pop music & faux passion

[Hard Truth]

One of the things that seems to distinguish contemporary mainstream pop is the unrelenting faux passion. I was recently subject to a radio station that played nothing but contemporary pop ballads. In every song the singer and arrangements would build up to a moment of such intense romantic passion that it required holding the notes and warbling with great intensity. The music seemed to be primarily derived from show tunes and gospel.

 

Perhaps in response to all of these histrionics, one of the qualities of many of the alternatives to pure pop is a certain emotional detachment or coolness (relatively). I would say that one of the characteristics of more sophisticated music listeners is that they are not conned by the mechanics of faux passion so prevalent in today's pop music.

 

What is the difference between the faux passion of Whitney Houston, Michael Bolton etc and the great singers who seem to exude genuine emotion?(i.e. James Brown, Arethra Franklin, Peter Gabriel) I don't know, but I sure can tell the difference when I hear it.

[Billster]

In theater they say "Drama is life with the boring parts taken out."

 

Think about it, would you listen to a song that honestly addressed the reality of complex, loving relationship in great detail?

 

He leaves the seat up

But I love him anyway...

 

Um, no.

 

So part of the product is refining the dry stuff out and leaving the excitement in.

 

Now, there are different ways to create the refinement, some more subtle than others.

 

My opinion is that the real problem is when the target consumers of the over-the-top stuff you describe think that the songs are exactly like real life, and dammit where a my flowers, rose petal bubble baths, and champagne breakfasts every...

[MorePaul]

and champagne breakfasts every...

 

 

Well you eventually have to shift to screwdrivers

 

after a decade or so of that, you find yourself drinking phillips-head screwdrivers (milk of magnesia and vodka) just to get out of bed

[Magpel]

I think what happened was that some people were singing a song. It started to swing hard. One singer got really worked up, forgetting where and even who he was. Suddenly, the song was singing him rather than the other way around. Everyone agreed it was really cool, so then everybody started doing it all the time.

[meccajay]

faux passion? warbling? histrionics?

 

Now I don't want to defend pop music for goodness sakes, and yeah, there's a lot of 'faux' passion in Pop, but I would hesitate to say that Whitney Houston is not(was not?) a great singer simply because she's doing pop? I would say she's a world class singer who happens to be in the pop genre.. My question would be, have you heard her sing gospel? It's like a sonic typhoon unleashed... It's intense, emotional(real), artistic, and will give you chills. These days Whitney is a mess, but I personally don't think there's a thing Aretha can sing that Whitney couldn't do in her prime. Areatha's jazz albums included. I'd still like Areatha's renditions better, and you probably would to, but Whitney could indeed hang.

 

Warbling/Histrionics- Ive said it before, there called RUNS. If it's a bad singer it's may be warbling or whatever, but a great singer hitting the notes cleanly and on key, then it called doing runs. The same runs a sax player would play.

 

James Brown Live at the Apollo(vol1)= A GREAT example of gospel/blues runs. Whitney Houston live with a gospel choir= Another great example of gospel/blues runs. David Samborn playing Maputo or Straight to the Heart live= great gospel/blues runs. etc etc.

 

And for the record, it takes just as much work and dedication for a good singer to master runs as it does a good guitarist, or pianist. The only differance is that the guitarist/pianist can tell you what scale and key he was using, and the singer most likely will not be able to(singers like Billy Joel or Stevie Wonder would be the exception).

 

On the other hand..um, 98% of pop sucks.

[nat whilk II]

Well, if you start shooting down pop music (meaning "pop" as a big label containing rock, R&B, show tunes, standards, etc) for being pretentious, you can't be too harsh or there will be almost no one left standing.

 

But I get your point - there's a lot of stock, ritual, boring emotional buildup in the pop crooner genre. I think of Kenny G as the king of this stuff - with the sax instead of vox.

 

Still, I like to think of a good song as a song that simultaneously satifies your expectations (ie, predictable) and surprises your expectations (ie, innovative). So the idea of "stock" is essential to music, pop music especially.

 

But when it's all stock, it's basically a waste of time, 'tho casual listeners probably won't notice how totally un-creative and phony it is.

 

And emotional poses are part of the stock in trade. The sarcastic ex-lover - the angry young man - the hopelessly in love fool - the girl dancing on top of the world - the angsty alienated emo - on and on.

 

I guess all I'm saying is that I don't want to write something off just because it's using the same old emotional buildup to the "here's where it's intense" part. It's just another bit of stock - the issue is whether it's stock used with innovation, whether something besides the dead form is getting through. That's the "honesty" part of what I think of as a good song.

 

FWIW - I'm not really disagreeing with you, just ruminating like I always do.

 

nat whilk ii

[blue2blue]

I love gospel (and old school musicals, too, for that matter as well as classic Aretha and other classic soul singers like Otis Redding) but the tendancy to oversing by modern pop singers is extremely offputting to me.

 

The only oversinger I've liked in the last couple decades was Nina Hagen...

 

 

 

[Magpel]

"Going to church," they call that overwrought and incessant melisma that is modern pop and R&B singing, and my problem is that it seems so...unwarranted most of the time. When you start at 10, where can you go? Why, 11 of course.

 

I think the mistake is calling it passion when it is merely style. Convention. Learned and imitated. It is seldom apportioned or appropriate to the lyrical content and pretty much always just a simple, natural expression of the joy of singing. Why? 'Cause I can. Unbreak my heart.

 

I think mature singers modulate it better, and every now and then, it is "real."

[Deef]

It's the 360 degree slam dunk.

 

It's the home run trot.

 

It's the dancing stride before you get into the end zone.

 

It's showing off. It's taunting. It's a challenge. "This is what I've got". It's not an expression of anything. It's a demonstration.

 

The greatest expressor of emotions in music was Billie Holiday. She invited you closer and shared her story.