Science Proves Your Grandma Right About Pop Music
- Thread starter John Funk
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No. The loudness war is not subjective and does not care about your taste in music. It's an observable, verifiable trend in the music industry that is not restricted to pop music. Metal, in fact, is just as bad an offender as pop in that area(and this is coming from someone who prefers metal, albeit not the radio friendly stuff).wookiee777 said:
Are we talking about the sexy sax man here?Roboto said:
I can think of no-one more epic and sax related.
I'm pretty certain that a scientific study about scientific studies would show that they are, alas, more often more influenced by ideologies and the laziness of point-hungry students than actual fact these days.Triforceformer said:
it may be what we want to hear, but it's also what we all expected. It's been pretty obvious, this is just saying it's for certain, and we didn't just all have hearing problemsTriforceformer said:
Proving my long-held belief that the electronicization (go with it) of music has not been improving the variety. When the pioneers of electronic music (And I don't mean disco and house) started, they believed they were opening up new doors to unexplored sounds -- basically, they felt they'd just torn the roof off this sucka.John Funk said:
And instead? One scene is nothing but guitars and drums, with occasional keyboards. Another scene is the same handful of electronic sounds. Rather that using technology to constantly search out new sounds, we've used it to make reproducing the same sounds much faster.
When you give people unlimited options, they have no reason to move away from the tiny handful they're comfortable with. Why try something new, when "endless variety" ensures the familiar is always within reach?
Well, since the output of the whole industry in the last couple of decades basically boils down to Stock/Aitken/Waterman and similar cloned cloning copycat outfits, it's really no wonder it all sounds pretty much the lame same, because that's the name of the game.
It's the industrialization of the music industry, so to speak; they made creating pop music a really efficient little stunt that only needed friendly faces, appealing physiques, inoffensive cover shots and the same formulaic recipe for your average three-minute ditty.
Unfortunately, this technique has since creeped its way into historically more original scenes, such as rap - shame on fiddy and the army of mumbling and rambling rap crooners that killed black music dead in its tracks - or metal.
Thankfully, there's always something good to be found in every sea of diarrhea there is.
It's the industrialization of the music industry, so to speak; they made creating pop music a really efficient little stunt that only needed friendly faces, appealing physiques, inoffensive cover shots and the same formulaic recipe for your average three-minute ditty.
Unfortunately, this technique has since creeped its way into historically more original scenes, such as rap - shame on fiddy and the army of mumbling and rambling rap crooners that killed black music dead in its tracks - or metal.
Thankfully, there's always something good to be found in every sea of diarrhea there is.
I also would like to pose that while very true, this study fails to mention, or study a more sociologic aspect: the maturing of "pop" as a musical style.
Pop itself started out as the new thing, but nowadays it is but one of many styles, sub-styles and hybrids, and it is progressively becoming more of a "default" genre in a cultural landscape where musical preference holds a majority share in personal identity.
I'm aware this might be somewhat generalising, but I'd say I'm justified to state that pop music isn't made for the ones who love it, but for everyone who doesn't hate it. One size fits all - and if you care enough to dislike it, you'll care enough to find your own style among the vast amounts of alternatives.
Viewed against this backdrop it is hardly surprising that pop itself is becoming blander every year.
Pop itself started out as the new thing, but nowadays it is but one of many styles, sub-styles and hybrids, and it is progressively becoming more of a "default" genre in a cultural landscape where musical preference holds a majority share in personal identity.
I'm aware this might be somewhat generalising, but I'd say I'm justified to state that pop music isn't made for the ones who love it, but for everyone who doesn't hate it. One size fits all - and if you care enough to dislike it, you'll care enough to find your own style among the vast amounts of alternatives.
Viewed against this backdrop it is hardly surprising that pop itself is becoming blander every year.
Aye but I can't remember a pop song where the topic is neither love, breakups nor "I'm awesome" in song form. Not exactly plumbing the depths of human emotion...The Pink Pansy said:
As for 'sounding good' surely originality is a part of that? I hear dozens of songs which just use the exact same chord progression and drum beat through the whole freaking song. Which is sooo intensely boring when you're used to listening to literally anything else.
Really? Last year was the year of the sax.Mortis Nuncius said:
Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" (7/10 solo), Mia Martina's "Burning" (6/10 solo), Dev's "In the Dark" (7/10 solo), Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory" (10/10 solo)... the list extends.
Because this:
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...does not sound like this:
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...does not sound like this:
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...does not sound like this:
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...does not sound like this:
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...does not sound like this:
<youtube=Ti3t7MAwaaM>
...does not sound like this:
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...does not sound like this:
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...all all on my pop radio station.
Can we get rid of the "Grandma wants you to turn down the devil music" stereotype? This isn't 1970. Grandma probably got it on with Grandpa while tripping on acid and listening to Jimi Hendrix.
And yeah, no surprise in the study. Crime really, all these cool new sounds that are possible with modern tech and what do we get? Autotune and dominant chords. Yay commercialism.
And yeah, no surprise in the study. Crime really, all these cool new sounds that are possible with modern tech and what do we get? Autotune and dominant chords. Yay commercialism.
There are a lot more songs nowadays though, and that can be used as data. Not everything has survived, unfortunately/fortunately. So we probably don't have all the old crappy songs. Just saying.
What if we only check the greatest hits of each year? The most acclaimed or listened to ?
What if we only check the greatest hits of each year? The most acclaimed or listened to ?
Huh, so apparently I'm not just a "snob" for hating (most of) that manufactured ear-rape.
Good to know.
Good to know.