I'd say it's the opposite.
There's so much variety out there now they can only use their budget on a safe bet.
That's why there's a lack of variety in the mainstream, it's because they're too scared to lose money on something different, and why would you when there's a huge market for the sort of stuff they're pumping out now?
Record companies have always been followers, one has a success, the rest of them follow suit trying to find their version of that success.
It's nothing new but with less major record companies and smaller budgets it's becoming more obvious.

There really wasn't all that much variety on the charts from 1955-65 at any given time, either. Just sayin'.

There probably is more to choose from outside the mainstream market but within the mainstream market it is not diverse.

I also notice that there are more female pop stars being marketed compared to males unlike previous decades. I know I have said this argument before but I believe the industry is trying to capitalize off the sex market by only marketing female pop stars with hyper sexual images. Men mostly run the music industry anyway.

I guess my only question would be... why?

It is fine if they only wanted to do that for 2 or 3 pop stars but it appears all the big pop mainstream artists are females who market a hyper sexual image.

I think its an issue because mainstream music is targeted toward children and they are only marketing images versus actual music.

Pop stars 80s:

Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Rolling Stones, U2, Bruce Springton, The Police, David Bowie, Duran Duran, George Michael, Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, Bon Jovi, Tina Turner, Blondie, Queen, Billy Idol, Billy Joel, Cher, Lionel Ritchie, Earth Wind and Fire Beastie Boys, Run DMC, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, Eric B& Rakim, Beastie Boys,etc


Pop stars 90's:

Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Nirvana, Whitney Houston, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Boys II Men, TLC, Brandy, Guns& Roses, Foo Fights, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Alanis Morisette, Lauryn Hill, D Angelo, Jodeci, Britney Spears, Nsync, Back street Boys, R.E.M. Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Snoop Dog, R.Kelly, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Lenny Kravitz, Pearl Jam,etc

Pop stars, 00's

Eminem, Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Nikki Minaj, Taylor Swift, Jay Z, Kanye West, Drake, Adele


There are no big rock acts that are popular or R&B or soul compared to the other decades currently. All these female pop stars market the same thing except for Adele maybe Gaga and Taylor Swift. If these above stars existed in the 80's or 90's they would not be as popular because it would be more competition.

I think people with talent are fighting back very well - especially with the rise of social media, if you're talented, you can get your music out there. Just takes some self promotion.

Examples please? Let's say within the past 5 years? I don't follow mainstream but these artists come to mind.

Pro sex: Miley, Iggy, Nicki, Katy Perry(maybe?), Rhiana (50/50)

vs: Adele, Gaga, Swift, Grande, Lorde, Jlo, Beyonce, and countless others.

The sex oriented artists may attract the most publicity but they are certainly not dominating the market as a whole. I'd consider the pro-sex artists a minority.

There's hardly any of those genres being sold by independent labels either. It's not the labels fault, there's just not much demand for it.
Music goes through peaks & troughs. Jazz was hugely popular in the 1950s and it's popularity plummeted in the 60s, it took Jazz fusion in the late 60s to re-establish it as a big seller again.
Those genres listed are in a decline, they might come back, they might not. But it's nobodies fault if there's not much demand for it.
You might not see much soul or R&B around but I see tons of soul jazz / acid jazz albums coming out, so clearly that must be the type of soul music that sells today. You might not be a fan of it but it's there.

That's what selling at the moment. In the 90s it was all boy bands, then the Spice Girls came along and suddenly you had tons of girl bands being marketed. Like I said before, you'd be a fool to use your budget on something other than what you stand to make a lot of money on. Record companies are businesses first, it's about product, not art.

You don't know that, I can remember loads of terrible stuff in the 80s that sold huge amounts.

Are you kidding?

Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez have made a career off of selling sex. Did you check out there latest videos? There butt cheeks are literally hanging out

Mainstream music is popular because it is easily accessible so if the industry chooses to market certain acts over others, the acts the industry markets will naturally be more popular not necessarily because they are more in demand but because they are being backed by a PR machine.

If an act is going to be popular, they are going to be popular because of the public not because of their overexposure which seems to be the latter for today's industry.

It appears in today's industry, the industry only wants to market 5 pop stars and limit the competition for whatever reason.

As a result, the public is force to accept these pop stars the industry only markets (for the people who rely on mainstream music)

Soul/R&B was mainstream in the 60's, 70's,80's and 90's but it currently is not now.

You are right. Record companies are a business first. However, in previous decades there was more of a variety when it came to the pop acts. There was a diverse representation of different musical genres in the mainstream.There also was artistic merit behind it as well although image of course has always been a factor for pop music.


The acts out now are mediocre and the only reason why they are popular is because there is no competition for them. They are the only acts the industry are marketing so naturally they are going to be popular by default. However, if this was the 80's none of them would be as big because there would be more of a variety for people to choose from.

Well like I said I really don't know much about mainstream, but I feel like you are completely ignoring Destiny's Child and all of JLo's early work. They both made superstars out of themselves without sex, and as far as I know not all of their work in the past 5 years has taken the sex sells approach. I could be wrong.

Besides that I don't think you really provided a sufficient argument to show that these sex acts are the majority in the pop industry. What about a group like Paramore? They're pop to me, maybe our definitions of the genre are different.