Hi, i'm a gamer, and I like mainstream music.
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Its like white bread, you know?
The "Most Popular" music, by its very nature, will always be the blandest, most ordinary, most likable music.
Of course it won't be bad per se, just mediocre. Basically, sing a song, make it simple, so all the kids can sing along.
Pop music is always what you'll expect it to be, exactly what you'll expect it to be, because that way it guarantees sales.
Like white bread.
Sometimes I like grains or seeds in mine. Sometimes, I even think its a nice surprise to find the bread has gone a bit stiff and I have to toast it.
In the same vein, I don't want to go to a concert and hear Auto-Tune and lypsync-ing up the goona. Yes, the music quality is definitely better, but its nothing like having the lead singer get smashed beforehand and start rambling mid-song, or have the guitarist improv for a few minutes with a beer bottle as a slide, or the double bass player jump onto his instrument and play while standing on it, or the front man get up on a stage and tell the whole audience that its okay to steal his music, because the record company overcharges on it anyway, and he'd prefer that you enjoy it anyway you can.
I've seen all of those things happen, and I'd feel pretty safe placing a bet that it would never happen at a pop concert.
And most of all, I like to thing the artist I'm listening to cares more about making a good song or sharing a good message than making money or getting famous.
Just to clarify, I don't think mainstream music is bad 'musically'. I just think its uninventive, unoriginal and bland, a melange of enough stuff lumped together and manufactured formulaically to the Nth degree as a means to sell the most number of records.
If you like all that though, more power to you.
The "Most Popular" music, by its very nature, will always be the blandest, most ordinary, most likable music.
Of course it won't be bad per se, just mediocre. Basically, sing a song, make it simple, so all the kids can sing along.
Pop music is always what you'll expect it to be, exactly what you'll expect it to be, because that way it guarantees sales.
Like white bread.
Sometimes I like grains or seeds in mine. Sometimes, I even think its a nice surprise to find the bread has gone a bit stiff and I have to toast it.
In the same vein, I don't want to go to a concert and hear Auto-Tune and lypsync-ing up the goona. Yes, the music quality is definitely better, but its nothing like having the lead singer get smashed beforehand and start rambling mid-song, or have the guitarist improv for a few minutes with a beer bottle as a slide, or the double bass player jump onto his instrument and play while standing on it, or the front man get up on a stage and tell the whole audience that its okay to steal his music, because the record company overcharges on it anyway, and he'd prefer that you enjoy it anyway you can.
I've seen all of those things happen, and I'd feel pretty safe placing a bet that it would never happen at a pop concert.
And most of all, I like to thing the artist I'm listening to cares more about making a good song or sharing a good message than making money or getting famous.
Just to clarify, I don't think mainstream music is bad 'musically'. I just think its uninventive, unoriginal and bland, a melange of enough stuff lumped together and manufactured formulaically to the Nth degree as a means to sell the most number of records.
If you like all that though, more power to you.
Synth pop friend, that stuff is quite poppy indeed.Warwolt said:
OT:
I adore this thread, and I agree with everything the OP has said. As a musician, I try to listen to as much music as I can, and I don't see why I should avoid the whole pop area. After all, the production is flawless and its designed to be catchy (having said that, there is a fair bit of pop which I can't stand like Kesha and most of the R&B singers).
As much as I like to flex my musical muscles at parties or other gatherings, I really have no problem with people listening to Pop.
Nice rant, made for a good read. Now on to my opinion, the only one that actually matters to me:AverageJoe said:
In all honesty, I don't really care what other people listen to. Sure, I may take the piss out of my brother and a few mates for listening to pop music, but I'm not serious about it. I like pretty much all forms of music except for the majority of pop and rap/hip-hop, but I don't feel the need to belittle the people that do. More power to you and other people that like these artists and can put up with all the assorted dickheads that like to rant and rave about how crap they are.
I've never quite understood the attitude that pop is worse than other forms of music and that mainstream pop listener=low intelligence. It seems to me that my favourite genre, metal, is filled with a far higher percentage of retarded people than pop music ever will be. Just go to pretty much any metal concert and see the intelligence on display by a high number of these people. The elitists need to all fuck off together where they can circle jerk themselves over bands made up of 5 completely unheard of people from a country with far too many letters that no one knows how to pronounce.
I also find it highly amusing that all the musical elitist douche bags I've met in real life have long hair, are afraid of showers and have never had a job.
On a completely unrelated note, give a listen to Dream Theater. They're awesome and you may just like them.
Wow, can't believe I read that whole thing.
Here's my thought. "Okay... so what?" Unless you're forcing people who don't like the music to listen to it then I don't see why it matters.
Here's my thought. "Okay... so what?" Unless you're forcing people who don't like the music to listen to it then I don't see why it matters.
I don't tend to pay any attention to what the masses on the internet think. My music collection includes a bit of pretty much everything, from Beethoven to Bowie, Cash to Metallica and Amy Winehouse, with some 80's pop in there for good measure. So while I may not really like lady GaGa's music I'm not going to hate you for liking it. I do think her gimmicks are stupid, and her music is a bit dull, but she's not bothering me, so hey, whatever.
OP, you poor thing!
I don't see much stereotyping involved in identifying someone who watches all those dancing lip-synchers prance around to the new muzak their producer wrote for them as tasteless. It is entirely tasteless.
And Lady Gaga isn't just mindless bubble-gum; she's also pretentious as Hell.
But if it's what you enjoy then you should enjoy it. Just admit that it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. There's no shame in that! Here, I'll go first:
I still listen to Erasure!
I don't see much stereotyping involved in identifying someone who watches all those dancing lip-synchers prance around to the new muzak their producer wrote for them as tasteless. It is entirely tasteless.
And Lady Gaga isn't just mindless bubble-gum; she's also pretentious as Hell.
But if it's what you enjoy then you should enjoy it. Just admit that it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. There's no shame in that! Here, I'll go first:
I still listen to Erasure!
People who listen to mainstream music havent tried/dont care about music that much to search for something new.
Listening to music just for the fun of it doesnt really make sense and its stupid.Most mainstream music are simple tunes, especially engineered to be likable by the masses so that they can sell well.If you are really interested in music you should try something new and expand your musical horizons (wooh)
I have some suggestions right here:
Now this is some good music...
Listening to music just for the fun of it doesnt really make sense and its stupid.Most mainstream music are simple tunes, especially engineered to be likable by the masses so that they can sell well.If you are really interested in music you should try something new and expand your musical horizons (wooh)
I have some suggestions right here:
Now this is some good music...
It works kinda differently on games because it's a much younger medium/market. Games have only been around for 30 or so years and they've only become a popular entertainment medium in the last 5 to 10 years. There have been music charts since... well I'm not sure, but definitely for more than 50 years.Archangel357 said:
What this means is that you can get away with mass producing music, but not entirely with games as we're still a little picky about what we play. That said, you do hear people saying that games nowadays are dumbed down (as you mentioned, Halo and MW2), but I think the equivalent to pop music would be Farmville and other Facebook games. Mainstream FPS is getting there though; just look at Rogue Warrior.
The songs I listen to, and start to listen to, are rarely pop songs. You may find - or in the past, have found - a few songs in my playlist that are, or atleast have been, in a Top list.
I don't care when an artist is either mainstream or obscure/indie. When I happen to stumble upon a band, I listen to it. If I like it, I'll start listening to it more regularly.
I don't quite understand how can people really be that big 'fans' of pop music, but I'm not really going to judge someone because their opinion is different from mine.
I don't care when an artist is either mainstream or obscure/indie. When I happen to stumble upon a band, I listen to it. If I like it, I'll start listening to it more regularly.
I don't quite understand how can people really be that big 'fans' of pop music, but I'm not really going to judge someone because their opinion is different from mine.
As Paul Dano said in Little Miss Sunshine, "do what you love, and fuck the rest". I listen to a load of stuff most people would call "crap" (yes, The Vines, I love you. I love you so much. I will never abandon you, even if you make another shit album like Melodia. Highly Evolved and vision valley will excuse everything you ever do, even if you start dressing in leather, worshipping Satan and eating babies) but you've just got to tune out and concern yourself with what you like. It wouldn't do if we all listened to the same things, then we'd all be sheep, and massively uninteresting.
...but anyone who hates Aztec Camera dies. That is law.
...but anyone who hates Aztec Camera dies. That is law.
Sorry for my ignorance - my interwebz died - when the hell did that happen, and is it safe to bring out my party poppers?JimmyBassatti said:...that fucking deviant MaxTheReaper (Praise the lord, he is gone).
To answer your question about video games, my opinion holds. Manistream games are dumbed down at times, not stupid, but not as smart either, to sell to the masses. Just loos at how diffiuculty in games has dropped trememndously over the years.Archangel357 said:
Also regarding your statements on music, you never said that age causes you to listen to mainstream pop. You seem to still enjoy the music that you worked so hard to find. I'm 28 and I do the same thing since I own way too much music. Its is true that priorities change over time and music can become less of a priority.
I was taking a stab at irony, too bad you misread it and decided to be harsh instead.AverageJoe said:
Oh boy, a thread that instantly reaffirms just how much of a music snob I am, got to love those! It's a reflex action - as soon as I see somebody espouse love of Top 40 hits, I condemn them as musical philistines and get a smug sense of superiority in return.
With the OP though I think musical philistine is perhaps too charitable a term - you have publicly admitted to not only listening to Lady Gaga, but also liking that dreck so much that you can honestly say it's some of your favorite 'music'. It's one thing if you tell somebody "All I listen to is pop that's played on the radio", as that just says you have terrible taste in music (and/or you are super lazy), like admitting to enjoying any of [Insert genre here] Movies establishes that you have terrible taste in cinema.
But the OP loudly professed admiration for the 'musical' discharges* of Lady Gaga, which is a far cry from simply enjoying bland and banal music marketed at the masses - now you've told us you like astonishingly terrible bland banal music marketed at the masses. It boggles my mind that anyone of sound mind would ever do that, and I find myself deeply dismayed that an admission of that magnitude is not as socially reprehensible as say... telling a room full of strangers that you masturbate while looking to pictures of rotting human carcasses. Sure, somebody out there probably does that (and is a very disturbing person), but they would (most likely) at least have the decency to be embarrassed by it and not ever bring it up outside of a very specific (and horrifying) sub-culture.
Genuinely enjoying horrible crap should be a secret shame that you never reveal for fear of constant and totally justified mockery over the rest of your natural lifespan.
If you are reading this and agreeing with me, thinking yourself exempt from my completely justified revulsion and condemnation because you don't listen to any mainstream music, think again! While the OP may have horrific taste and embody everything wrong with the contemporary music-listening audience, the banal and soulless airwaves in no way have a monopoly on the propagation of terrible sonic abominations - it's just that finding bad music on the radio is like shooting fish in a barrel. If anything, the obscure crap can be even worse, it's just much less offensive on the whole because if you've been exposed to it, you probably went looking for it. Terrible popular music just gets the bulk of my ire because I have to go out of my way to avoid it.
In summation: The OP's astoundingly bad taste in music hurts me to even contemplate, and I probably hate the music you love just as much, because you listen to crap. Because everything I don't like is crap. Did I mention I was a music snob?
[small]*If I didn't succeed in conjuring up images of seeping pus-infected wounds with that word choice, this sentence should do the trick![/small]
With the OP though I think musical philistine is perhaps too charitable a term - you have publicly admitted to not only listening to Lady Gaga, but also liking that dreck so much that you can honestly say it's some of your favorite 'music'. It's one thing if you tell somebody "All I listen to is pop that's played on the radio", as that just says you have terrible taste in music (and/or you are super lazy), like admitting to enjoying any of [Insert genre here] Movies establishes that you have terrible taste in cinema.
But the OP loudly professed admiration for the 'musical' discharges* of Lady Gaga, which is a far cry from simply enjoying bland and banal music marketed at the masses - now you've told us you like astonishingly terrible bland banal music marketed at the masses. It boggles my mind that anyone of sound mind would ever do that, and I find myself deeply dismayed that an admission of that magnitude is not as socially reprehensible as say... telling a room full of strangers that you masturbate while looking to pictures of rotting human carcasses. Sure, somebody out there probably does that (and is a very disturbing person), but they would (most likely) at least have the decency to be embarrassed by it and not ever bring it up outside of a very specific (and horrifying) sub-culture.
Genuinely enjoying horrible crap should be a secret shame that you never reveal for fear of constant and totally justified mockery over the rest of your natural lifespan.
If you are reading this and agreeing with me, thinking yourself exempt from my completely justified revulsion and condemnation because you don't listen to any mainstream music, think again! While the OP may have horrific taste and embody everything wrong with the contemporary music-listening audience, the banal and soulless airwaves in no way have a monopoly on the propagation of terrible sonic abominations - it's just that finding bad music on the radio is like shooting fish in a barrel. If anything, the obscure crap can be even worse, it's just much less offensive on the whole because if you've been exposed to it, you probably went looking for it. Terrible popular music just gets the bulk of my ire because I have to go out of my way to avoid it.
In summation: The OP's astoundingly bad taste in music hurts me to even contemplate, and I probably hate the music you love just as much, because you listen to crap. Because everything I don't like is crap. Did I mention I was a music snob?
[small]*If I didn't succeed in conjuring up images of seeping pus-infected wounds with that word choice, this sentence should do the trick![/small]
While its obvious you're intelligent I just cant help but judge you because of my burning eternal hatred for any song you could care to name from the top 40. I've been staying in alot of hospital wards recently and usually they've had tvs for each bed. It seems theres always one person who will turn their tv up loud and start listening to the top fucking 40 and it drives me insane because theres no place on tv where I can really listen to my type of music(Rock and Metal)!