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Pop music may suck, but it doesn't negate the fact that it takes a lot of work to get there. To "make" it. And I think that deserves some credit. Plus not ALL pop is horrible. Some of it is technologically ground breaking, it just happens to be liked by a lot of people and gets overexposed.
There are just as many played out indie bands, riding the waves of Grizzly Bear, it makes me sick. Alright you know how to play the banjo and harmonize, I get it.
So all genres can be guilty of stagnation.
I'd much rather listen to a good pop song by the Magnetic Fields, or Of Montreal. But that doesn't appeal to everyone and that's fine.
Like bluewillow stated, most people don't want to be challenged. I do. I get sick of listening to the same indie songs, so I listen to Hiroki Kikuta. I get sick of japanese composers so I listen to pop, or rap.
Most people just consume and that's fine I've learned to accept that. Especially if they consume my music.
Exactly. I never liked "obscure" music just to be different and because I was trying to be hip or something, but rather because it is the only bastion of actuall music left. I mean, bands like the Beetles and Depeche Mode were huge and great, but that was in a time when a band could be huge and still make great music. Now, if you want to make real music, you really have no choice but to go indie and hope that people will seek you out.
Very True. These days you pretty much have to look for good new music because they do not play it on the radio. Back in the day you did not have to do "research" in order to find new artists that were good, and that fact that this is the case these days is very frustrating. There is the rare exception of actually coming across a good radio station, but this is not something that is accessible to the masses (except online). I don't always have time to weed through a bunch of music in order to find something that does not suck. Even when I do find something that is good, it rarely stands up to decades past (at least in terms of originality).
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Today? Kids only listen to what everyone else is listening to, and anyone with anything new that no one has ever heard of is not met with interest and curiosity, but rather with raised eyebrows and dirty looks. Kids just say "never heard of them" and go back to listening to their pop-culture-set-to-a-back-up-band in the guise of "music" and never seek to expand their horizons.
Really? It seems that there is a whole indie sub-culture these days, so this is not something I really noticed. Of course this sub-culture itself has become a media creation, and is not really bohemian. I also see younger kids sporting band shirts like AC/DC or Guns n' Roses every so often, so it seems that some kids also get into older stuff. Back when I was a teen (the 90's) there were certainly a lot of people who listened to crappy pop music; however, as already mentioned, it was at least more balanced in those days with a lot of main stream exposure to good rock music.
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Not only that, but there is GOOD pop music out there too, it's just that it, like all real music nowadays, has to be saught out and is not on the radio. Goldfrapp could kick Britney's sorry butt, as well as Lady Gaga who, btw, stold her act!
Yes, this just leads me to believe that there are more pop culture fans than music fans amoung the younger set. I mean why would Goldfrapp not be more popular? It's certainly not because see is not attractive enough. It seems to be because that most people like the lowest common denominator and that is what is marketed. Although, I do think pop artists like Goldfrapp are more popular overseas than in the star-obsessed United States.
Very True. These days you pretty much have to look for good new music because they do not play it on the radio. Back in the day you did not have to do "research" in order to find new artists that were good, and that fact that this is the case these days is very frustrating. There is the rare exception of actually coming across a good radio station, but this is not something that is accessible to the masses (except online). I don't always have time to weed through a bunch of music in order to find something that does not suck. Even when I do find something that is good, it rarely stands up to decades past (at least in terms of originality).
Really? It seems that there is a whole indie sub-culture these days, so this is not something I really noticed. Of course this sub-culture itself has become a media creation, and is not really bohemian. I also see younger kids sporting band shirts like AC/DC or Guns n' Roses every so often, so it seems that some kids also get into older stuff. Back when I was a teen (the 90's) there were certainly a lot of people who listened to crappy pop music; however, as already mentioned, it was at least more balanced in those days with a lot of main stream exposure to good rock music.
Yes, this just leads me to believe that there are more pop culture fans than music fans amoung the younger set. I mean why would Goldfrapp not be more popular? It's certainly not because see is not attractive enough. It seems to be because that most people like the lowest common denominator and that is what is marketed. Although, I do think pop artists like Goldfrapp are more popular overseas than in the star-obsessed United States.
The strange thing about indie is it MOSTLY has an "older" following. mid 20's -35 ish age range for its core base. Kids don't just jump into listening to indie bands. Even though it is more popular than ever, the genre is still quite unaccessible.
Very True. These days you pretty much have to look for good new music because they do not play it on the radio. Back in the day you did not have to do "research" in order to find new artists that were good.... Even when I do find something that is good, it rarely stands up to decades past (at least in terms of originality).
Radio (or the lack thereof) is probably the biggest lack and the biggest change.
I agree you have to do "research" but actually the best stuff I find is by word of mouth, which is exactly how it was for me 30 years ago.
Artists have always borrowed from each other, but there is originality out there.
Music is so splintered off these days, though. It becomes overwhelming.
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Really? It seems that there is a whole indie sub-culture these days, so this is not something I really noticed. Of course this sub-culture itself has become a media creation, and is not really bohemian.Yes, this just leads me to believe that there are more pop culture fans than music fans amoung the younger set.
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Originally Posted by Interpol76
The strange thing about indie is it MOSTLY has an "older" following. mid 20's -35 ish age range for its core base. Kids don't just jump into listening to indie bands. Even though it is more popular than ever, the genre is still quite unaccessible.
Perhaps Britney Spears and others like are packaged pop, but Schreiber and his tastemakers at the Pitchfork Music Festival begin to feel just as marketed--and accessible.
Maybe teens are a bit more tribal, sticking to their own safe stuff, but not all. Remember the girls in Ghost World? I was a lot like them, and I've seen a few of them around.
Young people fledge at different times. My younger son stayed safer, but not my older one.
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I mean why would Goldfrapp not be more popular? It's certainly not because see is not attractive enough. It seems to be because that most people like the lowest common denominator and that is what is marketed. Although, I do think pop artists like Goldfrapp are more popular overseas than in the star-obsessed United States.
Maybe, but of the sappiest silliest pop I ever heard came from Europe.
They like that stuff, too--and sometimes so do I.
The strange thing about indie is it MOSTLY has an "older" following. mid 20's -35 ish age range for its core base. Kids don't just jump into listening to indie bands. Even though it is more popular than ever, the genre is still quite unaccessible.
True. However, it is not that indie is "unaccessible". All one has to do is go to live365, Pandora, or youtube and find a new band and go to rapidshare and illegally download it or, what I do, download it off of amazon for ten bucks an album (less than it cost when I was in highschool)
Kids today have more access to great music than I ever did growing up, and what do they do with it? Listen to Beyonce!
Why do people think this is some new trend? The record companies and radio stations have always been it for money, not for some high minded ideal or for the love of music itself. Every era has had its version of Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson.
Sugar, Sugar was number # 1 for 4 weeks and that song easily stands up to anything that Britney has released in terms of vacuousness.
Why do people think this is some new trend? The record companies and radio stations have always been it for money, not for some high minded ideal or for the love of music itself. Every era has had its version of Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson.
Sugar, Sugar was number # 1 for 4 weeks and that song easily stands up to anything that Britney has released in terms of vacuousness.
It's not a new trend, the new trend is not the companies, but the audience. I mean, there was New Kids on the Block back in the early 90s, but there was also Depeche Mode, Ministry, etc. Now adays, bands like that don't even stand a chance as kids today refuse to listen to anything but that mainstream pop crap.
I completely agree with this. Back when I was in high school (mid 90's) the only place I could go to find new music was 120 minutes. And that was it. I lived in a total hick town, so nobody, and I mean nobody listened to stuff like My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Pavement or Lush.
Anyway...I think we came from a decade (especially the early to mid 90's) where music was much more "down to earth". Even pop music had a tinge of genuineness....it was more about the music than the look of the artists. I mean, look at what was popular back then in the pop world (Lisa Loeb, Alanis, Tori Amos, Sheryl Crow, Hottie and the Blowfish, gangster rap, grunge, hell...even Pantera had a #1 album if I remember correctly). Definitely not the prettiest artists in the world to look at...
Nowadays it is ALL about the look of the artists rather than the quality of the music. And, like you said "music fans nowadays are not music fans, but fans of pop culture". 100 percent true.
I mean...would people nowadays pay attention to Lady Gagaga or Britney Spears if they were dressed like this and singing their pop songs???....
but that kind of music MADE IT TO THE MAINSTREAM back then !!!
gloria estefan, phil collins, shania twain, celine dion, mariah carey, michael bolton, didn't have to be superficial, hard, mean to get recognized. in the 80's and even into the 90's pure talent, singing abilities is what got people to the top of the charts not the background noise that passes as band music that most of the time masks anything the singer could be doing wrong (burping out music notes, lip singing). music was either cute, funny, fun, uplifting or was a combination of a great musical talent showcasing their skills genuinely and under control choreography (shania twain, gloria estefan).
...in the 80's and even into the 90's pure talent, singing abilities is what got people to the top of the charts ...
I think you are romanticizing this era. That hasn't been true since the birth of MTV. If your statement is true, could you please explain Milli Vanilli?
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