Why mainstream music is so awful

[Queso]

I think the brain hungers for abstract patterns.

 

I think that through rhythmic exercises, you can further evolve your own self.

 

I think that by being exposed to music is like lifting weights for the brain.

Once you exercise on a daily basis, you'll be free to climb mountains, beat people up better, lift cars, and do all sorts of amazing things you couldn't do before you exercised.

 

All this Pop, though . .

 

4/4 with an intro, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, (Insert either verse, outro, or verse, outro, Here OK)

 

The same pattern I've heard a billion times. It rarely differs from that structure.

 

Then, arrange some cute keys that are known to work well together.

 

Pick your synths, and go.

 

Bang out something new to chew for all of you.

 

working in NYC (Sony music production studios on 50th ave) and seeing how everything is made in various small rooms in a few skyscrapers with one Midi controlling keyboard, one mixing board, and a computer

I just lost all respect for the main stream of music that flows inthru the television and radio.

It's not real. It's made like any other product-

For the consumer.

 

Real music happens in the moment.

Think Hendrix, Davis, and the bum

with a 12 string @ the bay.

 

Some are able to transcend their (let's call it Chi for the hell of it) through tangible vibrations, and document them. Ressurected, push play.

 

Make a fire bring family and instruments.

Play.

(and I mean Reeallly play. Dredg thou soul. Lose all ego. Chant. Howl.)

THEN LISTEN TO THE FIRE

 

I usually hear music.

 

In the waves, too.

 

Totally transforms the psyche.

 

It is magick, a projection.

 

An aura of intent.

 

Think Koto full moon flamenco

drone strings and whispers

ascending all bridges to

ecstacy.

 

(word)

 

p.s. I'm listening to my stomache growl which sounds like a futuristic and organic alien door on a spaceship opening for unfathomable sentients because I've been listening to psytrance all day.

[skuzie]

I agree with ya there man thats why im 'trying' to get something different out there, for me its like creating perfect math formula while i sequence my stuff, i love it! Although the real talent is being able to play live with several people and working as a whole while improv.

 

And there is the classical which is truely amazing like Chopin and Mozart those guys dedicated their whole lives to the persuit in creating masterpieces, people dont have that sort of inspiration and serenity these days to replicate this sort of talent.

[pgrmdave]

Hey, some of my favorite music is pop! It may not be the most complex music, but Yellow Submarine is a great song!

 

4/4 with an intro, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus

 

Are you describing pop music, or instrumental marches?

Don't forget to add a flat at the bridge!

[Buffy]

I thought this was an interesting topic: I think pop music today is awfully sucky.

 

Salon picked up on this today with this:

For the first time this past weekend, I saw the new commercial for the "Major League Baseball 2K7" PlayStation 3 game that features Nirvana's "Breed" as its primary music. The ad is the first fruit of Courtney Love's recent sale of 25 percent of her stake in Nirvana's catalog to record industry mover and shaker Larry Mestel. I'm not one of those people who think using rock songs in ads diminishes the music in any real way, but it was still a startling experience to hear Kurt Cobain singing while a digital Derek Jeter took his cuts.

 

But listening to Cobain again -- and considering all that's come after -- raises another, more curious question: Did Generation X, the one that launched indie rock and a world of grunge, ultimately kill the rock star? Everyone remembers that "Nevermind" knocked Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" from the top of the Billboard charts back in 1992, but instead of heralding the rise of the indie, it seems more and more like Nirvana's ascent was really marking the death knell for a kind of larger-than-life rock stardom. For all their musical merits -- which to my mind are small in number -- the bands that came out of Generation X have wholesale failed to produce a genuine rock star.

It not for nothing that my kid and her 12-year old friends gravitate to Green Day (practically ready for hair transplants and walkers now), and fill their iPods with 70s and 80s music!

 

Orby: This thread was too cool to get lost in that other thread. Lemme know if you wanna change the title.

 

Where have all the flowers gone,

Buffy

[pgrmdave]

What exactly do we define as pop music today? It used to be simpler, there were fewer artists, and the big artists were far bigger (Nobody today is comparable in popularity to the Beatles, or Elvis). Pop music is generally defined as whatever genre is currently popular, but I can't think of any one dominant genre anymore. Even hip-hop/rap has lost ground, the boy bands have died out...Who would you define as a pop star today?

[Buffy]

Hey, some of my favorite music is pop! It may not be the most complex music, but Yellow Submarine is a great song!

Nah, its just *new* pop music!

 

I dare you to tell me that just because its got:

4/4 with an intro, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus

that it makes Yellow Submarine equivalent to anything by Jesse McCartney or Carrie Underwood...bleah!

 

Full speed ahead, Mr. Parker, full speed ahead! :eek2:

Buffy

[Boerseun]

Yep. Pop music bites ***. This is mostly due to it being the fruit of the labours of marketers who are simply dulpicating what's on the hit parades now, which must be what the people want! Forgetting the fact, of course, that the songs on the current hit parade is also the fruits of the labours of other marketers who did exactly the same thing. There's no inspiration in songwriting these days. For pop music, at least. There's no soul, no love, no originality. Pop music is a commodity, and is produced, packaged and punted like any other product out there. And, like any other product, they are constantly looking at ways to lower cost through mass production and any other shortcut imaginable. This, of course, brings down quality even further, but the producers won't know about it because they see music simply as products, not as art. They won't be able to tell the difference between crap and canola.

 

Early 90's grunge was good when indie-driven, but have also fallen by the wayside for the exact same reason. Listen to these new bands: They all wanna sound like Kurt, they all have these incredibly sad emotional problems, until you read the lyrics and actually listen to the music. It's crap, it's plastic, and the 'grungeness' of it is a very thin veneer of marketing, spin and simulated angst. It burns my ***.

 

I love music. But I hate crap. And this is all crap.

 

As a proof of how crap it is, think of the whole 'Idols' concept for a second. There they put on public display the whole disgusting machinery of how 'artists' (and I say 'artists' with utter contempt and disgust) are mass-produced and tailored to suit the images, dreams and aspirations that the Ideal Consumer would have. Not because they care for a second what happens to the so-called 'artist' that they have fabricated, but because they want the last dime in the Ideal Consumer's pocket. The art in music is long gone. Like Orb said in the first post, the true artists are the 12-string bums playing by the side of the road, improvising as they go along.

 

I can go on for hours about this. I won't. It's a beautiful morning, and I don't wanna stuff up my day thinking of how capitalism screwed with human creativity.

 

But one more thought, however: These guys wouldn't have been doing what they're doing if there wasn't a market for cheap, plastic, mass-produced crap. Which says a lot about the average man on the street.

 

And that not only pisses me off to the n'th degree, but saddens me immensely and make me wonder - those people supporting this whole plastic mass-produced bull is the same people voting in elections for plastic, mass-produced artifically popularised politicians who end up running our world.

 

Where do I buy my one-way ticket to Mars? :eek2:

[Queso]

Hey.

 

I never said pop music is awful. (or did I? :eek2:)

 

Pop is short for "popular"

 

And pink floyd's popular . .

 

I just like intriquit, complex, beautiful sounds and structures more so than I like simplicity.

 

:friday:

 

Why? Why do you like it so complex, Orb?

IT MAKES ME THINK!

I get deep with those thoughts I dive

so far down into my own self and flip upside down so I'm actually so

high above myself *GASPFORAIR*

 

"Yeah I be chillen in the club"

[Buffy]

Hey.

 

I never said pop music is awful. (or did I? :eek2:)

You're right! You said:

I just lost all respect for the main stream of music that flows inthru the television and radio.

It's not real. It's made like any other product-

For the consumer.

That's very different!

 

Want me to rename it? You've got a hot thread here....

 

Never mind!

Buffy

[Queso]

 

Orby: This thread was too cool to get lost in that other thread. Lemme know if you wanna change the title.

 

Where have all the flowers gone,

 

Thanks for the love :eek2:

[Tormod]

I love mainstream music, but what I perceive of as mainstream is probably not what "mainstream" people listen to. Now that probably made a lot of sense...

[Drip Curl Magic]

I've also wondered why complex structure tickles my fancy when it comes to music.

 

In all actuality, it's not really anything "better". More well thought out, maybe.

 

Just different.

[Queso]

I've also wondered why complex structure tickles my fancy when it comes to music.

 

In all actuality, it's not really anything "better". More well thought out, maybe.

 

Just different.

 

 

No way! There are so many aspects of music that need to be considered.

Now, "better" is your opinion. Mine too.

 

The difference is Intent.

The difference is Dynamics.

 

Take a melody. A simple melody.

Everyone in the world will play that melody differently.

What matters is HOW, and WHY they are playing it.

Who they are playing it with.

What room they are playing in, with what instruments and where

and what are we playing and in what time

and where will we slow down the tempo, and where

will silence happen?

How hard will I pluck this string and how far will I bend it and should I detune my E down to a D after hitting this string and slap?

 

Music, especially improvising music, seems to speed up conscious actvity.

When I am playing an instrument, like a guitar, so many thoughts are processed but they aren't slowed down or focused on.

The brain itself seems to take the wheel, and I do

what should be done.

I balance the dynamics, I focus on vibrating my intent

which is Love

through my space which is the universe.

 

I think about every possibility in every moment it feels like god

the way it comes out.

 

From every practice, from every song, from every exercise,

my individual existence radiates what I believe to be the best thing I possibly could.

 

When I feel like I suck, i get pissed off, and retreat to further my knowledge

 

to further my understanding

 

to further my freedom

 

and this is what music is to me.

 

This beautiful, infinite pool of human potential that represents the universe and the psyche within.

[Queso]

Even hip-hop/rap has lost ground, the boy bands have died out...Who would you define as a pop star today?

 

You think hip hop has lost ground? Man it seems to me like it's the most popular form of music around.

Everyone just sits around and listens to their dumb stories about dumb drugs and girls and getting drunk dumb and it's so animalistic and unprogressive.

 

Everyone(whichisnteveryonebutALOTofpeopleOK?) likes it though 'cause it's "funny" and it has a beat. It's always changing, and it's "cool". Ahem, the songs on the radio are always changing. The beats usually stay the same.

 

I don't mind it. I think it's retarded, but at least some people dance to it.

Even though they dance as bad as the music they are dancing to.

 

Psh. Life is the best. (ABSURDATTACK!)

[pgrmdave]

FOXNews.com - Sales of Rap Albums Take Stunning Nosedive - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment

 

Rap has lost sales, and (as soon as I can find it I'll post the link) so has hip-hop.

[WuffenCuckoo]

Now do you understand what I was getting at?

[Tormod]

Now do you understand what I was getting at?

 

What are you talking about? :rolleyes: