Pop music...What happened?!

How did we go from this and this and this...

To this and this and this!

WHAT WENT WRONG?

edited 4th Nov '11 10:56:45 AM by LeighSabio

"All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice." — Joseph De Maistre.

Well, you can't have more than one youtube embed in a post, for one.

no one will notice that I changed this

Fix'd. Now they're all links.

"All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice." — Joseph De Maistre.

Now a bunch of people are going to show up and say, "that's not true, there was a lot of shitty music back then, it's just that only the good stuff is remembered."

Personally, I'm not sure where I stand on this.

edited 20th Nov '11 7:25:03 PM by ImipolexG

no one will notice that I changed this

Not. This. Motherfucking. Topic. Again. You remember the good shit from back then because it was capable of surviving that long. You don't remember "Head to Toe", "Afternoon Delight", anything by the Captain and Tennile and possibly thousands more of kitschy, novelty pop hits from before you were born. It's simple confirmation fucking bias. You don't like today's music so you simply become nostalgic for a time you were never part of. Pop music can be very bad. It can also be very good. Age is irrelevant. Pop music is all about appealing to the greatest number of people. That's all it ever was. And to prove you more wrong, Radiohead are today's Beatles, Eminem is the Elvis of the new millenium, and Lady Gaga is simply the latest incarnation of Madonna after people stopped caring about Gwen Stefani.

edited 4th Nov '11 11:24:14 AM by KitsuneInferno

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.

I would agree with overall, but if you want to know why this era is the way it is, there are a lot of reasons:

1. As it used to cost more to actually produce music, who actually got accepted into recording contracts were fewer.
2. Getting said music was more expensive, meaning that it was held to a somewhat higher standard of base value.
3. Portable music means that more is put in the background rather than made the focus of listening.
4. By extension of the first point, it is now far easier to, with fairly low production costs, make poor base music into "acceptable" music.
5. Due to the proliferation of digital technology, basic innovation in musical technology has slowed significantly.
6. People accept what they are conditioned to, regardless of what is or is not "objectively" well-constructed.
7. The proliferation of modern social media allows waves of musical and media hype to come and go more quickly.

edited 4th Nov '11 11:21:27 AM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

If your examples of modern pop music being shit are all the bottom-of-the-barrel schlock that nobody actually likes except for twelve-year olds, I'm forced to call your actual knowledge of pop music into question. I'd love to see you say that Lupe Fiasco, Adele and Jack White are so much more unbearable than the period that gave us an actual song from Archie's band. I really would.

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.

Why do 12 year olds have such poor taste in music?

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.

Because twelve-year olds aren't exactly the most discerning bunch when it comes to taste. Then again, I was introduced to some of my favorite music at twelve.

edited 4th Nov '11 11:41:49 AM by KitsuneInferno

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.

When I was 12....

Värttinä and Bjork.

Not bad.

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.

R.E.M. and Coil, funnily enough.

Could have done a lot worse.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Deftones, Matchbox Twenty and Linkin Park for me. I still listen to 2 of the 3.

Why "funnily enough"?

edited 4th Nov '11 12:02:00 PM by NULLcHiLD27

Final Fantasy soundtracks. Yup.

Eminem, Linkin Park and everyone who performed on Chappelle's Show who isn't Fat Joe.

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.

Because I'm kind of shocked to realise how little my taste has ultimately changed. Other than an increased tolerance for the abrasive—and some band-choice maturity—I really like the same things.

edited 4th Nov '11 12:08:32 PM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

The problem is that you've picked three of the best songs of their respective eras and compared them to three of the worst that became popular recently. I mean, would you compare "Fuck You!", "Rolling In the Deep", "Hey Ya!" or "I Need A Dollar" to the first set of tunes unfavourably? I would not.

I quite liked the Wilson Pickett version of that song.

edited 4th Nov '11 1:13:33 PM by TheGloomer

Pretty much true. and I, personally, would place Madonna in the “shitty” box...but I realize she has her fans. There’s lots of crap from every era but it tends to be forgotten by all but those who harbor some serious taste-overriding nostalgia. For example:

Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!

Congratulations, a winner is you. Lampshading it doesn't make it any less true.

There are snakes in the grass, so we'd better go hunting!

As I say, it's unreasonable to pick the best songs that decades past have to offer and then contrast them with the absolute worst hits you can pick from the current scene.

If comparisons must be drawn, it is necessary to compare the worst music of, for example, the 1960s, to the worst music of the 2010s.

And what comparisons are there to make other than "they're both pretty bad"?

I mean, you can compare all you want, fact of the matter is that only the good stuff really trickles down. That in fact, is why it's so hard to find bad old music. Most if it was just forgotten.

Personally, I liked the Archies song, as an aside. Still, it's not a masterpiece.

go ahead and do every stupid thing you can imagine

If anyone tries to wax nostalgic about how much better music was in their day, I would kindly remind them that this song was once a #1 hit

@Dekunobo: I was actually about to post that!

...

An amusing piece of trivia about "Disco Duck" - the woman who produced it (Estelle Axton) was one of the founders of Stax Records.

I'd hoped that was implied by what I said. Obviously not. Sorry.

@inane 242: haha, the only reason I know about Värttinä is from their being featured on Arthur.

But don't get me started on how I feel about Elvis.

edited 5th Nov '11 8:58:08 PM by PancakeMckennz

(屮≖益≖)屮 彡 ┻━┻ F*ck yo' table; Go read my book! —> http://goo.gl/mtXkm

you know, not all music is bad today. Its all in what you like. I dont really know where i stand on this because i dont listen to either one of the examples posted at the begining.

goodbyewebsite