Your Opinion on Modern Popular Music?
I'm sure most of us can agree that most of what's on the radio today sucks. What do you think about it all? Artists like Nicki Minaj and Selena Gomez and Jason Derulo dominating the pop charts? Do you think we're just in a creative rut, or this is the way things are now?
I believe things are very slowly getting better. Indie artists like Beck are flowing into the mainstream! And most importantly, some already popular artists are adopting more traditional genres of music. I think people like Bruno Mars, Adele, and Taylor Swift (I don't listen to her stuff but I do think she's better than most people out there) are our guiding lights today in the music industry. I'm sure electronic-heavy music is just a fad, and at least a decade down the road, music will be back on "track" (No pun intended (Maybe a little)).
Comments
I wouldn't say today's music is worse than any other decade. There's always a bunch of things I think aren't good that are popular mixed in with songs that I enjoy. I agree with you about Bruno Mars, Adele, and Taylor Swift having music that is pretty good. I like some songs from each of them. And, I'll concur also, that I really don't care for Nicki Minaj.
My perspective.
Mainstream Rock on Top 40 radio is pretty much dead. What's left (Imagine Dragons, etc) seem more like slightly harder synth pop.
Speaking of synthpop, I think it'll keep going strong for a few years, at least. Even if Calvin Harris and his ilk fall off, modern pop production is very heavily influenced by EDM and Trap. I personally despise Taylor Swift, but it's more over-exposure than anything else.
Mainstream Rap is in fading in popularity and most of it is garbage. Regardless, there's a few enjoyable acts of hip-hop radio. I was really pleasantly surprised by Drake's recent work and J. Cole dropped a pretty good album last year, as did ScHoolboy Q. Kendrick Lamar is one of my favorites, but he's not really that mainstream. The scourge of Iggy Azalea seems to finally be over (thank Christ), but she's been replaced on pop radio by that warbling, embarrassment-to-blind-people-everywhere, Fetty Wap and that screeching turd with that 'Watch Me' song. The Trap sub-genre (Rae Sremmurd, OG Maco, etc) is annoying, but that's already starting to go out of style.
Overall, mainstream music kind of sucks, but it could be worse. We could be in 2011 or 2006 again.
In 2006 I was 6 and listening to John Williams and The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack so I didn't pay attention that much to what was popular!
But a lot more songs are picking up an orchestral, funk, or doo-wop style, which I'm glad with!
Anything in the top 40 charts I always hear so much about is not anything I would ever want to listen to. Personally, I think it's all awful.
80's music has always been the best
It depends, some are good, some are bad. I listen to a wide variety of music, everything from underground hip hop to classical orchestral, so I find it easy to enjoy a lot of the modern stuff...but a lot of it is generic trash. Half the artists have their lyrics written for them, and don't get me started on 'popular' electronic music. All happy chords with the same structure, intro-build-'drop'-then constant, repetitive beat for the rest of the song. Bor-----ing. There's a lot better dance/electronic music out there in my eyes. The problem is, one artist releases a smash hit...then they just stay their forever. Their names are literally glued to the charts even though their music never really changes.
There's still a lot of good in modern pop, but these I just avoid: Calvin Harris, Aviici, Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azalea, Jason Derulo, Justin Bieber, David Guetta, The Weeknd, Meghan Trainor, Miley Cyrus...
and my album of this year definitely goes to Kendrick Lamar's, 'To Pimp A Butterfly'. Super glad he got a bit more of the spotlight on the charts too.
I listen to a lot of music that came out before the new 10s so there's a lot of songs I like from those eras. As for today's music, I do like some songs. Even miley cyrus is a guilty pleasure of mine.
I'd say most popular singers like Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, Eminem are all pretty shit. However, most of my fave songs are modern songs, so I can't say I hate modern music.
Eminem? Kanye? Damn
I also wouldn't call Eminem 'modern.'
Today's music is shit.
lololol oh man
He still makes music, doesn't he? So he's modern.
Personally, I cannot stand rap or hip hop music.
Neither one of them fit my personal taste.
Aside from those two genres of music, everything else sounds way too similar, there really is no diversity any longer. Music used to be very diverse and much more artistic, as in you had people writing about actual things, and writing small stories if you will, and setting them to music.
Nowadays, especially with the two aforementioned genres, you have people basically just saying words, that really have no meaning.
Not to mention the profanity in them!
I don't mean it that way...I just don't think those two are shit, opinions though.
the only modern music i listen to is in japanese and mostly vocaloid most music in english now is all about sex and money
As I was growing up I noticed the music changing but I don't really mind it, it's not bad it's just the music before was a lot better.
I definitely can't say I dislike all of it because I listen to all kinds of stuff. I have a lot of guilty pleasures in the music nowadays. Evanescence, Three Days Grace, Fall Out Boy, Marina and the Diamonds (no, it is not a band) are still pretty good to me. I still listen to Nirvana, My Chemical Romance etc....
Some of it is pretty good. A lot of it I really couldn't care for, especially "Silento" and "Drake". These days I prefer Classic Guitar from Akira Yamaoka and Jeff Williams, lovely female vocalists like Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Rachel Bloom and Casey Lee Williams, Japanese songs and the occasional Starbomb/Ninja Sex Party. But there will always be room in my heart for very select modern music.
Eminem too? That right there is an unpopular opinion. XD
i'm not interested in it, got nothing against Bruno or FOB but everyone else sucks imo
I mostly listen to indie artists and anything not in the mainstream
Music isn't dead.
One thing I've discovered over the years is to constantly diversify your musical pallet. Go out of your comfort zone little by little. First band I ever got into was System of a Down... then I started listening to other various Nu-Metal acts. After that I found that certain notes and cords in SOAD were quite prevalent in other alternative rock bands like Mindless Self Indulgence, Deftones, and Queens of the Stone Age. I branched eventually from hard rock with a rap edge to just rap. Long story short, I now listen to everything from freeform jazz to brutal death metal, from hardcore gangsta drill rap to old folk blues. If I like the way something sounds, I listen.
And as far as diversity, believe me when I say there are a fuck ton of music that sounds like nothing you've ever heard before. Creativity still blossoms in music, it's just you have to do a bit of digging to discover something you do like.
i agree and disagree with this sentiment. It's certainly true that a lot of mainstream rap tends to be pure bragging, hedonism and gangster cliches. I personally think that even these can be made into an enjoyable song by talented rapper, but they aren't for everyone.
But hip-hop in general has a long, and proud history as a storytelling genre. Sometimes the stories are profane, and often they'll push you out of your comfort zone, but they reflect a cold reality for our youth that Americans would often prefer to ignore.
Then you have artists like Earl Sweatshirt, who's work will probably be taught in your kids' poetry classes. His wordplay got me into hip hop in the first place.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=rF25_nZA2iw
I don't think all modern artists are bad. But, I mainly listen to rap/hip-hop and the majority of main stream rap artists are TERRIBLE. All you hear about is money, women, and fame in modern rap it gets old. I Mostly listen to 90s rap, or gangsta rap if you will.
Now see I could never listen to that. To me it just sounds boring. That's not to say that I don't understand what it is that he's talking about, or that I don't understand that he's turned his story into coherent verse. It's just that its not pleasing to my ears. I also have to say that if I was to listen to this sort of music that this would be what would interest me most, something with a story to it rather than just something completely generic like the top 40 music or hair metal.
You shared a musician that got you into a genre to begin with, so I'll do the same. This was one of the first metal songs I heard as a wee lad, and from the first time I heard it I knew that I needed to hear more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8qrwON1-zE
I like some of it, there are still good artists out there. I agree that a lot of pop songs are very generic, but in my opinion there's always been shitty music, it's not something exclusive to modern pop music.
It's hot garbage. All the decent music has already been made and now we just have a bunch of hacks churning out sounds.
Can't beat the Classics. I still listen to Illmatic and Ready to Die from time to time and they hold up amazingly well. Truly timeless. I've never really been a fan of west coast G-Funk though, most of it just struck me as lame (with a few notable exceptions). Are there any old school artists you like in particular.
Also, there's some really good Hip Hop being made right now by semi-mainstream and underground rappers, like Kendrick Lamar and Run The Jewels. I'd heavily recommend checking them out.
Yeah, I can see that. Earl is like Scotch or Bourbon; an acquired taste that's definitely not to everyone's liking. He's one of my favorite rappers and I still find his flow unbearably flat and monotone sometimes.
I'm definitely not a metal fan, but than song is alright.
I disagree, there are some fairly newer artists like Sabaton that produce really good music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld__BzjsxU8
Never heard of them. Thread is about pop music.
Well, my favorite old school Rap artist is 2Pac, I also listen to Ice Cube, Eazy E, Wu tang, and Big L. Those are just my favorites.
Alright Grandpa, let's get you back to the retirement home before you cause a scene.
God damnit.
"YeEaAAaAh baby!" That's all I need to hear before I start reaching for the radio dial.
Lucky you. I languished with Nickleback and terrible southern rap (Three 6 Mafia notwithstanding). At least in 2011, I had Streetlight Manifesto and Odd Future to make up for it.
From like 2004-2006, all my childhood favorites broke up or went on hiatus. System of a Down, Blink 182 and OutKast all went down the shitter. It just sucked.
See, I don't listen to rap but I do respect the older artists of the 80s and 90s because their music had meaning and feeling and passion, as well as some good lyrics! But today the genres of rap and hip-hop have merged and really become over-saturated with the same rhythms and whatnot. Not even mentioning the art that every song today has to have a bass drop or some saxophone/trumpet/electro repeating motif break.
Have you heard of Hurray for the Riff Raff or Dan Sartain by any chance? The former is a folk-indie group and the other is a electro/rock artist. Just asking, because I'm not sure what "indie" means to you, since today's definition of "indie" could mean a lot of things.
I'd partially disagree with this, as I think a lot of people are nostalgia-blind when it comes to old school rap. There were some great lyricists and producers at that time, but for every Rakim or Biggie, there were at least ten hacks with lame sampled beats and tired gangsta cliches.
Fair enough, but your distinction between Rap and Hip-Hop is incorrect. Rap is the music and Hip-hop is the culture surrounding the music. You could be forgiven for mixing it up, as the distinction is confusing, even for a hip hop head like myself.
That's because two or three rap producers pretty much have a monopoly on mainstream radio. Thankfully, the fringes of the mainstream are starting to move away from generic trap beats in favor of more creative sampling, like this.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UtZBA1bVbcs
Oh! I never knew there was a distinction (That's how foreign I am to the cultures and genres)! But thanks for the notice!