It is with deep regret that I wish to inform you all of the untimely (but blatantly obvious) death of modern Western pop music.
Sadly, ‘Pop’, as he was affectionately called, was ill for some time, and no one seemed to notice when he finally wrinkled up.
‘Pop music’ was recognized for bringing us many great hits over the decades. Some of these “hits” date back to the 1940s, and over the decades there were plenty of memorable songs from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s.
One can even go so far as to say that popular music from every era and from other parts of the world (renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic) has also withstood the last test of time, with the works of numerous composers being studied and performed to this day. from today. .
But something strange happened since the dawn of the new millennium. At first no one took the hint, but by the end of the next decade it was painfully clear.
There was no longer any innovation or originality. In fact, most artists, regardless of musical category, began to sound the same, as if all these musical groups were being manufactured in the same warehouse. It didn’t matter if you were pop, dance, electronic, hip-hop, or rock ‘n roll (although I doubt the last two would actually make it onto a mainstream radio playlist), all the music had the same flow, the same chord. progression (I, V, vi, IV), the same rests, dynamics and almost all the singers sounded exactly the same.
It was terribly formulated. It was too obvious not to notice, but there were no cries for change.
Everyone seemed to be defeated by what he was playing.
This writer believes that the death was caused by three culprits, almost like the three legs of a good chair. But like anything else, after a while of wear and tear, the legs of this musical chair began to rot and there was no carpenter to fix the problem, so the legs wobbled and the chair eventually collapsed.
The three legs were: the record companies, the radio and the artists themselves.
Record labels emerged in the mid-1920s as a way to record, produce, market, and distribute the music that was happening at the time. There were A&R (Artist and Repertoire) departments that scouted for new talent and developed a list of artists/groups that would ‘sign’ to that label and sell records to the buying public. But alas, the record executives got greedy and lazy over the years and have almost stopped their A&R departments. The bottom line is that as an artist you should have it all, ready to go for a label that jumps on the bandwagon. And you have to be salable. If you’re not cute, sexy, young, or trendy with whatever gimmicks are the latest trend, then you won’t sell. It’s that simple and raw. A label is nothing more than a bank now, and they want a great return on their investment. And the artist is the investment. The three major labels left now (because the others gobbled them up over the years) couldn’t care less about real music than a bank cares about helping low-income people get a loan.
Next up: Radio.
In its infancy, radio helped raise awareness of a new music craze that was taking the world by storm. The first radio news broadcast occurred on August 31, 1920, and musical performances began to be broadcast soon after. The new music trend had no name yet, but all that was about to change.
America was sitting on a gold mine, and along with the British kids, the musicians threw themselves into blues and jazz, mixing it all up and putting their own spin on it. Next thing he knew Rock n Roll was born and the music of the late 40’s and 50’s had guts and VOLUME.
Rock n Roll brought the music of the working man to the very door, giving birth to many sub-genres: Heavy Metal, Indie, Alternative, Grunge, Shoe-Gaze and Pop all owe their lives to Rock n Roll. It is worth noting that each subgenre had its own children, so we can say that Rock n Roll had many children and grandchildren.
To take a look at the kids Rock n Roll will leave behind (courtesy of Wikipedia, just head to Google).
But jazz and blues also had another offspring around the same time: R&B, a term sadly coined to differentiate music of African-American origin from Rock n Roll. Absurd and truly racist, but it’s a term that ‘stuck’.
Therefore, Jazz and Blues leave behind two children: R&B and Rock ‘N Roll. Both had their fair share of broadcasting in the early days. Both boys helped make Pop what he was.
But as the story goes, a thief arrived: Payola.
Thanks to the record companies, they made sure that the ONLY content on the radio was theirs. Soon, mainstream radio was nothing more than paid advertising for a label. If you don’t believe me, turn on any conventional Top 40 station and leave it on for a day or two. The station will play a handful of songs at least five times a day. So there’s only a couple of songs on the radio to stream? Never mind, there are hundreds of thousands of musicians/artists/bands around the world, only a handful of songs get played on mainstream radio.
Which brings us to artists: It seems like most artists these days want to be famous and rich (if that’s even possible with the label and entertainment lawyers owning everything. And instead of writing some substance Creative, most pop artists today are out to make an instant hit. The term one-hit wonder can’t be applied to them because the terrible hits just keep coming. They should rename ‘Artists’ to ‘Clones’ factory’ because in almost every musical genre there are some that mostly sound/look exactly the same.
And then came the worst part: the disease that ended everything: Autotune (the device that turned a terrible bachelor into a star)
Together, these three, along with their man-made disease, helped bring down the pop music industry.
Sad no one saw it coming, maybe something could have been done.
But it’s too late, and what we have now are just the memories of when music used to mean something.
When we could remember a song from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s.
But can you remember any pop songs from the new millennium?
I sure can’t. And for the most part, I don’t want to, it’s that terrible.
Rest in peace dad, we had a little fun.
