Pop music rant.

[TZ]

So I have been watching American Idol (yeah yeah I know, but occasionally they do find real talent like Jennifer Hudson, David Cook, and Chris Daughtry) and I think it shows the whole problem with Pop Rock today. Its ALL about image and fame and looks and NOT about the music. I was shocked by how many of these so called "singers" are not at all musicians. I give for example the idiot who thought making the Rolling Stones song "Under my Thumb" into a Reggae song was a good idea! Now I have found lately some songs that you wouldn't think would work can be covered in a different genre ( I recently found a reggae cover of John Denver's "Country Road" by Toots and the Maytals thats fantastic) but how in the hell anybody would think a Stones song or at least this Stones song would work like this shows me its someone with no musical ability outside of being able to generally stay on key while singing.
Then there was the girl who got kicked off..she did a horrid version of "Ruby Tuesday". She was so eager to make the song "her own" that she fucked it up bad..she made the slow parts fast and the fast parts slow and it was a mess musically although she stayed on key I suppose.

Maybe its the Brittney Spears effect where it seems that people figure as long as you can kind of sing, have autotune and dress sexy and look sexy you can succeed..quality of music being least important.
Hell, even groups I thought at first sounded good, fall into the trap of doing stuff thats dumb but sellable (I'm looking at you Fergy/Black Eyed Peas--talented but what the fuck is "My Humps" "London Bridge" and that crap?)
I guess then its no surprise that I find the small independent bands, who perform in local clubs and probably have little to no chance of becoming mainstream successes the most entertaining and talented of late.
I dunno. Maybe its me getting older, but I really find more and more that I find todays pop/rock music basically unlistenable.
Give me my 70's Rock, 80's pop or my indie music in the Ska/Reggae/Rocksteady field....
:rant:
Oh and YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN....:P

[MiddleFingerMom]

1. I just think something monumental was missed...

.
... when NO punk band ever covered John Philip Sousa.
.

[TZ]

4. heh.

A couple of weeks ago my mother told me about my dad ordering this record.."The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Sings the songs of John Phillip Sousa"...Seriously!

[MiddleFingerMom]

11. I am once more...

.
... made to appear an idiot by Mormon punks.
.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Nice post, Symarip. nt

[TZ]

3. Yes I figured I was going to sound like him

But I have to say (and someone should bookmark this cause I'm not about to say this again anytime soon) I've found out of late there is a lot of truth in what he says about music...

[Zomby Woof]

5. Speaking of the Stones and reggae

"Start Me Up" was originally written by Jagger and Richards in the late 70's as a reggae piece, but they couldn't get it to work. They shelved it for awhile, and when they got around to recording 'Tattoo You' in 1981, they dusted it off and made it a straight rocker.

As for your rant, I have felt that way about pop crap since the early 80's. It's just as bad as it ever was.

[TZ]

6. Interesting piece of trivia!

It does confirm that Jagger and Richards do have a good ear for what works.

[mcctatas]

7. Damn you!

you know what you did! :eyes:

[TZ]

9. My job is done!!!

:patriot:

[Initech]

8. The other day on the Kevin & Bean show, they were railing on this singer Ke$ha...

My god, that has to be the worst music I've ever heard in my entire life, and that's saying a lot!' That's like American Idol - look pretty enough and use an Autotune = instant music career.

That's why I stick to metal.

[TZ]

10. Oh I saw her ON AI the other night!

She was AWFUL and she had on this Native American looking ugly headdress thing singing some piece of music appropriately titled "Blah blah blah"! :puke:

[some guy]

13. bla bla bla?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U015Qh4k9I

more reggae

all I know about Ke-dollar sign- ha is she has a silly name.

[TZ]

14. I don't think this is the same song.

I could be wrong, I switched it off rather quickly and tuned out...
This is nice though. I don't think I've heard anything from Toots and the Maytals that I don't love...

[some guy]

16. I don't know either

there are some Ke-dollar sign-ha videos on you tube that have the same name, but I refuse to watch them.

I decided upon first seeing that name that that person had a career I was going to ignore.

[Initech]

18. Yeah really, how is that music????

:puke:

[Odin2005]

20. WHAT? I love Kesha! Those bastards!

[Iggo]

12. They addressed this on an episode of The Brady Bunch, I think.

So there's no way it can be The Britney Spears effect when it was already happening to "Johnny Bravo" before she even got bornded.

(On a side note, way back in the 80s when I was learning to play guitar, we had a theory that ANY rock song could be made into a reggae song. I don't remember its being proven wrong, but we weren't big Stones guys, either.)

[RainDog]

21. ur American Idol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FprR_LNSU

I hates it. Makes me want to go all Iggy Pop on the world.

This is what I want to see on American Idol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM9b3uUQ2zI

[Symarip]

15. Yeah, I agree

There's really no recourse. It's similar to the political realm where a bad policy is put into place decades ago, and then other policies are built around shoring up the initial bad policy and everything is in a state of constant fail. For example, the whole premise of American Idol is complete bullshit. The idea that somehow a reality show + beauty pageant = viable and sustainable artistry is beyond me. Yet people expect it to consistently churn out success when by and large, their output is disaster.

Though, to completely place blame on just one aspect of the system, like AI would be unfair. Music, from my vantage point, is in a death spiral and it's not just the bad people in Hollywood's fault. No one wants to pay for art, and I'm not just talking Napster. Music Education is on the chopping block of every school system facing budget cuts, along with many other non-football related activities. And this is not the only deficit when talking dollars and cents. People don't pay for live entertainment anymore, either (and the club promoter writing this knows it). Blame it on Playstation or the internet or television or karaoke or all of the above - I don't know. But this is where we're at: no one pays for the music they listen to, no one pays for people to learn music, no one pays for aspiring or established professional musicians so they can afford a sustainable career or income.

And no one can be bothered.

Now, couple the above situation with the media onslaught going on: AI, MTV, 24 hour entertainment, etc. I mean, these entities have always existed in some form to prey on the ignorant. Remember The Monkees television show? Same shit, different decade - pure pop bullshit with no substance. But at least in earlier times it was less frequent, taken less seriously, and there were other systems in place to compensate. Now all that was is gone or going fast and there's nothing to replace it. So it's almost Orwellian in that mediocre is the new good.

So here's the problem, as I see it. Youtube, computer recording programs, music on the internet, television - it's all free or low cost and all could be great tools for learning and success. But this generation and the generation after this has no compass and no support structure. We're failing them. I hate being pessimistic when it comes to music because it really is a passion of mine but I've been faced with these issues for years and for lack of a better cliche, it is what it is.

For everyone reading this, consider this: in 15 years kids will have no idea who The Beatles are or why they were so great. Anything other than whatever meld of 'pop' is being pushed on us will be pretty much forgotten (jazz, reggae, blues, you name it). Unless something fundamentally changes this will be the world our kids (not mine, yours - I don't spawn) live in.

[TZ]

17. Interesting analysis

I will say that some of the games like Guitar Hero/Rock band are actually getting kids interested in learning to play instruments (BB's son is learning guitar because of those games) so maybe there is hope yet. It seemed like when I was growing up everyone learned to play at least one instrument (I played viola, fwiw) but it seems like too many kids are busy with other things now to bother with something thats going to be at best a hobby for most people...

[RainDog]

23. Musicians keep music alive

my kids know all about the Beatles and Bob Marley and The Who and REM and Jimi Hendrix, and even Madness and The Specials and Oingo Bongo and The Sex Pistols and Pink Floyd ... and etc. - because they learned from dear old mom.

They had to get old enough to get some of it, but when they did, they bowed before me in thanks for being the bodacious momster that I am. (okay, that's a lie. I constantly tell them to bow before me when they talk about music they like that I had them listening to long ago but they look at me like I'm crazy and walk away.)

If parents listen to shit, their children are likely to listen to shit too. Kids grow up. I was SO glad when my kids started to detest the pop hits station. But I didn't stop them from listening to whatever they liked. I also did major martyr time with Raffi.

Musicians respect the great players and writers - real musicians, not pop singers. I know kids who love Ornette Coleman because they play trumpet, etc.

And trends in music come and go. We didn't get Bob Dylan until we got the bomb and people who looked at Pat Boone singing Tutti Frutti and seriously asked: whatthefuck.

There are still lots of people doing good work. They just aren't on AI or tv. That's the beauty of going to clubs. Way better than a big concert, to me. And better music.

[MilesColtrane]

35. The Beatles?

Aren't they like...a video game?

I think they had Mario on drums.

(shudder)

[vi5]

19. Pop music has always been this way....

Nothing going on right now is any more or less worse than top 40/pop music has been since there has been popular music.

Yes, it doesn't make sense to make these pop singers do the "rock thing" as it's a totally different animal.

But seriously there has always been rock music and independent music and all this other stuff, which runs parallel to the pop world. It may be slightly more segregated now than it used to be, but what is pop music now is really no worse than what was derided as horrible pop music in the 80's or the 70's or the 60's.

Most people just don't take music all that seriously other than just some background noise or pop culture reference points.

I'm a rabid, rabid music fan and I don't listen to any pop music in particular. But I recognize that it's not for me. It's not marketed at me, and it's not intended for me to buy. So why would I care either way?

My 9 year old watches American Idol, and whatever else we want to say about it, seeing certain classic songs performed on that show has made her more interested in and receptive to the originals which she then listens to and learns and loves. Much more so than when her 40 year old father goes "Hey...you have to hear this song...it's so great." which would and should be eye roll inducing to any young kid.

[gmoney]

22. Not sure if autotune is worse than the Mariah Carey/Whitney Houston histrionic squeals

Where you couldn't just sing a phrase, but you had to try to run two octaves while singing the phrase.

[RainDog]

24. that vocal style has become a total cliche.

and thus void of emotional resonance.

[gmoney]

26. People thought it showed vocal range... I think it just shows indecision.

Sort of like when someone asked Johnny Cash's guitarist Luther Perkins why he didn't play up and down the neck like other flashy guitarists... "Well, they're lookin' for it, and I've already found it."

[JonLP24]

25. I like Jordin Sparks myself

I admit a hometown bias on that one but I think she's good. Did the national anthem in conference title games the last 2 years, MLB All-Star game, and maybe a Super Bowl but I'm not sure. Also performed at Obama's inaugural as well.

[nickinSTL]

27. Black Eyed Peas have some really dumb songs

and Fergie's London Bridge, too.

My humps is vaguely amusing, and if you haven't seen the Alanis Morrissette parody of it, I highly recommend it- it's hilarious (although I suspect it wouldn't be if you hadn't seen the original)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRmYfVCH2UA

[Beaverhausen]

28. The Brittney Spears effect started years ago with Madonna

I blame her for all bad music.

[Phentex]

33. Oh, I agree! ?If you hear an earlier song...

she sounds like one of the chipmunks. She was about the clothing and videos then and while she did transform herself over the years, we'll never know if she can actually sing.

[pink-o]

29. Oh, C'mon! Admit it, Everyone: you LOVE Lady GaGa!

Actually, I think she's pretty great. I love the Killers, Gorillaz and Offspring a lot too. And I'm an old lady. The first song I remember lovin' in the Top 40 was Dusty Springfield's "Wishing and Hoping" when I was 9 years old in 1964. I was lucky enough to be a kid with open ears during the British Invasion and Motown. I went to every club in London and the Bay Area in the 80s and got to see Punk morph into New Wave and experience The Clash, The Jam, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, et al. In my mid-30s, I was a huge fan of Grunge, by 40 I thought "Live" walked on water.

So keep an open mind, People! AI is not my fave, cuz I prefer organically grown music that germinates in Mom's Garage, but however talented people can be heard, I won't judge it.

[SoxFan]

31. Lady GaGa is outsmarting us all

I've seen clips of her performing as an NYU student, without the costumes and theatrics. She's actually a talented singer and pianist, whose natural inclination seems to be towards Norah Jones/Sarah McLachlan/Regina Spektor territory. The goofy schtick gets her noticed and makes the money, but I suspect at some point she will have the financial wherewithal to dial it back and return to her musical roots.

[nickinSTL]

30. ok. I find Black Eyed Peas amusing. However...

I just made the mistake of checking the Billboard Top 100.
http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100#/charts/hot-100

:wtf:

The stuff in the Top 10 is terrible.

"Telephone" by Lady Gaga & Beyonce is BY FAR the best song. And it's not my favorite Lady Gaga song. Not the worst I've heard either, but not great. The next one down (way down, IMO) is the crappy "Imma Be".

Man. Maybe I'm getting old and crotchety about music, too.

[arod_5450]

32. can't stand pop

[MilesColtrane]

34. "Idol" is the equivalent of a national high school talent show.

The best, or most musical, performers rarely win those either.