The Pop of Today Vs Pop Of Yesterday
 

Today watered down and lack luster at every turn. Pop of yesterday fresh innovative and ever lasting. Please discuss the differences between the pop songs between 1990 to 2013 and 1960 to 1980........:afro:

If you're talking about the Top 40 radio stuff, yeah I'd agree that so much of it today is bland and terrible.

I posted somewhere a few months ago the top 20 now, the top 20 20 years ago and the top 20 40 years ago.

And guess what, all 3 were filled with crap.
You just forget the bad stuff.

There's probably a little more now but not much, and that's because only 4 companies control virtually everything to do with music.
It's not that music is getting worse it's because so few people control what gets heard.

I dunno, I have the distinct impression that structurally, today's hit songs are more ikea than they used to be, in the 90s and early 00s, mainly due to the trend of repeating one particular line as a chorus or verse.

Music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s was, for the most part, great. It had a freshness about it, especially when compared to the quality of today's modern pop. When one genre died out, there was always another to replace it. I wonder if the studios had something to do with that and with the quality, too.

This thread so far just seems like a bunch of people with their rose colored glasses on reminiscing about yesteryear excluding Urban's post which is right on the money and more or less what I was coming in here to post about.

Bad music exists everywhere. Bad music from the 60s, bad music from the 70s, bad music now.
Frankly im a fairly big fan of some modern pop artists (Carly rae jepsen, nicki minaj, rihanna, etc) and will gladly take call me maybe over any song by poison, kiss, twisted sister, motley crue and that whole glam metal phase. Those are much worse than many pop songs being played nowadays.

Pop pre 1990s had much better bass. Rio by Duran Duran is a good example.

Mostly because of the general lazyness involved with music production and lyrical content.


The Axis of Awesome: 4 Chords Official Music Video - YouTube

AOA did a song with around 45 different songs that had the same chord sequence, I V vi IV. Although there are oldies I'd say around 60% are modern top 40 hits.
As for lyrics, here's two examples.

I can be selfish, be so impatient
Sometimes I feel like Marilyn Monroe
I'm insecure, yeah, I make mistakes
Sometimes I feel like i'm at the end of the road
I can get low, I can get low
Don't know which way is up
Yeah, I can get high, I can get high
Like I could never come down

Nicki Minaj - Marilyn Monroe.

Just generic stuff really. No deep, Simon Garfunkel esque meaningfulness here.

I can’t even lie, I **** better when I’m drankin,
Ride dick like a pro, throw the pussy like I’m famous,
Pussy feels so good, feels like the rubber off, ain’t it?
You ain’t gotta tell me, I know this pussy be yankin.
This pussy be yankin, I know this pussy be yankin,
This pussy be yankin, I know this pussy be yankin,
This pussy be yankin, I know this pussy be yankin,
You ain’t gotta tell me, I know this pussy be yankin.

Lady - Yankin.

Wut.

Everything, everything, everything, everything..
In its right place
In its right place
In its right place
Right place

-Radiohead

"And your heart goes: 'Ring-a-ding ding, ring-a-ding ding, ring-a-ding ding'"

-Frank Sinatra

taking bad lyrics out of context is easy and also dumb