Poll: Why do YOU hate popular music
- Thread starter General Ken8
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I work in the music industry and as someone with an intimate knowledge of how pop music is constructed, developed and marketed, I can't agree with any of your reasons.General Ken8 said:
No effort put into it
Simply not true. Pop music has a lot of effort put into it, often up to thousands of man-hours per song. High-end pop albums have gestation periods of several months, which means on a 12 track album we're talking weeks just to record, produce and perfect the mix of one single song, and this isn't taking into account the time it took to write that song before the studio doors were even opened (writing is usually done before the band or artist even enters the studio - writing while in the studio is a luxury only artists of Michael Jackson or Axl Rose calibre can afford). Then after songs are produced to a final mix, they need to be mastered if they are to be played on radio and that's more time spent tweaking and perfecting things. You can certainly argue that the result of all this effort is a somewhat sterile final product in many cases (hence punk bands counteracting this ideology by recording whole albums in one day), but you can't say there's no effort involved. People who make pop music work hard at it, because if you want something to hit the charts, it better be damn near perfect from an audio perspective.
Bandwagon tactics "Everyone listens to it. Why not you?"
This applies to any style of music, not just pop. Metal and jazz fans are just as guilty of "herd" listening mentality. Try being a thrash metal fan and telling your friends that Slayer doesn't really do anything for you, or try being a jazz fan and writing a thesis at jazz college about why you feel Miles Davis is kind of meh. Good luck with that.
Ripping off kids by just selling them crap
"Crap" is 100% subjective. Define, in precise musicological terms, what exactly makes pop music "crap". You can't. That's because it's all just opinion, not fact.
Making it harder to find original music groups anymore
With access to the Internet, especially Myspace and YouTube, finding new and interesting music to listen to has been easier than it's ever been at any time previously in human history. When I was a teenager there was no music on the Internet, so we relied on the radio. Because of this, pop music was far more of a dominating influence then than it is now.
Kids who listen to it talk smack about music that is actually good
Once again, this is 100% subjective opinion.
The people who listen to it automatically just assume they're "Cool"
Why does that matter to you what other people think? If you're basing your taste on what other people think of certain music, are you not also part of herd mentality? After all, going "against the herd" just lumps you in with another herd - the herd of people who are just going against what they perceive to be the herd.
I don't hate Popular music.
What I do hate is how Radio and Record Labels dictate what is pop music.
They recycle the same 6 artists every couple of months in their specific genres. We aren't hearing the other thousands of types of bands out there. If you bombard people with a different style or type of music once in a while it will get popular. If a radio station decides to play Mute Math instead of Nickelback, people will listen, and they will like it.
But not giving people any choice is what keeps the record labels massive. They rake in more money promoting a few artists a year than they would promoting a dozen. So that's what they do.
I don't agree with top 40 for that reason alone.
They should make a Bottom 40 Radio station. It's motto would be "As long as its not top 40, we play it!"
They can still keep top 40 radio. But people should have options is all.
What I do hate is how Radio and Record Labels dictate what is pop music.
They recycle the same 6 artists every couple of months in their specific genres. We aren't hearing the other thousands of types of bands out there. If you bombard people with a different style or type of music once in a while it will get popular. If a radio station decides to play Mute Math instead of Nickelback, people will listen, and they will like it.
But not giving people any choice is what keeps the record labels massive. They rake in more money promoting a few artists a year than they would promoting a dozen. So that's what they do.
I don't agree with top 40 for that reason alone.
They should make a Bottom 40 Radio station. It's motto would be "As long as its not top 40, we play it!"
They can still keep top 40 radio. But people should have options is all.
You are exactly like me, do you by any chance like rock and metal? If so, then we must be twins.Aby_Z said:
Rap is also, in Yahtzee's words:
"Rap is about whores, guns and whores getting shot by guns."
[SUB]Gotta love that ZP-episode![/SUB]
I hate popular music because of what Aby_Z said, and also that people justr go around trying to push their mainstream songs on you, gaah, it makes me mad.
And when I ask them if they want to listen to a song I like? "Noo, says the man."
Well, none of those reasons quite fit for me. I generally dislike rap because it tends to be misogynistic and violent, and also because it frequently tends not to have much of an actual tune. Don't get me wrong, I like a good beat just fine, but I prefer my music to actually have a song to it.
As for pop, I don't really dislike it. I don't much like it either, but it doesn't bother me. It is what it was designed to be: Music for people that don't care a lot about music. It's catchy and fun, but it lacks depth. I can even enjoy it in small doses, but it gets old really fast. Things similar to pop have really always been around, and have always been where most of the money was, and are always forgotten quickly.
As for pop, I don't really dislike it. I don't much like it either, but it doesn't bother me. It is what it was designed to be: Music for people that don't care a lot about music. It's catchy and fun, but it lacks depth. I can even enjoy it in small doses, but it gets old really fast. Things similar to pop have really always been around, and have always been where most of the money was, and are always forgotten quickly.
hip hop and rap are diff-- oh i cant say that with a straight face.zen5887 said:
anyway, yes, yes it is. its either "im a gangster!" or some "im right, your wrong" bullshit
find me ONE rap song that isn't like this.
also, every douchebag ive ever met gushed about rap, football, or cock jokes when he wasn't, you know, being a douchebag. its like, a law, or something. i search for patterns.
EDIT:
HAYSUUSE QUYSTE PEOPLE! STOP GIVING ME OK RAP SONGS!
Well I tend to hate music more because it is crap. I do get annoyed at popular music though, and sometimes like it before and after others, not during. Which may sound silly, but really, it is just because I get bored of it. You can only hear a song so much, no matter how good it is, and the really popular music you just cannot escape, I just get sick of it.
I don't! *Gasps* I find myself tapping my toe to allot of whats on Radio 1. I would call that pretty mainstream.
I like quite a lot of popular music. Apart from Cheryl Cole... the media just sing her praises, she can't do a thing wrong so everyone thinks her music is fab. I don't like people telling me what to do...
Don't like the sorta lyrics "yo mah bitches in ma hood, move homies I slap yo!"
Don't like the sorta lyrics "yo mah bitches in ma hood, move homies I slap yo!"
hey here is another thing why i hate it!
I cant make it stop :c
Im serious, they radios here have no idea we have differing tastes! christ, at the least put ONE rock song in there! maybe even METAL! but seriously, the channels seem to be on a 12 song limit, and they all have the same frikkin' songlist.
now, i slapped my moms hand for touching the radio at all.
I cant make it stop :c
Im serious, they radios here have no idea we have differing tastes! christ, at the least put ONE rock song in there! maybe even METAL! but seriously, the channels seem to be on a 12 song limit, and they all have the same frikkin' songlist.
now, i slapped my moms hand for touching the radio at all.
You mean aside from the fact most of it impregnates my ears every time I'm forced to hear it?
Yeah, it's utter crap; talentless, unoriginal, bandwagony shit which makes irritating ten year old kids believe you don't need anything good about your person to make a name for yourself, while the actually talented and/or good musicians get shunted to one side after yet another rerelease of an incredibly recent three or four bars thrown together with a MIDI synthesizer goes to number one.
Yeah. I'm totally against today's idea of 'popular music'. And I will continue shaking my walking stick at anyone who is deranged enough to think it good.
Yeah, it's utter crap; talentless, unoriginal, bandwagony shit which makes irritating ten year old kids believe you don't need anything good about your person to make a name for yourself, while the actually talented and/or good musicians get shunted to one side after yet another rerelease of an incredibly recent three or four bars thrown together with a MIDI synthesizer goes to number one.
Yeah. I'm totally against today's idea of 'popular music'. And I will continue shaking my walking stick at anyone who is deranged enough to think it good.
I don't hate pop music because it is popular, but I do often dislike today's popular music because it is targeted at a different kind of audience.
In fact, 90% of the music I listen to was popular sometime in the 50-80's. I wouldn't mind if it became popular again.
In fact, 90% of the music I listen to was popular sometime in the 50-80's. I wouldn't mind if it became popular again.