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I think if I look at this any longer I might slip, fall down and break a hip! Embarrassing how old I am when pretty much ALL of these songs sound like absolute
by holografix 6y ago
I think if I look at this any longer I might slip, fall down and break a hip!
Embarrassing how old I am when pretty much ALL of these songs sound like absolute trash to me. Repetitive auto-tuned, formulaic, mysoginistic, materialistic, mundane, simple-minded steam pile of fermenting dog poo.
- apengwin 6y agothat's probably what your parents were saying about the music you listened to when you were young, too.
- agumonkey 6y agoThere's part old subjective rant part truth in this; I've listened to countless hours of any genre of music [0] and this generation fails to appeal to any part of my brain most of the time it's flabbergasting. Every time I hear something that makes me feel 'yeah.. finally' turns out it was some old tune I just didn't know about. There's no feel, no harmonic subtlety, no grit .. I think the pop ethos of music died a few years ago, it doesn't represent something sacred for society, it feels like a commodity.
- TulliusCicero 6y agoThis happens to most: "I'm not getting old, the music is getting worse! Really!!" Nope, you're just getting older and more out of touch, and your own out of touched-ness stops you from recognizing it as such. It's kind of like the Dunning-Kruger effect that way. There's a ton of variety and good music out there if you bother to look. If you can't find any, that says something. I think part of it is that people become more calcified in interests and habits as they get older. For example, when I worked at Costco I noticed how much more stubborn older customers were -- contrary to stereotype, younger customers were generally far nicer and more flexible. In high school, people my age were open to all sorts of things; now that I'm in my 30's, people have more established interests. My own wife has pointed out that I'm fairly particular about friends now sharing similar interests.
- agumonkey 6y agoMeh, I didn't have to look before to get interesting music. And my interests are more diverse than when I was young. I span the whole music spectrum. From old to new, pop, kitch, complex, simple, classical, thrash, whatever. Today's mainstream is really poor. to give you a weird example, some girl on youtube decided to cover knight rider's theme with violin's only, you can see how this simple tv show got very interesting harmonics and melodic emotional structure.
- fein 6y agoAnd they were for the most part correct. The 90's and early 2ks were filled with trash music. The only nice thing compared to the pop lists today is that those bands still actually played instruments. I look back at what I listened to then and maybe a handful of those groups were actually anything good. The rest was appealing to an unrefined 13 year old, which really says a lot about how shitty that music is. I listen to a lot of stuff from the late 60's and early 70's now, as well as newer stuff full of band names that would never end up in the top 500 lists. My parents generation of music was undoubtedly more wholesome and serious than my own, and its not even a comparison to now. If music is supposed to be a reflection of society, it's no wonder as society is such trash now.
- rsynnott 6y agoExtremely serious and wholesome hit from 1960: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yw0bLHTOb0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yw0bLHTOb0 Edit: by the way, you realise that your grandparents were probably moaning about the music your parents listened to? And their parents ditto, and so on. Nothing new about it.
- Exmoor 6y ago
- loco5niner 6y agoI hated the popular music when I was young too.
- bcatanzaro 6y agoI felt exactly the same way when I listened. Makes me sad.
- derefr 6y agoPretty sure you'd say that about songs from whatever decade you grew up in, if those could be sorted by "most listened to" as well. Top40 is already pablum, but it still has some tiny amount of curation (and therefore elitist dictation of taste) driving it. This chart, meanwhile, represents pure populist sentiment—it's "what the people want to hear." And populist sentiment has always been pretty much all of those things you said.
- Archit3ch 6y agoAlso, just because it's popular doesn't mean that people actually prefer that lifestyle. It reminds me of the opening scene in Office Space where a white man listens to rap during traffic on his way to a typical 9-to-5.
- ACow_Adonis 6y agoIts not just the lyrical content though (which is objectionable and sad enough), but everything else as well. Universally auto-tuned and synthesized, short, overly repetitive, mumbling/distorted, and whatever backing track they do have could barely be called musical by any objective standard (i.e. a measure of complexity/interrelated instruments/harmonies/themes/tracks). It doesn't matter whether its an african-american mumbling about being a gansta or a breathy-autotuned tween girl, its the same issue. Listening around the world, it seems to be universal with slight variations here and there. It's genuinely depressing...
- fortran77 6y agoI knew the hipster-elitists on Hacker News would declare popular music as beneath them.
- ahendy 6y agoMany of these comments are ridiculous, it's hilarious. Feeling "depressed" that popular music doesn't fit your taste? Asserting that these artists have no talent? Let people enjoy what they enjoy, rather than criticize the subjective! I really like the website. It is interesting how popular music in the US appeared in other countries, for instance Bulgaria, and how other countries most popular song I'd never even heard of the artist.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
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- mwcampbell 6y agoI think that level of contempt for most of humanity is a bigger problem than what people are complaining about on this thread.
- guevara 6y agoHey, it worked for Ed Bernays.
- cnnn 6y agoI feel like it takes a different kind of person to be able to go past a top chart or the FTOM artist and discover that there is more to music (or really any other thing) than whatever the rest of a globalized world finds "good".
- mwcampbell 6y agoPerhaps. But if so, I don't think the difference is in any intrinsic quality, but merely in circumstance. Having been exposed to good music or other art is a privilege. So is having the time to search for it. If the people who listen to crappy mainstream music had more spare time and less stress, they might seek out better alternatives. The fact that they don't doesn't entitle us to dehumanize them by comparing them to computer-generated non-player characters in a game. Instead, we should decry the system that feeds these people crap when they just want some kind of relief from their already crappy lives.
- freetime2 6y agoFor anyone else who is unfamiliar with this usage of "NPC", here is the definition from Urban Dictionary: > NPC - Modern (2018): A term now used to describe a 'Social Justice Warrior' or SJW, as their behavior mirrors that of traditional in game NPCs, in that their thoughts and actions are limited to their programming (programming being mainstream media in this case) and lacking any critical and independent thought process.
- rdiddly 6y agoI would've thought we'd at least be "over" the auto-tune thing by now, but it's more popular than ever!
- augustt 6y agoSome people are using autotune as a stylistic choice (for instance Travis Scott and T-pain way before that) which I think is kinda cool.
- ollifi 6y agoMaybe auto-tune is like guitar distortion and we never get over it.
- runeks 6y agoI don’t see why it would ever disappear. It’s essentially a device that transforms your vocal chord into an instrument. So you can sing roughly the tone you have in mind. That’s huge. I often think of melodies that I have no ability to reproduce on any instrument — but I can roughly hit the notes with my voice.
- Maxion 6y agoAuto-tune is like special effects in movies, virtually every movie has special effects but they're only noticed when it's badly done.
- Kye 6y agoI like to remind people the brilliant CGI work in Jurassic Park and Toy Story was contemporary to the cheeseball CGI in made for TV movies. People can guess what's made on a computer in Toy Story, but they never knew the well-done stuff trying to be realistic was done in part or in whole on computers. The late '90s were especially big here because computers and tools were getting so cheap. The same tech that let big space battles happen in Deep Space 9 and Babylon 5 also made stuff that...did not age so well.
- tzs 6y agoGenerally isn't older music more misogynistic?
- alexilliamson 6y agoMaybe in spirit, but it's very explicit now
- noisem4ker 6y agoYou can't get any more openly offensive than the current "trap" genre. It's basically kind of its point.
- mrslave 6y agoI agree completely, but to my mind this is more a validation that there is a lot more money to be made with things that scale. With respect to taste and quality, it is unfortunate that this means lowest common denominator mass market trash. The race to the top is a race to the bottom.
- jariel 6y agoYou're not old. Or maybe a little. Music on the charts is absolutely getting worse due to globalization, attention span, production, competitive marketing, margins, video/image/brand before song, definitely removal of the 'gatekeepers', lower barriers to entry, mass-market/direct audience. Yes, yes, a lot of pop music has always been crap, but 'this time it's different'. Truly. It's more derivative, fewer chords, lyrics that don't make sense or inspire, overproduced, repetitive. 'Popular Music' is dead - it's just memes. Think of these artists as just people 'wanting to be famous' and doing image, memes, publicity, fake celeb fights, TV show appearances - it's all the same thing. Some of it might have a song. You know the 'processed food magicians' who manipulate ingredients to find the 'sweet spot' of sweetness/bitterness whatever ... that drives a lot of food to taste bland? Same thing. You have mega producers behind most artists' hits. The artist is a brand, the label does the marketing. That's it. There is quite a bit of good stuff but it just doesn't get much publicity. Also - one big difference - most 'good music' today is not very 'up' or 'hit' oriented. Think of Van Halen 'Jump' - big, loud, stadium 'rock' sound, but also very accessible. Huge energy. Alpha chords! Most good music these days is much more subtle, it doesn't 'grab you' - which is totally fine, but it means maybe it's not as radio playable. There's a lot of really interesting and weird artifacts of pop culture music, but most of it is totally unlistenable. Tons of kids these days don't listen to Hot 100 either.
- raytracer 6y ago> Also - one big difference - most 'good music' today is not very 'up' or 'hit' oriented. +1. Pop music is just a genre. There is plenty of other new stuff out there. Just gotta put in the effort to find it and enjoy it.
- gnramires 6y agoMaybe the comparison to food is apt: sadly there are alarming rising rates of obesity. And the culprit is most likely cheap, sugary-salty (addictive) industrial food.
- holografix 6y agoNo idea why you’re getting dv’ed
- com2kid 6y agoSturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. In a given year only a handful of truly amazing songs are going to become popular. And for what's its worth, background listening music doesn't have to be particularly great. Or in other words, I'm not going to bother curating a collection of Wagner pieces for listening while cooking dinner.
- Awelton 6y agoI think the same thing every time I see a top 40 or whatever. Not only do I not know who any or them are, but when I try to listen to a few to see why it's so popular they all sound like the exact same (terrible) song. It's like looking at trending youtube videos, I have no idea who watches that shit.
- Polylactic_acid 6y agoI think the answer is always the same. Children. They seem to love this low quality stuff and play it on repeat.
- toomanybeersies 6y agoThat's what happens when you optimise music for sales and maximum listeners, rather than artistic freedom and expression. Chart music isn't created by individuals or bands, , it's created by an army of creative workers in the background. There's an entire industry that is dedicated to creating bland, mass marketable songs. It's the musical equivalent of McDonalds, technically good (i.e. well produced to a specification), consistent, and popular within the largest demographic possible. It's the lowest common denominator, music for people who don't like music. It's all formulaic garbage, and it doesn't pretend to be anything but. Most pop songs are written by the same handful of songwriters, Max Martin has written 23 Billboard chart topping songs for other artists. You don't even get bands any more, solo singers are easier to work with, and the backing track can be created entirely with DAW software by a team of professionals, no need to deal with fickle band members and a recording studio, the singer barely even sings, we've got autotune for that. Pop music is created by an army of faceless creatives with the pop star nothing more than a figurehead. That said, I have nothing against pop music, it fits a purpose and most people enjoy it. Nobody forces me to listen to it, so I don't. Just like I don't criticise McDonalds burgers for being tasteless and bland compared to the non-franchise, locally owned burger bar down the road.
- GeneralMaximus 6y agoI wouldn't be as uncharitable about popular music as you are. Like you, I don't enjoy much of it, but you can't deny that most of it is extremely catchy and fun to listen to. Especially in group settings, like parties or clubs. That said, the amount of actually good music being made in the world right now is unprecedented if you're willing to look a little. No matter what genre you're into, one look at the Bandcamp homepage will reveal something that catches your attention. Then you have music blogs like Pitchfork, YouTube music reviewers, niche (and not so niche) subreddits, RYM, and Spotify's own discovery algorithms. Most weeks I have far too much good music to listen to, and it's very hard to decide what to put on. If anything, I want an algorithm that can help me pick one out of 10 good albums. It's so cheap to learn, make, and distribute music these days that there's something for you out there no matter what your tastes. This is truly a golden age.
- self_awareness 6y agoDon't worry, you're not alone, I have a similar opinion!
- weinzierl 6y agoTry Lithuania, they seem to be stuck in the 80s. For reference: Most streamed song currently is Blinding Lights by The Weeknd. EDIT: Malaysia (Stuck with U by Ariana Grande) is an option too. Thailand (คิด(แต่ไม่)ถึง by Tilly Birds) also and Japan (夜に駆ける by YOASOBI) never lets you down, of course.
- dirktheman 6y agoThat was my first reaction, too. Generic, computer-generated mush. It doesn't take a skilled musician anymore to be a star. Then I recalled my youth. I was an angry teenager in the early to mid 1990s. My parents hated the grunge and punk music I listened to. Now to be fair, that music has held up pretty good. But if you look at the top 40 music from that era... not so much. Trashy euro-pop dominated the charts. I guess we'll have to wait for a decade or two to see what holds up and what don't.
- Non24Throw 6y agoI have a theory about this. I think the song format is conforming to the needs of advertisers. That’s why every top song is just a person talking over a beat, usually with the same kind of vocal style, usually the same kind of beat. It’s really hard to sing the word “Lamborghini” and have that fit into the lyrics and be heard clearly and have the brand image positioned correctly. It’s also a waste of advertising space to have any duration of a song not include clearly spoken lyrics. Taking this example, DaBaby’s “Rockstar” sounds basically identical to hundreds of other recent songs that follow the same format of a person talking repetitively over a simple beat (every Drake song for example). Five possible instances of integrated advertising in the lyrics: Lamborghini, Chevrolet Suburban, Maybach, Glock, and Apple FaceTime. 2 of them in the chorus. So what kind of music will people accept, that maximizes spoken word duration, speaks those words clearly, provides brand image maneuverability within the lyrics, doesn’t distract from the lyrics, and won’t have a fatal loss of integrity as a result of obvious product placements? That list of requirements leaves us with basically one style of one genre, and it’s this style of rap / hip hop. To any extent that a song deviates, it becomes less effective as a channel for advertising. I think the most convincing piece of evidence in support of this is this lack of differentiation among artists, even in terms of vocal style. In ‘90s hip hop every artist had a completely unique style, all present-day hip hop fans love all of those legendary artists... and yet, every modern artist is just mimicking the exact same cadence as Drake or Kendrick Lamar. None of this can be reconciled with the notion that songs becomes popular purely because people like them.
- teknopaul 6y agoI dont think advertising plays a role even slightly. Nor do I think that rapper's fans are an important target market for lamboughini. Run DMC never got paid for my adidas.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Non24Throw 6y agoAdvertising isn’t just about getting the audience to purchase the product. Convincing young people that a product confers high status will increase the perceived value of that product for every potential buyer whether they listen to rap or not. And these aren’t impulse purchases. Nobody buys a Lamborghini the same week that they’re playing with Hot Wheels, but many will a few decades later. There’s also indirect demand through rentals. Anyone with a credit card can rent a Lamborghini for a weekend. Most of the luxury cars you see on the roads in Miami are rentals, for example.
- wodenokoto 6y agoI believe that a very important aspect of making music for young people is to ensure that old people don't like it.
- aksss 6y agoConsciously or not but agreed that it must necessarily be so
- ponker 6y agoI think you’re misunderstanding the purpose of pop music nowadays. People are not sitting down in front of a hi-fi to listen to this music. It’s background audio for when they’re driving or texting or both, or a catchy bit of background for a TikTok video. It needs to have a beat that slaps, and not too much discernible verbal content which could interfere with other verbal tasks like sending a text.
- ghego1 6y agoWhat you describe is actually a very common thing, there's a very intelligent South Park episode on this. When I hear new music I try to understand what's good about it, in the end if younger people enjoys it there's a reason. Doing so helps me to stay connected with where new trends are going, which is kinda useful.
- globular-toast 6y agoI thought the same. I've felt this about all pop music after the 90s, though. During the 90s I think there were some genuinely great songs. But since then it's just been recycling the same old crap over and over again.
- mFixman 6y agoI'm old enough to hate the topsong from almost every country, but I really like Indonesia's: https://open.spotify.com/track/7ksK7gpPDFdY4JLHr1hKfY?si=dgjJfpmbTeO7fRsi28_wGg https://open.spotify.com/track/7ksK7gpPDFdY4JLHr1hKfY?si=dgj... I wonder why that is. Maybe 2020 Indonesian music is similar to the music I heard as a teen?
- TheRealDunkirk 6y agoYeah, I thought Spotify played music? Whatever the most-popular NA track is right now, it's definitely not music.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Kye 6y agoI have some bad news about all the music you grew up with. A lot of it was bad, too. Some of it was good, and that's what you remember. The rest was unmemorable.
- TulliusCicero 6y agoAnd why won't those kids get off my lawn?! "No no, the previous generation before me was unreasonable and condescending for no reason, but THIS time the music really does suck! Really!!" No, it's the same as it ever was: like each generation before you, you're frowning on the darned inexplicable habits of the rising generation. You're just noticing the mediocre but popular songs of today, while forgetting all the mediocre but then-popular songs of your own heyday that have since faded from memory (because they were mediocre). I see the same thing sometimes in the gaming community when people try to laud old retro games. There were plenty of awful or completely forgettable games from the NES and SNES era, people just forget about them while remembering the standouts like Mario, Contra, Megaman, etc. Same thing with music, or TV, or movies, or books.