Poll: Does anyone even like mainstream music?

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Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
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dangitall said:
Our English class had a recent survey on what type, and what generation of music you like. The question in hand was if anyone actually enjoys listening to mainstream music in the U.S, specifically in the pop genre. Most songs released nowadays have suggestive and very stupid lyrics, and the music and singing voice is often modified by electronics. So we took this survey and it turns out almost no year tens in our school like mainstream pop music. Most preferred classic rock or rap (I'm more into jazz personally). I'm guessing it's similar for all people. If that's the case, then why is this crap played everywhere? it's there all the time in public events and dances. Can't people play other music?

Edit: everyone raises a good point, and I got really disoriented, I guess. So what's everyone's favourite music genre?
It's played everywhere because it's actually the most popular and well liked kind of music. It is however "cool" to be seen to dislike whatever is doing well in the mainstream to prove your not one of the pack.

Probably 99% of those people going off about their music tastes are trying to seem cool and edgy and most of them are really into all the popular stuff that they claim to hate or disdain. The more elitist and indie someone claims to be, the more likely they go home and crank up some Justin Bieber or whatever they claim to dislike when they are alone. :p

The basic truth is that the music industry is a cash machine, it produces what sells, and is willing to dispose of talent very rapidly to make as much money, as fast as possible. If the popular stuff wasn't actually popular it wouldn't be making money and thus wouldn't be being produced. You can tell simply by the numbers, and it's existance, that the majority of people your dealing with are liars.
 

King of Asgaard

Vae Victis, Woe to the Conquered
Oct 31, 2011
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I'm a big fan of rock and metal but somehow I'm in a small minority where I live.
Almost everyone I work with is constantly whistling or humming some ridiculous pop/hip-hop/rap song and it drives me nuts.
uc.asc said:
As far as I can tell, mainstream music's target audience is people who don't know or care enough about music to have preferences.
Quite an interesting observation you've made, and it's likely to be mostly true.
 

KafkaOffTheBeach

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Nov 17, 2010
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Jazz.
All the way.
Because John Coltrane makes me moist.
As does Miles Davis.
And Cannonball Adderley.
And Bill Evans.
And Wynton Kelly.
And Jimmy Cobb.
And Paul Chambers.
Now.....if only there was an album that brought all of these brilliant musical talents together.....why, it would be, perhaps, the best album ever! Owned by almost everyone ever! Revered around the world for its genuine excellence!
Ah well.....one can only dream....
 

Korolev

No Time Like the Present
Jul 4, 2008
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I haven't willingly listened to the radio for over 5 years. That should tell you everything you need to know about my attitude towards modern music.
 

BreakfastMan

Scandinavian Jawbreaker
Jul 22, 2010
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I do like some modern mainstream pop, like Lady Gaga. Not a particularly big fan though. I much prefer rock and metal (hard rock being my favorite). Recent bands or old bands, it doesn't matter. I like both.
 

TacticalAssassin1

Elite Member
May 29, 2009
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Well I like a variety, but my favorite band by far is Nine Inch Nails, so... Industrial/Rock/Alternative/Other?

Some things I listen to are hard to categorize.
 

PieceOfEden

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Sep 4, 2011
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Im a metalhead but enjoy the occasional Bach.
OT though, a while ago there was a study suggesting artists like Lady Gaga use a system to predict which songs will be listened to most. Long story short : certain sounds helps the brain produces dopamine or ceratonin and pop music is scarily effecient at it. Its kinda like a high, your brain like Justin Bieber's voice even if your prefrences shy away from him
 

ThatLankyBastard

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Aug 18, 2010
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I'm a metalhead... I love Slayer, Heaven Shall Burn, Slipknot, Nevermore, *Deadlock, Arch Enemy, and the like...

that being said I also have multiple electronica songs, a decent amount of Rock, 1 rap song, and multiple songs from other languages (including one in Latin) on my IPod...

I think mainstream music is just a collection of fads... It's just music that people listen to for a while until something else comes out!

[sub]*Anyone here heard of Deadlock? I've never found another Deadlock fan... like, ever![/sub]
 

Red Bomb

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Nov 25, 2009
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Metal and heavy rock music is my first love. But strangely enough I also listen to Celtic/New Age stuff like Loreena McKennitt, motown/blues stuff, Trip-Hop (Portishead, CocoRosie etc), Classical (LOVE Tchaikovsky) and very occaisionally Dubstep.
So long as some actual imaginative talent has gone into making/writing it.

Can't stand pop, country & western,and especially 'gangtsa rap...*shudders*
 

SinisterGehe

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May 19, 2009
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I been listening, or rather obsessing, about classical music since I was a baby. Now I compose/arrange and play classical music (I used to be Timpanist, but I had to make my 2nd instrument my 1st because of a accident, I am French horn player now).

And btw... It wouldn't be mainstream music if the majority wont like it. With this poll the topic's question should be "What is mainstream music?".
 

Owyn_Merrilin

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May 22, 2010
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I'm not really sure how you would classify my tastes in music. I can find something in just about any genre that I like, although I tend to stick to (classic) rock, metal, jazz, and blues for the majority of what I listen to just for the sake of listening. That said, there really isn't a genre that I dislike, especially in the proper context; there is a trick to enjoying most genres of music, and its different for each one. You have to learn to listen to the important parts, instead of focusing on the parts that are incidental to the genre -- so, for example, in metal, the vocals are just another instrument in the multilayered sound, while in rap, the vocals are a percussion instrument, but also very much the lead instrument, and the main thing you're listening to.

This holds true even for mainstream pop; it tends to make very good club music. I dare you to go to a club that's playing some Lady Gaga or some Katy Perry and not dance. If that stuff doesn't get you dancing, then it's because you're one of those people who refuses to dance, not because of any fault of the music.

Incidentally, Lady Gaga is one of the best musicians to truly hit the mainstream in decades. She's actually a properly trained musician (she even went to a conservatory in New York), and her music is honestly decent. It's actually pretty common for the guitar club at my university to just randomly break into "Bad Romance" while jamming at a meeting, and we tend to arrange it differently every time, because the chord progression works no matter how you play it; I've heard everything from soulful piano arrangements to driving rock guitar arrangements, usually made up on the spot by a musician who knows how to play around with chord progressions.

I guess what I'm getting at with the above paragraph is that modern pop (as in the style of pop that has shown up in the last two or three years) is far and away better than what came immediately before it; in the 90's and early 2000's, pop wasn't about the music so much as the music videos, with the carefully choreographed dance routines that even worked their way into the live performances. Pop in the early 2010's is finally about the music again -- argue about whether it's dumbed down for the masses or not all you want, but at least it's about hearing the music and maybe dancing yourself, instead of watching the "singer" dance to their own song.
 

The Floating Nose

Senior Member
Dec 5, 2010
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I like mainstream music, i love Coldplay, i think they put a lot of effort into their music and they are a lot of fun to listen to. Gorillaz is my faovirte music group so yeah, i like mainstream music but i HATE dance music and Pop like Rhianna, Katy Perry (fuckin untalened, attention-whore who has a very irritating voice) and a lot of others with a passion and the fact that a lot of artists are following that fuckin bandwagon (Black Eyed Piss im looking at you).
 

Zantos

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Jan 5, 2011
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I wouldn't say I like mainstream music. There's some decent stuff in there, but I don't like all of it. Same principle with every genre of music. I can like one band, doesn't mean I like everything similar to them.
 

Bassik

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Jun 15, 2011
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I listen to classic rock, mostly ELO and the Scorpions, but I also like jazz, classical and realy, most music where they bother to use more then one instrument.
I don't like mainstream music that much, not because I am a hipster, but because the melodies allways seem too busy and noisy to me.
 

SadisticBrownie

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May 9, 2011
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I mostly listen to Alt Rock and electronic, with a fair bit of metal thrown in. The stuff in the charts these days is just bloody awful.