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I was looking at the Billboard Top 100 from 25 years ago, and the artists there represented something of a rich musical ecosystem. For instance: Marvin Gaye (soul), Michael Jackson (dance pop), Toto (undefinable rock), Styx (arena rock), Donna Summer (disco/balladier) , Duran Duran (new wave synth pop), Sergio Mendes (Brazilian bossa nova), Culture Club...Police...Bonnie Tyler...Lionel Richie...The Clash....and on and on. You even had traditionally unsexy guys like Phil Collins always making noise on the charts and appearing on MTV.
When I look at today's Spotify charts, all I'm really seeing is rap/hip hop. And, as someone who has lived in both a midsize Texas city in cowboy country and Chicago within the past year, it's all I hear young people playing these days. More proof: Major music festivals are now booking mostly hip hop acts. (Exhibit A: This weekend's "Made in America" fest in Philadelphia).
I'm curious why in the digital age, when we have more access to music than at any point in history, we are become less eclectic.
I was looking at the Billboard Top 100 from 25 years ago, and the artists there represented something of a rich musical ecosystem. For instance: Marvin Gaye (soul), Michael Jackson (dance pop), Toto (undefinable rock), Styx (arena rock), Donna Summer (disco/balladier) , Duran Duran (new wave synth pop), Sergio Mendes (Brazilian bossa nova), Culture Club...Police...Bonnie Tyler...Lionel Richie...The Clash....and on and on. You even had traditionally unsexy guys like Phil Collins always making noise on the charts and appearing on MTV.
When I look at today's Spotify charts, all I'm really seeing is rap/hip hop. And, as someone who has lived in both a midsize Texas city in cowboy country and Chicago within the past year, it's all I hear young people playing these days. More proof: Major music festivals are now booking mostly hip hop acts. (Exhibit A: This weekend's "Made in America" fest in Philadelphia).
I'm curious why in the digital age, when we have more access to music than at any point in history, we are become less eclectic.
Because we only have three major labels left instead of many like there was up until the late 90's. These labels will stick with what is safe. A pretty face singing with a dance beat or a tattooed out rapper that looks hard.
TOP40 radio has been a joke since the mid 90's and there are too many format specific stations that cater to each listeners tastes these days. Up until the mid 80's, one or two stations in each market played everything.
Because we only have three major labels left instead of many like there was up until the late 90's. These labels will stick with what is safe. A pretty face singing with a dance beat or a tattooed out rapper that looks hard.
TOP40 radio has been a joke since the mid 90's and there are too many format specific stations that cater to each listeners tastes these days. Up until the mid 80's, one or two stations in each market played everything.
I'd even argue that singing seems to be on the way out. All I hear anymore is the spoken word of rap, laid out over those recognizable beats we hear constantly in public society. I almost feel bad for all those kids (and now adults) who took all those years of singing, theory, and musical instrument lessons, as it feels popular taste doesn't want to do with anything that's not dancey or computerized.
Also, are labels making the decisions these days? I thought the Soundcloud Rapper phenomenon was starting to take hold, with guys like Post Malone and 6ix9ine. Speaking of Post Malone, the guy clearly loves rock n roll and is a talented guitarist, but he eschewed all of that because he knows he'd never get popular performing it.
It started with the hippies in the late 60s and the “underground” radio stations that catered to them. In the 60s Pop radio was still very diverse: listening to, oh, WLS say, you’d hear Rock and Roll, Country, Soul, Show Tunes, movie themes, crooners, Girl Groups, novelties—all kinds of stuff. From Paul Revere and the Raiders to Frank Sinatra to Sam and Dave to Roger Miller to Steve and Edie to the Rolling Stones.
Where today could Alan Sherman take “Hello Mudda, Hello Faddah”?
It started with the hippies in the late 60s and the “underground†radio stations that catered to them. In the 60s Pop radio was still very diverse: listening to, oh, WLS say, you’d hear Rock and Roll, Country, Soul, Show Tunes, movie themes, crooners, Girl Groups, novelties—all kinds of stuff. From Paul Revere and the Raiders to Frank Sinatra to Sam and Dave to Roger Miller to Steve and Edie to the Rolling Stones.
Where today could Alan Sherman take “Hello Mudda, Hello Faddah�
Even with those underground Rock stations that sprung up in the late 60's, Top40 was still a healthy format up until the mid 80's.
What will popular music sound like in 10 years if kids are growing up without a rich musical tapestry to draw from? More of the same? If future musicians are really only hearing Drake (or fill in the blank dance/rap artist), the cyclical nature of homogeneity is all but assured. Are we cornering ourselves into a creative dead end? Hopefully we will get a batch of some musical scavengers and omnivores so that we can start synthesizing some new timbres and sensibilities.
Music today (chart music, to be specific) is homogeneous because it has become too producer driven, as opposed to artist driven. There are three or four producers who have a hand in the bulk of the music that hits the charts these days and the performer has too little input (and often none at all) in the actual music.
What will popular music sound like in 10 years if kids are growing up without a rich musical tapestry to draw from? More of the same? If future musicians are really only hearing Drake (or fill in the blank dance/rap artist), the cyclical nature of homogeneity is all but assured. Are we cornering ourselves into a creative dead end? Hopefully we will get a batch of some musical scavengers and omnivores so that we can start synthesizing some new timbres and sensibilities.
Just one man's opinion.
Kids today are growing up with easy access to the entire history of music. That was not true for any earlier generation. If a kid today is only hearing Drake (or only hearing what the radio plays), that is a choice. People making that choice aren't the ones who will be making music in the future.
Kids today are growing up with easy access to the entire history of music. That was not true for any earlier generation. If a kid today is only hearing Drake (or only hearing what the radio plays), that is a choice. People making that choice aren't the ones who will be making music in the future.
True. We’ve still got kids like the guys in Greta Van Fleet etc .
Some of the alternative ( whatever that is) out there is too bland for me, but at least the songwriting is original and unique.
You’re right about the producer-driven stuff though.
They come up with some beat, and then get a topliner to write the lyrics and vocal melody.
The topliners are constrained by the beat.
In many cases with earlier pop music the lyrics were written first .
Or it was at least partners working together in the same room.
Now a producer may drop beats to a hundred topliners who are competing to get their melody into the song, so songwriting is not necessarily as intimate as it used to be.
Kids today are growing up with easy access to the entire history of music. That was not true for any earlier generation. If a kid today is only hearing Drake (or only hearing what the radio plays), that is a choice. People making that choice aren't the ones who will be making music in the future.
Interesting post, JPD. And I would give you a rep point for it, but it's been too recent since I last gave you one. But what you're saying is true because I remember hearing about or reading somewhere how there was this teen girl who worked at a clothing store that played 70s Pop and R&B, and she expressed to someone how she loved that music. Also, I have a young great nephew whom I overheard saying that he liked Bill Withers' music. Well, for his next birthday, he got a Bill Withers greatest hits CD from me.
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