What's your biggest pet peeve of today's popular music?
Asked by
rockfan (
14627
)
July 5th, 2015
I’m watching the 33rd Annual Country Showdown, and one contestant is singing in this style. The forced, garbled, country accent just creeps me out. I wish this style was more popular.
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32 Answers
It’s derivative and sucks.
One’s taste in music—as in food, movies, literature, clothes, politics, and well, everything—is highly personal and formed by so many factors, not least early influences. I’m happy to say I love all kinds of music. “Popular music,” after all, is a whopping big category and, at least to my old ears, most certainly not all derivative and sucky… although some is, that’s for sure).
It has words. Give me instrumentals, and I’m happy.
Mmmm…seems too computerized to me. I think they just stick the singers in booth and playcomputer-generated music around them. WHERE ARE THE BANDS??
Too diverse to say. I love some, and I dislike some.
I wouldn’t know if the dialect on the first tune is forced or not. I do think the first tune noisily over produced, and the simple guitar accompaniment of the second much more tolerable. The lyrics of the first tune must ring true to every red dirt Georgia resident, regardless of the pandering.
Are there any decent lyrics in the top rated pop songs of today? If so, can someone share the names of these songs?
I love Adele! I love her voice.. The lyrics ain’t so deep, but her voice is just timeless.
@Dutchess_III I appreciate Adele’s voice as well. Unfortunately, she has fallen into the current trend of constantly singing about unrequited love that many of the male singers have fallen into.
@rockfan Thank you for providing examples that cover several musical genres. Only one convinces me that today’s songs’ lyrics equal to some of of previous decades.
All of Ed Sheeran’s songs that I’ve heard are about being jilted, including the one listed. Is there another example? What is “Sound & Color” about? “Sweet Life” is okay, but it would drive me bonkers to hear the refrain “Sweet Life” sung repeatedly. Oh Maker – another unrequited love song. “In a Week”‘s lyrics are worthy of listening to. Thank you for sharing that one. Is it considered a top rated pop song though?
Afire Love is about Ed Sheeran dealing with his grandfather’s Alzheimer’s disease, its definitely a sad song, but still really meaningful in my opinion. And In a Week technically isn’t a hit song, but his other song “Take Me To Church” is a hit song and plays on the radio frequently. Sound and Color is a simple song about life and trying to be connected with other people.
Oh Maker is not just about “unrequited love” though, it has a deeper meaning to it in my opinion
Unoriginality, artificial music, pitchcorrected voices (autotune), asinine, shallow, repetitive lyrics.
“This ain’t no Mozart.”
Music that makes money because of the flashiness of the concert over the quality of the music.
I’d pay to see Andy Mckee. I’d pay you to take Bieber tickets away from me.
Nobody appreciates the bridge anymore.
Complete lack of talent in singing, musicality, writing or stage presence.
The homogenization of the genres.
No offense, but Ryan Bingham sounds more like Bruce Springsteen than Hank Sr. and Keith Urban is basically a pop singer.
I listen to a country station most of the time and there are more and more ‘crossover’ pop songs all the time.
George Strait got it right.
Too many people are working on one song. Most pop songs now have about 15 producer/engineer credits and 5 writing credits. It’s like songs are now designed by a committee.
its hard to take any musical risks in that type of workflow. One person would have to convince a tidal wave of people to do break away from their stardard formula approach.
@ibstubro Well, Elvis and The Beatles are perfect examples of “homogenized” music, but not sure if you were only referring to country music. Personally, I love when artists blend genres, especially folk and psychedelic rock and punk and blues
It is a commercial product and the video is as important as the music.
It is overplayed on radio stations. Auto tune. Kanye West and a host of other acts that just shouldn’t make money if people had any taste of their own that wasn’t spoon fed them until they were mind controled.
The popularity of bands like Green Day, and their complete ignorance of chord progression.
@filmfann. . . Punk isn’t about chord progression.
Elvis and the Beatles were not “homogenized” in their day. Both were revolutionary and spawned a host of imitators
I still marvel at how unique Elvis was, should one of his songs come on the radio.
I would think that having a unique sound in popular music is difficult. It seems a lot of commercially successful musicians acknowledge the influence of music that came before them, and often, the influence came from genres totally different than what they’re producing.
@ibstubro > “George Strait got it right.” I hear ya. I started listening to country in the eighties during the ‘big hat’ era: George Strait, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, etc. Being my first exposure, it remains my favorite era. Then, Garth came along and gradually began the shift towards country with a rock influence, and showed the country music world what showmanship/entertainer really meant with his high energy, visually stimulating stage performances.
Green Day…punk? Nah, not having that #pistols #sham69
The thing I miss the most about today’s music is dynamic range. Bands that I enjoy are now making music that suffers from this problem.
Like it or not, Green Day was the beginning of punk’s revival in the 90s. Believe me, it pains me to say it as much as it pains you all to hear it. I’m an old school Bad Brains/Black Flag/Clash guy myself but genre is as genre does.
^agreed… It may not be your punk, but it’s definitly another generation’s punk.
@ibstubro The Beatles and Elvis were revolutionary because they wrote songs in many different genres, so I guess you’re technically right.
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