The shallow world of Popular Culture.
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You could go back much farther than that. It probably started when civilization began.Kortney said:
Okay fine, they can play their pop, rap or whatever they like. I don't care all that much because I don't pay attention.
My questions is, WHY do they play the SAME SONG over and over hundreds of times until they're sick of it and find another?
I never understood that mentality. I personally try to switch things up and that way I can come back to stuff I liked a lot and still like it a lot.
My questions is, WHY do they play the SAME SONG over and over hundreds of times until they're sick of it and find another?
I never understood that mentality. I personally try to switch things up and that way I can come back to stuff I liked a lot and still like it a lot.
I think the reason people still like shitty stuff like rap and pop is because (along with some other things mentioned)
A) They haven't been exposed to the good stuff. As a kid I generally listened to pop stations, but the songs I listened to typically had some merit - no Nsync, Britney Spears or Backstreet boys for me. When Blink 182 got popular, I listened to their albums and picked up more of the punk rock/alt rock genre. Although my older sister has shit tastes now, she listened to some other good music when she drove me to school. Less-known bands like All American Rejects, Brand New, The Postal Service, and The Killers before they got known. Randomly along the way I'd pick up awesome 60's-90's music like Queen, Guns N Roses, Nirvana etc. Then I graduated on to listening to videogame music (Nobuo Uematsu) and metal which currently dominate my playlist and will continue doing so for a while. This gradual process got me further away from simple, popular music and into more intricate and, for lack of a better word, musical songs. I think most others weren't lucky enough to be constantly exposed to better music, or didn't go far enough and reverted back to the familiar sounds of pop.
And
B) This one's simpler, but they just don't have an ear for good music. This is an attribute I take for granted and I can only assume others do as well. To me, the differences in musical intricacies of the solo from "Disciples of Babylon" and generic acoustic guitar chord progression song are as clear as night and day, but some just don't posses the auditory aptitude to tell them apart by much. Since these people lack the ability to judge a song by it's actual music content, they resort to judging the only thing left which is the song's lyrics. I postulate that this is how tracks with generic music and, in some cases, no music at all (I'm looking at you, rap) come to gain so much popularity. Do not hate those that wallow in the filth of lower music forms, but pity them for they are not blessed with a gift that brings you much joy.
tl;dr People aren't exposed to good music enough and are forced to settle with their familiar, generic, boring crap, or they simply don't have an ear for good music and don't know any better than to judge a song by lyrics alone.
A) They haven't been exposed to the good stuff. As a kid I generally listened to pop stations, but the songs I listened to typically had some merit - no Nsync, Britney Spears or Backstreet boys for me. When Blink 182 got popular, I listened to their albums and picked up more of the punk rock/alt rock genre. Although my older sister has shit tastes now, she listened to some other good music when she drove me to school. Less-known bands like All American Rejects, Brand New, The Postal Service, and The Killers before they got known. Randomly along the way I'd pick up awesome 60's-90's music like Queen, Guns N Roses, Nirvana etc. Then I graduated on to listening to videogame music (Nobuo Uematsu) and metal which currently dominate my playlist and will continue doing so for a while. This gradual process got me further away from simple, popular music and into more intricate and, for lack of a better word, musical songs. I think most others weren't lucky enough to be constantly exposed to better music, or didn't go far enough and reverted back to the familiar sounds of pop.
And
B) This one's simpler, but they just don't have an ear for good music. This is an attribute I take for granted and I can only assume others do as well. To me, the differences in musical intricacies of the solo from "Disciples of Babylon" and generic acoustic guitar chord progression song are as clear as night and day, but some just don't posses the auditory aptitude to tell them apart by much. Since these people lack the ability to judge a song by it's actual music content, they resort to judging the only thing left which is the song's lyrics. I postulate that this is how tracks with generic music and, in some cases, no music at all (I'm looking at you, rap) come to gain so much popularity. Do not hate those that wallow in the filth of lower music forms, but pity them for they are not blessed with a gift that brings you much joy.
tl;dr People aren't exposed to good music enough and are forced to settle with their familiar, generic, boring crap, or they simply don't have an ear for good music and don't know any better than to judge a song by lyrics alone.
The sad truth is that people do in fact actually like all that crap - the umbrella of Pop is quite broad though, so it isn't universally staggeringly awful, but it truly does seem that "insane popularity" and "actual song quality" are inversely related at times. On a positive note, modern Pop does easily conduce itself towards making sweeping conclusions about the intelligence of the audience that laps it up, and by extension just how much more intelligent and discerning you must be. Basically I will take any explanation that provides me with more reasons for snobbery (as if I needed more reasons!).SimuLord said:
Things certainly have been going downhill since the Great War, but how does this particular mindset allow you to be clearly identified as better than everyone else? I find that's really the most important consideration when picking snobbery-related rhetorical points.SimuLord said:
Woo! Time to troll pop culture!
No but seriously, I believe pop culture has gotten progressively worse over the years including music and I believe it's a vicious cycle of market to be popular, becomes popular, redo but cheaper and with less work, is similar to original so becomes popular, repeat. This gives way to the horrid amount of remixing going on. When I heard that BEP remix of "time of my life" I actually thought it was the original song then it got to the mixy part and I was like FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
I think something needs to be done but nothing drastic, just some real singers writing some songs which are unique and interesting enough without having as much repetition as current msuic is. And with some good messages, not like "Everyone be friends" just not "That ho's hot so let's bang 'er."
Oh, and why is it that every song has to have swearing in it? I was smacked if I swore as a child and any movie that had swearing in it was off limits to any child but now it's everywhere! I don't care about it as long as it's not to an unnecessary degree.
No but seriously, I believe pop culture has gotten progressively worse over the years including music and I believe it's a vicious cycle of market to be popular, becomes popular, redo but cheaper and with less work, is similar to original so becomes popular, repeat. This gives way to the horrid amount of remixing going on. When I heard that BEP remix of "time of my life" I actually thought it was the original song then it got to the mixy part and I was like FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
I think something needs to be done but nothing drastic, just some real singers writing some songs which are unique and interesting enough without having as much repetition as current msuic is. And with some good messages, not like "Everyone be friends" just not "That ho's hot so let's bang 'er."
I've noticed that and am grateful for it every time I listen to one of these songs. However, I must admit I've noticed it's getting better, Ke$ha and Katy Perry aside. A few years ago my sister, then about 10, put a song on that she liked called "Touch your toes". The song was clearly sexual, albeit not explicitly (however that is half the reason I hate them), and I slowly gasped as it played. When it finished I asked my sister "How can you like that? Do you even know what it's about?!" to which she replied "I don't listen to the words." I was shocked, disgusted, releived and fearful because I knew she wasn't listening to the words but she was being partialy influenced subconciously. I don't think she's going to go out and have sex the first chace she gets but with all the music similar in sound and content, she would find it a comforting surrounding and wouldn't find it as taboo if she had been listening to something else. However, as I've said, it has been getting better, the songs aren't so much about sex anymore but more about love, relationships and I've even heard a few promoting forgiveness towards loved ones. Some of them do talk about love to the point where it becomes meaningless but something tells me we may see an improvement fairly soon. The life of trends has been shortening over the years to the point where by the time you've saved up for that dress all your BFFs have it's out of style, and I believe the music industry has suffered this same shortening. Not just in how long songs can remain good but also in how long genres can remain popular. This, however, may mean we'll see better songs coming out within the next few years. Not in quality but in message and lyrics.ultrachicken said:
Oh, and why is it that every song has to have swearing in it? I was smacked if I swore as a child and any movie that had swearing in it was off limits to any child but now it's everywhere! I don't care about it as long as it's not to an unnecessary degree.
Compare it to FPS but for a different reason.Why do I care said:
Not only is the FPS genre popular, but it's cheap and easy to assemble. That's one of the key reasons they get pushed, because you can make them with relatively little effort. Not all FPS are that, but still.
It's easy to get a relatively attractive person and make them sound "good" as opposed to taking a talented person and making them look attractive. Canned "beats" and simplistic music helps, because repetition is always valuable. Repetition is always valuable. Even if a melody is rather unspectacular, it will stick in your head if you hear it fifty times because repetition is always valuable. I don't have a single GaGa song, but even the most mediocre of her tunes sticks in my head because even in my sheltered existence, I've heard "Alejandro" and "Bad Romance" and "Poker Face" so many times they've stuck. Because repetition is always...Oh, you get the point.
FPS are also popular because they're a straight up mechanic. People know how to play them withotu much instruction. Grenades may be a different button, or the action button may be different, but the idea is pretty much done with only superficial changes. This is sort of like the repetition bit, but it works more as ease of access. To people who can barely carry a tune, what's more accessible? Ke$ha or Miles Davis? People don't want to learn new control schemes. I'm guilty of this. Repeat something enough, it becomes second nature. This is true with listening habits, too. Because repetition is...You probably have started filling that in yourself by now.
No yeah dude you're right, most songs are shit. They've ALWAYS been shit. The good thing is the shit generally gets sifted out over time so only the good'uns are remembered. We'll only start being in trouble when the shit starts being remembered, and I think even the people that love their manufactured pop know it's shit.
It's quite simple. You set yourself up as a cultural revivalist, look down your nose at anything the imbecile masses like these days, and imply that by being around you, people will assimilate your upper-crust 19th-century awesomeness and be able to give others the what-for! Being the arbiter of someone's worthiness is the very apex of snobbery, no? It's like being a hipster, just without the crap.Gildan Bladeborn said:
And besides, it means you get to listen to Johann Strauss. And there is NEVER a bad time for Johann Strauss.
Queen was pop. Just keep that in mind. Some of their songs were even delightfully simple pop. Some was far more complex. "We Will Rock You" is about as stripped down as one can get, while "Bohemian Rhapsody" is layered and delicious.Alucard832 said:
The Beach Boys were pop, and could be anything from simplistic to brilliant. The Beatles, as well. Just keep that in mind. There are a lot of bands from pop with some serious talent. One of the marks of a good performer is making something complex sound damn simple. Which all of the above did.
Sound logic for which I can see no downside (because Antonin Dvorak died in 1904 and I could never get behind a snobbery bullet point that suggested his music was the product of civilization's downward slump) - plus there's the spiffy 19th century fashion to consider. Clearly, you have thought this through quite well.SimuLord said:
And this is before the prospect of steampunk is considered. Glorious, wonderful steampunk. Because really, is there anything with "Steam" in the name that isn't awesome? Besides "steam burn"---those are nasty, even on others.Gildan Bladeborn said:
Inspired by this topic I took a look at the billboard charts and listened to the top 5. I don't see what all the bitchiness is about. So what if the music is electronica with a stronger emphasis on vocals? That doesn't make it bad.
Rock isn't the only valid genre.
Rock isn't the only valid genre.
As a person who loves music, I have to tell you that I am attracted to pop music every now and then. It's not frequent and when it happens I don't generally care about "high quality" anything. Lyrics, instrumentals, or any of the other things that make up good music.
Personally, I think it's mostly because of children, specifically teenage girls. They're the people this music is marketed towards, because they're the people that are ignorant and emotional enough to buy this stuff. Get a pretty face, auto-tune his/her voice, put some form of beat in the back ground and BAM! instant success with people who haven't lived long enough to know better.
Personally, I think it's mostly because of children, specifically teenage girls. They're the people this music is marketed towards, because they're the people that are ignorant and emotional enough to buy this stuff. Get a pretty face, auto-tune his/her voice, put some form of beat in the back ground and BAM! instant success with people who haven't lived long enough to know better.
Sorry I didn't mention it, but I was referring to the generic pop from the 90's onward (mostly the 00's[?] though). Obviously music was held to a higher standard back in the day so that era's pop is vastly superior to today's.Zachary Amaranth said: