Pop music is not boring

DeletedUser563

Lets face it only snobs listen to classical music. Its because they think that appreciating classical music makes them more intelligent. They say stuff like you need education to appreciate classical music. But this discussion is about pop music so please do not discuss classical music else you would be considered off topic by Victor Kruger.



rice farmer said:
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Today's pop music is quite boring: slightly catchy lyrics about love or whatever, a new rhythm, and a very simplistic, over-used 4 chord progression repeated ad infinitum. The focus is on the singer's voice and the words, which allows for no depth, especially when everything is pretty much recycled.
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my first thoughts is that the particular poster is not really that clued up on music to begin with. Furthermore my thoughts is that he does not understand how broad a field pop music is. I generally listen to all music so the genre does not bother me. In my opinion you get pop music that you do not like. I am not going to claim however that musical simplicity means musical stupidity. Some of the sublimest moments in music is simple repetitions of some harmony. Later on listen to the alien ant farm version of smooth criminal:here referred to: it uses a staccato repetition with the combination of musical singing at a very higher pitched tone that kinda takes a backseat to the staccato repetition. Unfortunately I lost but backed up most of my music collection but hardly think that all of pop music is boring. Furthermore if a person is say only a pop music fan then he might argue that all other music is boring because its slow and depressing. I used to operate a jukebox and if you played 3 particular slow songs or unknown songs from other genres you would clear the bar. Comments was usually something like Im going to bite through my wrists so that i cannot hear this depressing music anymore. My point being that pop music is not per se boring you simply have fans of the genre who likes this and for whom music is made and that likes this music. For them other music is boring. From my jukebox days I can say that you get to appreciate these musical geniuses that is able to in a single cd put 5 to 7 popular songs examples would be lmfao currently and basshunter before.



For example what is boring about the following:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA8rcLvS1BY&ob=av2e

To understand the genre better I leave a discussion on what is pop music so that some forum users can better educate them before making baseless assertions like rice farmer did. Because I think his failed assertions comes from a misunderstanding what would be considered pop music.
said:
http://top40.about.com/od/popmusic101/a/popmusic.htm The definition of pop music is purposefully flexible as the music that is identified as pop is constantly changing. At any particular point in time it may be easiest to identify pop music as that which is successful on the pop music charts. For the past 50 years the most successful musical styles on the pop charts have continually changed and evolved. However, there are some consistent patterns in what is identified as pop music.

Music Accessible To the Widest Audience

Since the mid-1950's pop music has usually been identified as the music and the musical styles that are accessible to the widest audience. This means the music that sells the most copies, draws the largest concert audiences, and is played most often on the radio. After Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" hit #1 on music charts in 1955 the most popular music became the records influenced by rock 'n roll instead of the songs and light standards that had dominated TV's Your Hit Parade weekly countdown show. Since 1955 the music that appeals to the widest audience, or pop music, has been dominated by sounds that are still rooted in basic elements of rock 'n roll.
Pop Music and Song Structure

One of the most consistent elements of pop music since the 1950's is the pop song. Pop music is not usually written, performed and recorded as a symphony, suite, or concerto. The basic form for pop music is the song and usually a song consisting of verse and repeated chorus. Most often the songs are between 2 1/2 minutes and 5 1/2 minutes in length. There have been notable exceptions. The Beatles' "Hey Jude" was an epic 7 minutes in length. However, in many cases, if the song is abnormally long, an edited version is released for radio airplay such as in the case of Don McLean's "American Pie." It was edited down from its original 8 1/2 minutes length to just over 4 minutes for radio airplay. On the other end of the spectrum, in the late 1950's and early 1960's some hit songs clocked in under 2 minutes in length.

Like other art forms that aim to attract a mass audience (movies, television, Broadway shows), pop music has been and continues to be a melting pot that borrows and assimilates elements and ideas from a wide range of musical styles. Rock, r&b, country, disco, punk, and hip hop are all specific genres of music that have influenced and been incorporated into pop music in various ways over the past 5 decades. Most recently, Latin music seems to be impacting pop music more significantly than at any point in the past.

Pure Pop and Power Pop

Although pop music continues to be a melting pot of styles, there is a genre of pop music that claims to be pop music in its purest form. This music, usually called pure pop or power pop, typically consists of relatively brief (not over 3 1/2 minutes) songs played on the standard electric guitar, bass and drums with vocals that have a very strong catchy chorus, or hook. Art is not a concern. Audience pleasure in listening to the song is the primary goal.

Among the top pure pop or power pop performers of the past are the Raspberries, Cheap Trick and the Memphis group Big Star. The Knack's #1 smash hit "My Sharona" is often considered the biggest power pop chart hit. In recent years groups like Jimmy Eat World, Fountains of Wayne, and Weezer have been seen as successors to classic power pop.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDl9ZMfj6aE&ob=av3e
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV1XWJN3nJo&feature=related
-----http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalia_imbruglia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avCeJnw9WbQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnmyi_kC0Nc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C3zgYW_FAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7k0a5hYnSI&ob=av2n
---http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unwritten_(song)
 
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DeletedUser16008

Rice quoted "todays pop music" there is an obvious difference of the type of pop music atm and days gone by. Bill Hailey was popular music but Rock n Roll based and whilst appealing to the younger generation also appealed to others, same with the Beatles. Later called the mop tops and trying to covet popularity Epstein attempted to turn them into a simple pop band, this of course failed miserably as they grew and left Cliff Richard to it.

Making a song shorter to get airplay is an issue for airtime and the music and media's self imposed restrictions rather than anything else.

Pop music is the way the music industry makes a lot of money following and often ruining an original genre. There are some it cannot ruin however due to the complex or definitive nature of some genres such as, reggae, classical, heavy metal, original punk, mowtown soul and operatic to name a few. Seems you just can't teen pop some things. ( thank goodness )

Most artists these days tend to try and be labelled as anything but simply "pop music" and for a very good reason. Pop music is usually these days very bland, aimed at and geared towards the tiny teens with such as a mass of Disney child stars, teen boy and girl bands and manufactured label housed stars, targeted firmly at the very early teens with little ability or quality. Not much substance nor musical genius there as a rule. Sure a few are special and go on to explore and grow into proper artists and most will admit their early days and teeny hits are a pile of rubbish. They are also few and far between in the scheme of things.

So no pop music dosn't have to be bad but an awful lot of it is. what you wish to do is put artists in the same frame as todays "pop music" when in fact most of your clips there are from "artists" who prefer to carry no genre label and if any at the closest "popular music" which is not the same thing at all.

As far as boring is concerned its a pointless argument if you want to state everything that has been popular is "pop"

I could rattle off hundreds of excellent artists that do not fit in a genre and certainly not considered "pop" although they have been and are popular music artists.
 

DeletedUser563

i generally went with wikipedia on whether the music i presented is pop. and generally we are tied to what you find bad or good subjectively. the lines are anyway very fuzzy and Not all music willingly falling in the category of pop is necessarily bad. Not all are mainstream and not all of them worry whether they sell 500 or 5 million albums. Think you have no idea what is pop and what is not. In your mind every time you listen to something and dont like it its put in the category pop. There is massive amounts of musicians that falls in this category. Both you and rice are in fact referring to bubblegum pop. I am not aware of any music that is ruined by pop music. And I think you have little sense of music: reggae for example have always had a plethora of artist that can be described as reggae pop the one is in fact singing with justin bieber.(cant think of his name) There is punk pop like greenday etc. Original punk only exists anymore in your mind and on your lps. There is classical pop artist i cannot think of the one , soul has very commercial artist, you get metal pop as well. You also make another of your broad assertions of "artists" that do not want to carry the category pop and therefore avoids these musicians. What utter bs. Go and look at the most popular producers that comes up with pop music and then look for what artists they work. And there is not an artists that would say no to for example one song with timbaland.

many older songs fall in the category of catchy rhymes and repetitive elements not only pop.
For example from 1:10 in locomotive breath the staccato element is repeated throughout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWubhw8SoBE&feature=related it also follows a repetitive song pattern throughout which leaves us with catchy . Which probably relates to a nice harmony or something. I find it catchy. So guess it must be boring. i shall be released similarly repetition and catch tunes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ore6K3ESTLc With a chorus that repeats. But yep they are not pop.



And we can go all through about every good song. A song becomes popular because of catchy tunes. When you listen to say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsJ4O-nSveg&ob=av3e lighting crashes by live and you think back later why do you like the song and not other of their music its because the same features that makes one pop song popular and the next one not is present in most "classics" and that includes catchy tunes and repetition of elements. Another good example is the story by brandi carlile compared to her other music which i simple dont really like. I can play that song to 100 people and all of them will like it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8pQLtHTPaI&ob=av2e. is it only because she has a good voice then why dont I like her other music. Face it the same music company that makes your favorite not mainstream or popular rock music may make Justin bieber. With piracy as strong as it is now if there was no justin bieber there may not be your artist either. But this does not mean that even like justin bieber is talentless or will always make music that you do not like. For example watch an artist like miley cyrus that will keep on evolving. As long as any artist including pop artists have the necessary talent to create music or interpret it like elvis. It does not mean that they will always produce bubblegum pop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubblegum_pop.
 
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DeletedUser

Jakkals said:
Pop music is not boring
Lets face it only snobs listen to classical music.
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what the hell man? you are talking like there is only pop and classical... What about all the others? e.g. rock, punk, metal...
And about pop music - its not boring its usually meaningless and dumm. Yeah - good for drunk dancing but thats it :D (like everywhere else there are exceptions, but 99% is like I said)
 

DeletedUser563

the front part was to proof a point about the on topic / off topic dilemma. In this lines I make a wild assertion like the one that started this whole thread and then I make a 360 degree turn and say we are not going to discuss this. I think kidkade pointed out brilliantly that if you do not give persons a kind of leeway in discussing every part of a topic your left with a train with no destination in many of these threads. The on topic rule mostly causes a narrow window of discussion that is not conducive necessarily to a good discussion.

I had all of yello 's albums till about say yes to another excess: pop music yes| boring no and mostly brilliant. think you have all a very narrow view of what is pop and what not. i listen to all kinds of music including here and there a classical song: think the only one i liked lately was the dance track in lucretias wedding.(the borgias) How pathetic however that one could not get even a buyable copy anyplace and that no one placed the song on youtube because of copyright laws probably. So my mind is not closed to certain parts of music which is the problem with most people and the reason for this thread. its not because i am a huge fan of pop music just not thinking that 99% is bad or most is boring.

Should you be searching for meaning for your life in songs? Should it make you think? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NucicclOd9E cover of a pop song by system of a down. something about riding on a metro and then a soldier and then... it made me think i thought it was a good song then i thought maybe im jealous because abbyghaill drunk dance and i can only zone out(relax) at a bar.
 
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DeletedUser16008

yeesh your confusing the crap and watered down versions with original styles. As I already said, there is a difference between pop and popular, call it bubblegum pop or whatever it matters not. Say pop music to someone and thats the crap they will be thinking of 99% of the time. Yello isnt "pop" music its electronic/dance with sampling and they were a direct result of electronic, new wave music, post punk in the 80's nothing pop about it.

Who said anything about greenday being punk, the press ??? LOL they can only dream... its not even close to the sex pistols or compared to the damned or the Jam. Greenday although good are nothing other than a modern day watered down punk sold on an old genre and nothing close to what it was originally, Of course theres original punk the simple criterea of punk was you did'nt need to play a note to get on stage and anyone could and did...do you even know what your talking about ? by its very nature it also destroyed itself and lasted a bare 3 years but I don't expect you to have a clue to its origins or even heard of most of the bands involved. Reggae ? lol you can't compare anything bieber does to original Reggae. ~Yee gods man go and say that to a Rasta I dare you lol.. sense of music ? bahh i grew up with the original genres artists through the 70s and 80s and have watched many poor copies since of what was already done far better. Crack on with whatever guff you like to justify as pop. Either its good or its not and go ahead and ague with yourself there are plenty of books, documentaries with professional artists, label producers, musicians and writers both music and press explaining various links, births and deaths of genres over the decades very clearly and easy to follow and your pop ideal dosnt figure much in them.

I preferred Indie label stuff for a long time before the main music industry ruined them all. I also care not what you perceive others tastes in music its all subjective anyway, for me its simple to put certain music in genres and id not be playing yello at my nieces birthday party she prefers bubblegum pop and bieber etc. As your basically just trolling with this thread in your own words for another reason, none of which is really to do with the topic at hand at all it makes this quite a pointless discussion really ;)

Grow up springs to mind.
 
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DeletedUser563

Victor Kruger said:
yeesh your confusing the crap and watered down versions with original styles. As I already said, there is a difference between pop and popular, call it bubblegum pop or whatever it matters not. Say pop music to someone and thats the crap they will be thinking of 99% of the time. Yello isnt "pop" music its electronic/dance with sampling and they were a direct result of electronic, new wave music, post punk in the 80's nothing pop about it.

Who said anything about greenday being punk, the press ??? LOL they can only dream... its not even close to the sex pistols or compared to the damned or the Jam. Greenday although good are nothing other than a modern day watered down punk sold on an old genre and nothing close to what it was originally, Of course theres original punk the simple criterea of punk was you did'nt need to play a note to get on stage and anyone could and did...do you even know what your talking about ? by its very nature it also destroyed itself and lasted a bare 3 years but I don't expect you to have a clue to its origins or even heard of most of the bands involved. Reggae ? lol you can't compare anything bieber does to original Reggae. ~Yee gods man go and say that to a Rasta I dare you lol.. sense of music ? bahh i grew up with the original genres artists through the 70s and 80s and have watched many poor copies since of what was already done far better. Crack on with whatever guff you like to justify as pop. Either its good or its not and go ahead and ague with yourself there are plenty of books, documentaries with professional artists, label producers, musicians and writers both music and press explaining various links, births and deaths of genres over the decades very clearly and easy to follow and your pop ideal dosnt figure much in them.

I preferred Indie label stuff for a long time before the main music industry ruined them all. I also care not what you perceive others tastes in music its all subjective anyway, for me its simple to put certain music in genres and id not be playing yello at my nieces birthday party she prefers bubblegum pop and bieber etc. As your basically just trolling with this thread in your own words for another reason, none of which is really to do with the topic at hand at all it makes this quite a pointless discussion really ;)

Grow up springs to mind.
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Your totally wrong stop trolling yourself. I didnt say Bieber did reggae I said Sean Kingston did. You really have no idea of the youth and young people do you. Jamaica is just some country were they keep on playing the same style of music forever? But I refuse to fall into personal insults like you.
 

DeletedUser16008

Ahh did you fall over your usual deluded, self opinionated drivel again then realise your talking out the back of your head and give up ?

What you really mean to say is you don't have a clue about most Genre music and or their origins, Sean Kingston aka real name Kisean Anderson is just using Kingston the city in Jamaica to sound more Jamaican and thus Reggae to sell records. Your pathetically poor understanding of Reggae vs a plastic media copy attempt just shows how clueless you are. Pop vs what ? popular or the plastic version of whatever genre they like to try and associate with ?

Interesting your trying to belittle a countries home grown music and supplant a poor poor modern US copy as even Reggae. Its not, and I suggest you don't go to Jamaica and tell them your opinion of their music, it would likely get you in a lot of trouble and we would'nt want that now would we ? some cultures are quite proud of their music and don't need to plastic it up and sell out.... you know what sell out means right ? if not I can explain it to you as I know you have trouble understanding things most of the time, sometimes having an adult around helps.

PS yea i was a teen in the punk era on so maybe youd like a calculator to figure out the age because you obviously cant add up without one, no surprises there. :rolleyes:

PPS I have a teenage daughter pretty clued up where music is concerned ( goes to a music academy ) and she laughed a heck of lot at your ridiculous idea of pop.
 
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DeletedUser563

please debate the topic without going into your rampant personal attacks.

Background information
Birth name Kisean Anderson
Born February 3, 1990 (age 22)
Miami, Florida, United States
Origin Kingston, Jamaica
Genres Reggae fusion, dance, R&B[1

Kingston was born on February 3, 1990, in Miami, Florida and moved to Kingston, Jamaica when he was six.[2] He attended high school in Ocho Rios.[3] His grandfather was the noted Jamaican reggae producer Lawrence Lindo,[4] who worked under the stage name Jack Ruby.[5][2] At age 11, Kingston spent 3 weeks in jail for breaking and entering, and Kingston lived in a car while his mother was incarcerated for identity theft.[2][6]

Clearly he is an Jamaican mon. why you be so ire against the poor fellow. So you see pop and reggae stand side by side. The days of bob marley and peter tosh is long gone. Your opinion of the nation oversimplified. They also have teenagers. Please quote their top selling artist so that we can have a true picture. I am betting that pop is just as strong there and that pop reggae infusion is quite a real thing. Furthermore you claimed that some songs I quoted is not pop. Smooth Criminal was composed by Michael Jackson I quoted the wikipedia entru to show its considered pop. Natalie Imbrughlia the artist is shown as pop. And finally unwritten is shown as pop. Based on these three songs I already blow your arguments to pieces because their certainly full of depth and definitely not boring which was my original argument.

if you say wikipedia is not a reliable source , you are free to change the entries or dispute it but i think the record company that made the entry themselves opinion will count more than your version.
 
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