Turns out modern pop music does really suck!!!
 

Time for William's rant:

Like many people my age (the 35 + group) I couldn't figure out why modern pop music sucks so bad.

I primarily blamed it on the popularity of R&B and sampling. Since modern R&B is rooted in rap, most of these artists weren't capable of creating their own melodies, instead they were just sampling someone else's previous work and looping it to a beat. Although there are some sampling geniuses out there, overall its artistically limiting, and a death blow for pop quality music.

(I also apply this to modern dance artists that are just using the arpeggio button on a keyboard. So not just picking on R&B, but that's where the sampling started)

So thus its nice to have a scientific study that backs this up. A group of scientists from Spain ran the pop music of the last 50 years through a series of complex algorithms and found that modern pop music has less diversity of notes played, and is more bland it terms rhythm and melody.

Pop music too loud and all sounds the same: official | Reuters

They also found that record companies have ramped up the recording sound, which also takes away from intricate sounds you may hear overall, this blog shows a good example.

Scientific study proves that today’s pop music really does suck | Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog


So har! har! even though there has been a turn around somewhat with artists like Goyte, Foster the People, and dare I say Lady Gaga, modern pop music really does sucks $hit

Please feel free to debate me on this with the examples below, because you can deal with this.

or that

This or that

This or that

Now I'm not opposed to technology in music, quite the contrary, but maybe record companies will figure out that more people will actually pay for music if the artists can write their own f#ckin songs and play their own f#ckin instruments instead of relying on sampling, arpeggios, and pro tools.

Writing your own songs is overrated.

lol, and so is being able to capably play an instrument..unfortunately.

It is disturbing when you realize that you have more musical talent than many of those hitting the top 40 these days though. How far the bar has dropped.

And people just eat it right up because they're stupid as hell.

Modern pop music is garbage. Didn't need a study to know that.

Justin Timberlake
Sam Smith
Rihanna
Ariana Grande
Pharrell Williams
Dizzee Rascal
Bruno Mars
Adele
Jessie J
Carly Rae Jepsen
Avicii
Miley Cyrus
Naughty Boy
John Newman

Cliff Richard
Wings
John Travolta & Olivia Newton John
Rod Stewart
Roy Orbison
Engelbert Humperdinck
Tom Jones
Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Elvis Presley
The Everly Brothers
Gary Glitter
Leo Sayer

I know which list of chart toppers I am siding with.

I meant writing you own music as in writing a musical composition, you know, something as simple as knowing how to compose a song around a musical scale. I'm not looking for anything enlightening when I listen to pop music other than a good beat....but your right, they are writing their own lyrics oh yes...yes ..yes they are. :)





Me to..

Michael Jackson
The Police
Duran Duran
U2
Depeche Mode
Men At Work
Billy Idol
Def leppard
Prince
Cyndi Lauper
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Donna Summer
Blondie

I did say there had been a turn around in pop music, and Pharrell Williams is awesome! and to my knowledge he actually wrote "Happy"!!!

but I am glad you brought up Rihanna because she is one of those artists who constantly relies on sampling as a result of her inability to write her own music. For this song she sampled Soft Cell's tainted love for her beat



Which was originally done fabulously by Gloria Jones in the 60's




Covered by Soft Cell who were actually able to play their own instruments when they covered it in the 80's.



and now the modern pop version of sampled music with people who cannot play instruments, so rely on a dj mixing, with the ole so "wonderful" Pussycat Dolls.




This is not an anti pop argument, this is an argument supported by scientific evidence that modern pop music has been in a creative and compositional decline, until of late.

But if you would rather support crappy artists that rely on sampling than their own talent, than Goofle, by all means go ahead, I guess the rest of us will have to suffer. :(

Let's all apply the scientific method to music! That's really fun. I already love music but I love it even more when it's paired with statistics and algorithms!

I'd probably take my list over that tbh.

If your going to make an argument than it should always be backed by valid evidence, otherwise its simply just an opinion. :)

Art is different. Art shouldn't be looked at mathematically. Arguments need evidence but when it comes to what moves people the most, the cold and calculating approach is ridiculous.

I understand your argument but music has often been open to scientific critique over the years, take Theodore Adorno for instance.

If I had come on here with a post declaring that modern pop music is $hit without providing any scientific evidence, I would have been shot down quite quickly, because it simply would have been viewed as a ranting opinion.

I personally believe that rise of sampling and arpeggios in music has led to a decline in the creativity of pop music. To me its a serious problem when artists are getting signed who cannot write their own musical compositions, which is why were hearing more and more redundant rhythms and beats.

In short Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga can compose and play their own music, Rihanna and Britney Spears cannot. It makes a world of difference to me when I listen to their songs.

I did my own study and this is what I found. groundbreaking stuff imo

http://s14.postimg.org/5aut1hutt/Screenshot_44.png

wow

I already mentioned the million song data set last year on this thread, post #26:

http://www.musicbanter.com/pop/70178...sterday-3.html

I may as well have not bothered. But then, when I read remarks from jerk offs who only seem to appear on threads they claim to hate, I don't know why they bother either.

I realize there have been a lot of threads dumping on modern music but that is not my sole intent.

This isn't about the old versus the young, its about the general decline in pop music due to manufactured pop artists that cannot compose their own music.

When you have pop artists relying on dj's to use samples and arpeggios to make your music, your going to have more and more music sounding redundant and the same as LL points out in the study.

I did say there has been a turn around, (Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams, Goyte, Foster the People ect) but there is still a widespread culture in the corporate music world to simply sign an artist based on their image, and hire a producer to slap together a crappy sampled R & B or dance beat and run their vocals through pro tools because they can't do it on their own.

Honestly, this couldn't be more accurate. I've seen at least 3 threads today that are bashing modern music. We get it.

Numbers don't lie.

Well if modern pop music was good than there wouldn't be so much discontent.

In addition to scientific studies, its also the continuous topic of concern amongst music magazines, entertainment sites, blogs and the such...

The Quality Of Popular Music Has Declined - Starpulse.com

How Mediocrity Became the Music Industry Status Quo

Good lord just shut up about all the facts and blog posts and whatever. Who gives a **** if there is discontent about a genre or about what modern music is, if you don't like it, don't listen to it. Don't throw pointless pieces of information down people's throats in order to possibly make a point, especially when its about music which is easily the most opinionated subject on earth. You're not saying anything that hasn't been said before and it all just boils down to....if you don't like it, don't bother with it. It's really that easy.

F that, its my post and I can bloody well write what I want! I didn't ask you to read or respond to it.

I made this thread because I like pop music and I'm generally concerned about the decline in its quality. So I'll throw as many stats as I want, if you don't like it tough, so once again....

Pop music too loud and all sounds the same: official | Reuters

The Quality Of Popular Music Has Declined - Starpulse.com

How Mediocrity Became the Music Industry Status Quo

Status Quo? Perfect example of how rubbish music has always been.

There are a few good pop songs that slip through the net, but overall I'm in agreement. Most of the money is pumped into the style and marketing of the artist, that the actual music can take a back seat.

/thread

What would you say to someone who likes a great deal of modern pop?

If I am out in a bar/club with a bunch of people dancing/drinking I want the garbage from the top list(edited). I don't care how much quality or work was put into to making pop music "back then", bottom line is it doesn't suit the environment nearly as well for me.

All right guys I concede defeat and throw in the towel. I realize I haven't been on here in a while and that there's apparently been a lot of anti "modern pop" threads, but I wasn't expecting this kind of push back, indeed I thought the opposite was going to happen.

Thus I'll leave you with some opinions of people who are much more qualified than myself on the subject.

Soundgarden's Chris Cornell: "Contemporary Pop Music Couldn't Be Any Worse Than It Is Now" | Guitar World

Sir Elton John brands modern songwriters 'pretty awful' - News - Music - The Independent

and of course this legend

Tony Bennett criticizes modern pop songs: "Most of them are terrible" - Music News - Digital Spy

and finally the pop music on the radio I miss that was composed by musichans and had a sense of feeling to it. Feel free to rip it apart, its pretty much dead now anyways, I'm out.

I like older pop and modern pop.

You don't need science to figure out the music of today is not up to par all one has to do is listen to a hour of oldies on the radio to confirm your suspicions.........

I want to like modern music, but in general it all sounds so... fake. A lot of the old stuff does, too. I just really love live music, the power that comes from an honest and unpolished performance, which is why I love sloppy music like Garage Rock so much. As soon as I hear people with voices altered to sound as perfect as possible, or that auto-tuning that the radio loves so much, I just get bored to tears. But it would seem that the majority of music listeners disagree with me, which is fine.

I never know if something I like is old or new until after I've listened. My darling puts on music that he says I will like (and since he knows my taste, he knows in advance if I will), and then I rate it, and then he tells me if it's old or new.

I just heard Metallica for the first time about a month ago. I liked it. I like Anais Mitchell, too, and she is new.

More on topic, I think the older music is skewed to the "better" end of the scale because all of the forgettable, crappy songs have been ... forgotten.

I like some new stuff... I also like some old stuff... Amy Winehouse comes to mind.

Me too, i don't really get the mindset of "Music used to be better in my days"
i mean i get most of us have a fav decade in music or genre but it doesn't mean the rest of it is crap.

When I initially made this thread I admitably was just trying to stir the pot & get a rise out of people. At the time there seemed to be a lot of sucking up to the mods going on, so I thought it would be fun to go around and take the piss out of people, but ultimately realized I'm getting too old to pull this $hit, so I'm back to being polite.

Nevertheless, I provided shreds of evidence and no one who argued against me provided a single shred of counter evidence.

Pop music too loud and all sounds the same: official | Reuters

Scientific study proves that today’s pop music really does suck | Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog

The Quality Of Popular Music Has Declined - Starpulse.com

How Mediocrity Became the Music Industry Status Quo

http://http://mic.com/articles/95260/how-the-music-industry-is-brainwashing-you-to-like-bad-pop-songs

Soundgarden's Chris Cornell: "Contemporary Pop Music Couldn't Be Any Worse Than It Is Now" | Guitar World

Sir Elton John brands modern songwriters 'pretty awful' - News - Music - The Independent

Tony Bennett criticizes modern pop songs: "Most of them are terrible" - Music News - Digital Spy

Its not that I'm against modern pop music, I'm just opposed to rise of manufactured pop artists that permeated the music industry for the decade of the 2000's, but I did say things were getting better.

If go back in time to say the 80's (this is considered pop's high mark for a lot of people) virtually all the artists from Michael Jackson, to Duran Duran, extra, had to have some degree of musical talent & had to be able to compose their own music. There was no pro tools or wide spread sampling

When R&B took over pop with artists like Britney Spears & Usher, you had the rise of pop stars who relied on sampling & image because they couldn't compose their own songs, and utilized pro tools because they couldn't sing.

I think the reliance on sampling resulted in a huge drop in the quality in pop songs.

So I guess you would say it not old versus new, but the authentic versus the manufactured. Anyways I'm out, cheers

There is a lot more variety with todays modern mainstream, as compared to the 70s for example.
Elton John was about as rock orientated as pop music got during the 70s.

Modern mainstream includes Metalcore bands like Hellyeah (as one small example) that stray off from their original roots and churn out radio friendly singles like their most current release Moth
(which gets a lot of air play).

Thats without holding into account all the rap, electronica, rnb/funk, and hip hop orientated pop music to choose from.

I agree with some of your points William, especially about writing your own stuff and how sampling ruined the quality of music a bit.

At least personally i prefer if they call it cover and do the song justice rather than just stealing it's catchy hook.
that's fine for a party song i guess but to me it seems like a cheap way to make a hit.

I don't however agree with your mindset even if 5 articles do so, like Necro mention, we have more variety nowadays.
Past music is still revered and it was great for what it was but we can't keep making that kinda music forever, music adapts to the times and right now we're living in a time where technology is at the forefront of almost anything, so yea, a kid with a music program doesn't need to know how to play the guitar in order to arrange a guitar riff in a song all he needs is a basic knowledge of song arrangement.

That's good no matter how you cut it cause it's a gateway to use their creativity in music, hopefully they'll pick up an instrument later on

Which is why I love math rock...

a lot of really inane modern shit plays on the overhead radio at my store and there's this one song where you'd almost swear the lyrics were "shove it in my ass, silver lining" but you can't really tell since the vocalist sounds like they're fucking dead.

then there's this other crap where the only thing I remember is some whiny-ass piece of shit singing "say it isn't so!" and all I can think is "I know, right? I can't believe someone made you believe you were fit to be a musician..."

It's all so boring, it makes me sick.

I agree with all of these articles. Now get off my fucking lawn. Damn kids.

Well thank goodness the bright lights of the music industry -****ing Tony Bennett, Elton John, and Chris Cornell - have came out and enlightened everyone about the state of pop today. I've been eagerly awaiting their input.

You're right. Maybe it's good when applied to music, but not music criticism!

I thought you loved dead vocalists :D

There's lots of really great music out there today, as well as underground popish stuff, but I'm not a fan of modern mainstream pop music.