Poll: Why do YOU hate popular music

[CINN4M0N]

I'm sure this has been said already, but I'm not sifting through three pages ro find out.

I don't really "hate popular music", rather I "dislike shitty music". There just so happens to be a strong correlation between shitty music and it's astounding popularity. When I listen to something new, I don't factor in whether or not it's popular. I just listen to the music and come to my conclusion. Therefore, there is some popular music that I like - albeit very little - and a lot of underground music that I like.

 

[Low Key]

Because all of the songs are exactly the same. For instance: popular rap songs are about murder, hoes n' bitches, drugs, and how great said rapper is. There's no heart and soul put into popular music, only what sells.

Was that a response to my post?

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

I always make a point of clarifying that, as a rule, I detest popular music, but that my loathing and/or total apathy towards said music has nothing to do with it being popular and everything to do with it being terrible. It obtained it's popularity because the vast teeming mass of humanity, when measuring their intelligence in aggregate, is phenomenally retarded.

Thus saying music has "broad mainstream appeal" has become code for "this is crap that stupid people like" - there are exceptions of course, the odd really quite good group or song will pop up from time to time, but for the most part popular music is either bland, repetitive, annoying, or a hideous combination of all those traits into a sonic anti-Voltron of lameness.

More obscure music isn't necessarily going to be any better mind you - there's a good reason most of those "bands you've never heard of" remain bands you've never heard of (that reason being "they suck") - but in terms of general offensiveness the obscure terrible music wins out over terrible popular music for one very compelling reason: you never hear that crap on the radio.

There are other reasons people detest popular music (artists all seem "safe", songs are "shallow", popularity feels "manufactured", etc), some of which say more about how pretentious the person doing the hating is and less about the music itself (the indie snobs who hate anything that other people have heard of for instance), but the key factor really is ubiquity - pop is freaking everywhere, most of it ranges from low-grade annoying to flat out ear poison, and even when things are good familiarity breeds contempt.

So people don't like pop music because they find it bland, see it as an insult to musicians they perceive as not having "sold out", etc - why does it incite genuine anger instead of, at best, mild annoyance and complete apathy?

[HEADING=3]It's freaking catchy, that's why.[/HEADING]​

Like annoying advertising slogans, pop hooks are designed to stick in your head and never ever go away. Sometimes, in those rare examples where a catchy song also happens to be genuinely awesome, this is great, and there is much rejoicing. But how catchy a song is has absolutely nothing to do with how much you enjoy it, and the odds are remarkably good that if you spend any significant length of time listening to pop, you will hear songs you think are terrible but are now unable to forget, ever, even if you try really really hard. In fact those songs will probably crowd out the songs you actually wish your brain would put on repeat, and they'll spring up whenever you don't want them to, for decades to come!

As a courtesy to anyone who's actually reading this post, I will not list prime offenders by name as that's almost certainly bound to make your brain start playing them for you again aiee make it stop why do you remember stuff like this I hate you brain argh!!!, and I would hate to unintentionally inflict that pain on anyone, but that phenomenon right there is why popular music is bound to get people far angrier than say... progressive rock: If you didn't like the progressive rock song, the odds are good that, after you stopped listening to it, you don't remember it anymore.

Pop is forever, and this is why we hate it.

 

[Yancyboy]

I think that it"s really hard to define what populer music is. I mean are we talking about originality? or more to the point original artist born music, and not just something that was given to a populer artist and told to sing it.

For me it's a mixed bag of reasons why i'm turned off of radio playlist's. For one they play the song so many times a day/week that it just loses out on the rare moment when you crave to hear its beat. another reason is that no matter what they play most of the time they wholeheartedly agree that "It's the best thing out there at this time".

Now i'm not completly turned off by hip music. sometimes there is something to be said about a song that comes out of the cookie cutter. but for most of the time i think that it really just is what is going to look cool for the kids with disposible cash. either way go fuck yourself justin beiber. your a terrible blight on humanity.

 

[The Buck Stops Here]

You do realize the current generation of hip-hop is not actually hip-hop? It's pop-hop, or electro-hop. Not actual hip-hop. Most hip-hop in the mainstream died after everybody tried to rip off Pharrell and make spacey beats.

Seriously, this incredible stigma against rap and hip-hop music astounds me. Some of the best music comes out of the era of A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, KRS-One and Slick Rick that I don't see why anyone would passionately dislike. In the current underground, you've got Apathy, you've got C-Ray Walz, you've got Dutchmassive, you've got so many artists innovating and rhyming both philosophically and for fun. Is it some sort of fad to dislike hip-hop music because it's got an aura of being associated with the ghetto? Or because sometimes the artists are boggarts and just brag for the fun of it?

The entire dirty south thing - the "hoes, drugs, bitches" rhyming without lyrical substance or agility - is pretty recent. It emerged at the beginning of 2000 after the fallout of amazing east and west coast MCs in the 90s. Big L, Big Pun, the dissolution of Gang Starr, Tupac, Notorious, all were either dead or separated. That was a pretty large musical vacuum to fill.

But to answer the question: most popular music doesn't seem like it has the soul to it. Good rock and roll, good -any- music, even the stuff I don't like, has a soul to it. You'll know if the people who make it love what they do, or love their musical trade. You can hear it in the rhythm and the lyrics.

 

[brainfreeze215]

I don't.

 

[ace_of_something]

Bias poll is bias.

I don't hate popular music. Some of my favorite artists have had a top 40 hit. (AC/DC for example) The popularity of a group has little to nothing to do with the quality. Many world famous groups/artists are for a good reason others are not. Same can be said for the obscure.

 

[cheese_wizington]

I don't hate pop. Some of it's pretty bad, but some of it's pretty good also.

Just remember, those classics you're listening to, they used to be pop too.

 

[TheComedown]

Because i don't like it, the techno beats and shit get into my head (in a bad way) and the repetitive nature drives me nuts. Why is that option not up there? you assume the only reasons people hate it is cause they are "too cool for school" type shit. maybe people just have a different taste in music.

 

[darth gditch]

I can't quite adequately explain why. It is not creative. There is little thought into the tonal structure, the lyrics, or even the beat. Jazz is mind-blowing in it's ability to sound simple to the ear, and yet be tonally complex. Classical and Metal have extremely precise chords, melodies, harmonies and arrangements. Classic rock just sounds good as that genre contains some of the more creative musicians. Ska is an awesome fusion of genres. Old pop, like Billy Joel, combines talented playing with great, unassisted vocals with catchy and/ore intelligent lyrics.

Even old-school rap is just mentally challenging because of the speed and lyricism.

Pop, top-40 stuff, it's just bland. There's no depth. *shrug

That and it's all they play at dances, and everyone knows swing or ska is all they should play at dances.

 

[Azraellod]

I don't think I do really. Uh...

A slight problem here is that I am really out of touch, and as a result I have no clue what is popular or not. I'll just listen to what I like the sound of most of the time.

I don't think any reasons on the poll would make me hate it though. The only music I really cant stand is stuff where they play the music in such a way that I cant pick out the words. (Actually, since I have non-selective hearing, this happens more often then it should. I usually have to look up the lyrics to whatever I'm listening to so I'm able to tell what's being said.)

 

[Mortons4ck]

I used to hate music that other people liked, just because of the fact that other people liked it. I was kinda an Indie Snob.

But I got over that once I got out of high school. Now, if I like a song, I like it, and if I don't, I don't. Regardless of popularity.

 

[triggrhappy94]

you can just call popular music "pop", but no sweat. Call me emo but i hate how there's no emotion put into it, along with the stuff mentioned in the poll.
there's a couple different kinds of ways of making music.
1)showing what you can do on the guitar, gets you rock/metal (of couse there's alot of bands that contradict that but I'm not talking about them)
2)expressing yourself/letting things out, gets you a variety of music, mostly on the rock spetruim
3)telling a story poeticly, some more rock and some rap
4)making what people want to hear for the money, this is where pop comes from. there is no heart and/or soul. Its like if painters, instead of following inspiration, paint what people want to see; we'd end up with a topless Mona Lisa.
(ways of making music are not limited to what i've listed, and so are the genres listed. just examples)

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Here's a brief overview of my thoughts on popular music:

The RIAA, which controls 85% of recorded music in the United States, takes a directly anti-consumer and anti-artist stance. While their stated goal is to protect musicians, their only actions are those that disenfranchise artists and protect corporate interests. In a world where John Fogerty was sued because his solo work sounded too much like his own previous work done with Credence Clearwater Revival, I cannot support the recording industry.

Popular music is generally not those bands who have talent, although I will admit that some talented bands become popular, but are those bands who are willing to sell out what microscopic amount of "talent" that they have to corporate interests. There are good bands still published, but generally on independent labels. Even when a talented band with an important message manages to climb the ladder of fame and become popular, they become kept by the recording industry. While the songs they play may have some political message, they are never blatant. If they become too blatant, the song will never get air play, and will be unknown except to those fans who will buy the entire album instead of just a few radio hits (an increasingly small portion of the population).

Popular music inspires absolute conformity, one way or the other. Very few exceedingly popular groups portray anything more sophisticated than a stereotype. There are many stereotypes from which the youth may select to conform, but in the end, the music will make them conform. If they conform to the "mainstream", they cannot harm the corporatocracy as they will rely on it. If they, instead, listen to "nonconformist" popular bands, they will soon find themselves sporting the same metal chains and black tattered jeans that every other nonconformist is wearing, and they will not harm the corporatocracy because nobody of importance will pay any mind to their opinion. Whether this effect is intended or unintended, I cannot say for sure. I actually tend to lean towards it being nothing more than a coincidental, and very unfortunate, side effect of popular music. However, the effect, intentional or not, is there.

Lastly, and perhaps most important- popular music sounds god awful!

 

[fenrizz]

I don't hate popular music, I try to listen to it when I can, give it the same chance I would any other type of music. Sometimes there's a gem, most of the time it's shit. It's like most things really.

I think hating popular music outright is a bit close-minded really.

Well said, good Sir.

I agree completely.

 

[The Buck Stops Here]

I can't quite adequately explain why. It is not creative. There is little thought into the tonal structure, the lyrics, or even the beat. Jazz is mind-blowing in it's ability to sound simple to the ear, and yet be tonally complex. Classical and Metal have extremely precise chords, melodies, harmonies and arrangements. Classic rock just sounds good as that genre contains some of the more creative musicians. Ska is an awesome fusion of genres. Old pop, like Billy Joel, combines talented playing with great, unassisted vocals with catchy and/ore intelligent lyrics.

Even old-school rap is just mentally challenging because of the speed and lyricism.

Pop, top-40 stuff, it's just bland. There's no depth. *shrug

That and it's all they play at dances, and everyone knows swing or ska is all they should play at dances.

I'm not a fan of the pop-40 things, but I don't consider that rap or hip-hop - more like pop-hop or club-hop music. It's another beast.

I'd have to disagree with you on the creativity aspect of it, however. There are legitimate producers (DJ Premier, a staple, DJ Quik of Tribe fame and Grandmaster Flash himself, the master of DJing) who are incredibly creative both in their sampling of previous music genres and their use of drum machines and other materials to create a beat. The lyricism of most good rap and hip-hop song is what really attracts me to the genre - it can be varied and different from artist to artist. De La Soul and Nas were stellar examples of poet rappers, while individuals such as Big L and Prodigy and Havoc of Mobb Deep represented a different culture, a more gritty, grimy realistic viewpoint of the world from people who had grown up inside a ghetto, a place without a lot of hope. It's probably that aspect of lyrical expression that separates hip-hop from most other genres of music.

I do understand where you're coming from, though.

 

[Iron Lightning]

Crash course in the development of western (that includes European) music:

Medieval: A bunch of chaps chanting and such, nothing special.
Baroque: No inner-movement textural variety for fear of disturbing the audience, but better.
Classical: More variation but a bit shoehorned by stringent structuring.
Romance: Designed to imbue strong emotion in the audience, quite a bit of textural variation.
Impressionism: A bit droopy because of it's necessary monotony, but still alright.
Ragtime: Simplified classical-like due to the propagation of home pianos, a bit shallow.
Minimalism: Often just a single meter repeated with slight variations, utter rubbish.
Majority of the Very Modern: Lyrics take center stage, background music reduced to heavy minimalist stuff without any minimalist variations (with a few notable exceptions,) this is especially problematic in the first-mentioned genres. One can make an exception for the nice variations found in Metal, good Rock, and Jazz.

That is why I do not like popular music, I kinda like rap at times, since it's more poetry than music. Seriously though, listen to some pop music and ignore the lyrics, it's all or nearly all the same few notes repeated over and over again across an entire song.

My Suggestion for the Future: Inner-song genre-variations (i.e. I fly the hatredcopter/I am captain Evil Stopper/Craaaaaawling in my skin/these wounds they will not/laughing in the sunshine) That's a bad example, but my point is we need more romance and/or neoclassical style variations in our music. Maybe sort of like extreme Ska, but not quite.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

No forum arguments, all intelligent and funny people, and originality everywhere you look. It's the equivalent of an internet utopia for people like myself.

I lol'd.

Hard.

OT: I don't actually have much of a beef with popular music. Some people actually don't care that much about music, and to them it's nice to have to listen to. I know it's not for me, so why should it annoy me?