William_the_Bloody

Time for William's rant:

Like many people my age (the 35 + group) I couldn't figure out why modern pop music sucks so bad.

I primarily blamed it on the popularity of R&B and sampling. Since modern R&B is rooted in rap, most of these artists weren't capable of creating their own melodies, instead they were just sampling someone else's previous work and looping it to a beat. Although there are some sampling geniuses out there, overall its artistically limiting, and a death blow for pop quality music.

(I also apply this to modern dance artists that are just using the arpeggio button on a keyboard. So not just picking on R&B, but that's where the sampling started)

So thus its nice to have a scientific study that backs this up. A group of scientists from Spain ran the pop music of the last 50 years through a series of complex algorithms and found that modern pop music has less diversity of notes played, and is more bland it terms rhythm and melody.

Pop music too loud and all sounds the same: official | Reuters

They also found that record companies have ramped up the recording sound, which also takes away from intricate sounds you may hear overall, this blog shows a good example.

Scientific study proves that today’s pop music really does suck | Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog


So har! har! even though there has been a turn around somewhat with artists like Goyte, Foster the People, and dare I say Lady Gaga, modern pop music really does sucks $hit

Please feel free to debate me on this with the examples below, because you can deal with this.

or that

This or that

This or that

Now I'm not opposed to technology in music, quite the contrary, but maybe record companies will figure out that more people will actually pay for music if the artists can write their own f#ckin songs and play their own f#ckin instruments instead of relying on sampling, arpeggios, and pro tools.

Goofle

Writing your own songs is overrated.

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William_the_Bloody

lol, and so is being able to capably play an instrument..unfortunately.

It is disturbing when you realize that you have more musical talent than many of those hitting the top 40 these days though. How far the bar has dropped.

Goofle

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ladyislingering

And people just eat it right up because they're stupid as hell.

Modern pop music is garbage. Didn't need a study to know that.

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Goofle

Justin Timberlake
Sam Smith
Rihanna
Ariana Grande
Pharrell Williams
Dizzee Rascal
Bruno Mars
Adele
Jessie J
Carly Rae Jepsen
Avicii
Miley Cyrus
Naughty Boy
John Newman

Cliff Richard
Wings
John Travolta & Olivia Newton John
Rod Stewart
Roy Orbison
Engelbert Humperdinck
Tom Jones
Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Elvis Presley
The Everly Brothers
Gary Glitter
Leo Sayer

I know which list of chart toppers I am siding with.

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William_the_Bloody

I meant writing you own music as in writing a musical composition, you know, something as simple as knowing how to compose a song around a musical scale. I'm not looking for anything enlightening when I listen to pop music other than a good beat....but your right, they are writing their own lyrics oh yes...yes ..yes they are.





Me to..

Michael Jackson
The Police
Duran Duran
U2
Depeche Mode
Men At Work
Billy Idol
Def leppard
Prince
Cyndi Lauper
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Donna Summer
Blondie

I did say there had been a turn around in pop music, and Pharrell Williams is awesome! and to my knowledge he actually wrote "Happy"!!!

but I am glad you brought up Rihanna because she is one of those artists who constantly relies on sampling as a result of her inability to write her own music. For this song she sampled Soft Cell's tainted love for her beat



Which was originally done fabulously by Gloria Jones in the 60's




Covered by Soft Cell who were actually able to play their own instruments when they covered it in the 80's.



and now the modern pop version of sampled music with people who cannot play instruments, so rely on a dj mixing, with the ole so "wonderful" Pussycat Dolls.




This is not an anti pop argument, this is an argument supported by scientific evidence that modern pop music has been in a creative and compositional decline, until of late.

But if you would rather support crappy artists that rely on sampling than their own talent, than Goofle, by all means go ahead, I guess the rest of us will have to suffer.

James

Let's all apply the scientific method to music! That's really fun. I already love music but I love it even more when it's paired with statistics and algorithms!

Goofle

I'd probably take my list over that tbh.

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William_the_Bloody

If your going to make an argument than it should always be backed by valid evidence, otherwise its simply just an opinion.