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Has Pop Music Lost Its Fun?


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Interesting article over at the BBC that looks at pop music over the past 50 years and a number of studies that have been undertaken to analyze that music. They have five main points in the article:

 

  1. Pop music has become sadder and slower over the years - more use of minor chords and slowing tempo
  2. It has become simpler and louder - fewer and simpler chord progressions and increasing louder
  3. It has become antisocial and angry - focused more on the individual "I" instead of the community "we"
  4. More repetitive - an increase in repeating the same words over and over
  5. The perspective that older music is better - 39% of people age 18-29 voted 2010 worst year for pop music, people over 30 voted 2010 worst at 43%, so the perspective is not just 'old timers nostalgia".

 

 

At the end, they conclude that the quicker a song becomes more familiar (more repetitive, simpler to understand), the quicker a listener will recognize it and play it again. That they equate to pop music being more fun than ever. (Seems like a stretch to me, given the information in the majority of the article).

 

You can read the entire article at https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles...6-953e8a083334

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[*]The perspective that older music is better - 39% of people age 18-29 voted 2010 worst year for pop music, people over 30 voted 2010 worst at 43%, so the perspective is not just 'old timers nostalgia".

 

 

Hahaha, I see what they did. Those rascals. They didn't poll the only age range that matters. The only group that will EVER matter is age range 7-17. That's it. That's all that has ever mattered. From any angle one does a music poll from. That's where the buying power is (with parental help at some stages), that's where the brain synapses register the first music the human will remember for a lifetime, and that is when the fact to face social interactions are beginning and then clicking into high gear.... anchored by the music playing at the time. Once a human hits 18, they're outta the polls (musicians though will stay somewhat connected into their midlife due to the normal dysfunction that hooks we musicians early.... another topic).

 

When you're 7-17, EVERYTHING you hear is new. MUCH of it seems wonderful. NONE OF IT CAN BE TRACED TO EARLIER MUSIC.... which is VERY important in the "I'm not jaded yet" category that is so vital to commerce.............

 

As an example.....as an 8yr old, you're not saying "wtf Mom, these guys at the iHeart concert are all doing songs ripped off from chord changes/melodies of songs from 19**. Or..... wtf Dad, why does every single stupid song I hear have rounds and rounds of "oh-oh-oh-ohohoh-oh-oh" all through them? Or..... wtf Grandma, I'm 9yrs old and fifteen new records just came out this week using the same f****** kalimba part that Ed Shreehan uses.... and gramma.... even THAT is ripped off from..... etc.

 

If 8yr olds were REALLY savvy, pop music would be in sad shape. But as it is, all is okay. Old people (who should never be polled about music) get to the point where they realize, "hey, everything is cliche', derivative, ripped off, re-used... and JUST as the oldsters start to unleash the valuable info on the world..... they die.

 

Convenient. Nature''s way of keeping C-F-G available and new. To the 7yr olds of course.

 

7-17 years old. Everything is hunky dory to them. As it should be. The 18000 Am-to-fmaj7-to-C-to-G songs that were released this week are in safe havens.

 

If music isn't fun any more, it's because you're not 7. So you don't count. That's the law.

 

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When I was 6 years old, I was listening to Spike Jones, Danny Kaye, and Gilbert & Sullivan. By the time Elvis came on the scene, I was too busy with ham radio to bother listening to the radio. But then I've never been like "everybody else."

 

When I was talking with the Fraunhoffer folks at CES about the possibility of doing at least a basic surround mix using a sound bar, I brought up that I probalby wouldn't be needing one in my listening room since most of the music I listen to now was recorded before about 1945.

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My Dad had all those Spike Jones records in 45s...you could spot them from the rest of the records because they were bright yellow.

He also had the Redd Foxx party records that came out when my parents had company...

High Balls being sipped and raucous laughter at benign sexual innuendo.

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I think a lot of music these days takes itself too seriously. <...snip...>

 

I tend to agree. I always say that we PLAY music, and I take that play seriously.

 

Perhaps because we want a perfect recording? Perhaps because people have become to critical today? I don't really know, all I can do is guess. But there doesn't seem to be as much fun in the music today. It seems that people are indeed taking themselves too seriously and not letting loose with abandon and PLAYing the music.

 

But that could be just me.

 

Notes

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I suspect this is a symptom of hard times. Music that is popular generally reflects the emotional attitude of the people. Increasingly poor, angry, disaffected people everywhere are sick of being told what to like and what to think. Pop Music has always had at it's core a marketing machine that concentrated on doing exactly that.

 

You might say the 'Misery Quotient' is higher now than it has been in many decades.

https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/lifestyle/formula-rates-our-misery-quotient-1689227

 

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