) including underground and indie stuff, but then keep asking why "mainstream pop" is worse now. Worse than when? 1967? 2008?

― We were never Breeting Borting (President Keyes), Thursday, January 3, 2019 6:34 PM

I was only referencing mainstream stuff because of the video that I posted. But I seriously can't name any new artist (underground/indie/mainstream/whatever) from the last decade that I would want to own their album. But yes, the 2000's are largely similar to the 2010's and I have very little favs from that era as well. I don't mention old groups (starting in the 60's-90's) because many of them did put out albums I like in the 00's and 10's. Also I could probably find a all around good ambient or instrumental album from the 10's if I wanted to.

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The last Alice in Chains album is better than you might expect.

― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Thursday, January 3, 2019 6:36 PM
I should listen to the Alice in Chains. Thanks for the recommendation, I keep forgetting about that one.

is flopsyduck the latest iteration of raccoontanuki? anyway that video is evidently awful but this response to it that i saw a while ago was interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfNdps0daF8

flopsylorax

Thought this thread was about Lil Wayne

that takedown video is good but way more effort than the original really deserved at all

but lol i didn't get to the part where he claims that max martin and dr luke are responsible for "the vast majority of chart-topping hits in the past two decades" and "behind virtually every single band that is played on the radio today"

is there a name for the guy's expression in the video above, one that conveys the smugness

^the “Joel McHale”

god i’m now imagining a future where max martin co-writes for post malone... brr

It's absolutely true that there is tons of cherry-picking, exaggerations and spin in that original video (I haven't watched the response). But the sentiment is also true that there is more of a repeated generic sound (copycats should at least vary what they copy) and less creativity, and more people whom can't play instruments. The crappy video's statement that there is generally (in today's modern hit parade) smaller volume variance between instruments and shorter songs with more/earlier hooks might be true.

But the sentiment is also true that there is more of a repeated generic sound (copycats should at least vary what they copy) and less creativity, and more people whom can't play instruments.

citation needed

God I don't know if I can get through that response video. Over analyzing something that bugs you and and putting in several hours to create a response can't be healthy.

(I'm reminded of Quincy Jones calling the Beatles "the worst musicians in the world... no-playing motherfuckers")

Or maybe it is therapeutic to over-analyze what bugs you? Fuck. I feel like lingering on something that bugs you can't be healthy and yet ultimately all the work you put into making a response can lead to a therapeutic feeling. The internet is dumb.

The internet also smells bad and is ugly.

overreach and misguidedness of that OG video aside, this train of thought is especially wild to me considering that the last few years have shown a HUGE shift away from the more centrist model of pop music. even the crotchety strawman frameworks people have lobbed against chart music for the past twenty or so years of pop have become strained and outdated.

I don't know if has changed that much? It still sounds terrible to me

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

"well that's easily fixed"

sooo, she kills herself?

What's the idea behind this thread exactly ? Theorizing your yells ?

(I'm reminded of Quincy Jones calling the Beatles "the worst musicians in the world... no-playing motherfuckers")

I've known a couple of classical or jazz guys who hold a similar low opinion of the Beatles' musicianship, even if they give them credit as composers/songwriters. Still seems nuts to me tbh.

What's the idea behind this thread exactly ? Theorizing your yells ?

― Nabozo, Friday, January 4, 2019 11:50 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you called

Flopsy, If you can bear to watch to the end of the response video you'll see that the reason it's needed is that the original video poster has more than 2 million subscribers, so it is a bit important if he is spreading bullshit.

I think to answer your original question you really need to ask yourself.

I figured it out. Why I don't like modern music. (you can't see it but I had an epiphany).

Modern music has abandoned my idea of cool by distancing itself from the past. There is a newer kind of cool, but until I see it and embrace it, most all of new stuff will sound like shit.

I have finally opened up to the possibility that I'm close-minded.

If only 'millennial cool' could make itself apparent to me. I don't know how I'm supposed to lift the veil when what is cool today seems like a direct contradiction to what I believe is cool.

To theorize:
A=old cool & !A=new cool

xp

"the reason (the response video) is needed"

but is it though?

I have finally opened up to the possibility that I'm close-minded I have finally opened up to the possibility that I'm close-minded I have finally opened up to the possibility that I'm close-minded I have finally opened up to the possibility that I'm close-minded I have finally opened up to the possibility that I'm close-minded I have finally opened up to the possibility that I'm close-minded

But have you opened up to the possibility that you are dick because you harbor a hatred of yourself?

Ugh I want those 10 minutes of my life back, he argues that modern pop music places the hook earlier in the song due to short attention spans fueled by ipods yet he defends 60’s pop!? The most popular Beatles songs all have their hooks in the first 20/30 seconds of the songs or in the intro. This has nothing to do with pleasuring the milennials ffs.

Did pop had better lyrics in the 60’s than pop from this decade? I can cherrypick mind numbing stupid lyrics from huge hits of any decade and make that argument.

The only point that may have some foundation is the “timbre” one, instead of using studios with actual instruments technology allows the trend of creating music from your laptop with synths and samples and those who do use instruments tend to be more lo-fi than in previous decades. That’s not a tech limitation though, maybe an economic one... established mainstream acts may still get the full thing and it sounds better than anything from previous decades regardless of your opinion on its content.

I've known a couple of classical or jazz guys who hold a similar low opinion of the Beatles' musicianship, even if they give them credit as composers/songwriters. Still seems nuts to me tbh.

I'm sure there's plenty who don't give them credit as composers/songwriters either.

If the guy just said "look, there's a lot of commercial music that is designed in the same way a corporation designs a mass market snack food" I would agree. But that's about it.

I've known a couple of classical or jazz guys who hold a similar low opinion of the Beatles' musicianship, even if they give them credit as composers/songwriters. Still seems nuts to me tbh.

Isn't this a case of guys for whom chops are an end in themselves vs. guys who are only interested in acquiring the chops necessary to convey their songwriting ideas?

I think it’s possible to think the Beatles didn’t have great chops and not fetishize chops as an end unto themselves although you are probably missing the point of the Beatles

This is a terribly conceived thread

Yeah, these guys (and the two I have in mind are both musicians and were both my colleagues) don't just see chops as an end unto themselves. I'm not talking about shredders. The Beatles' chops never struck me as lacking, though. xp

There's probably a big racial factor in Quincy's opinion, like how aggravating would it be to have the composing and arranging skills he has (and the session jazz guys he was down with) and then see the Beatles endlessly praised as the boy geniuses that somehow made pop music "sophisticated" in 1967 when they dropped acid

all the beatles had chops, but only paul's bass chops rivaled any of the guys that quincy might've worked with tho.

This is a terribly conceived thread

all the beatles had chops, but only paul's bass chops rivaled any of the guys that quincy might've worked with tho.

― bros before HOOS (voodoo chili), Friday, 4 January 2019 21:24 (three minutes ago) Permalink

Exactly. Real players. Like Stephen Stills.

"I also remember Stephen buying a Precision bass for Paul McCartney and telling him it was time to start playing a ‘real’ instrument and not his old Höfner."-Graham Nash

That’s what makes it so compelling.

You wish

fwiw I only mentioned the Quincy Jones bit because of the "no one knows how to play instruments" thing