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POP MUSIC THREAD: Taylor Swift officially joins us

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cagedWINGS

The Poké-theorist.
Pop music is extremely average. I hate to be 'that guy', but eh.

The thing though, and what's really frustrating, is that pop music consists of watered down versions of genres that I actually liked. I say 'liked' in italics because I used to enjoy these genres until the music industry got their grubby claws onto them and oversaturated the market.

Example, dubstep.

Dubstep is meant to be a very underground music genre. From those who don't really follow it, its a genre that started in South London where people used to MC over the top of drum & bass and reggae music. Initially it was very 'wobbly' and chilled-sounding but over time it evolved into something a lot more mechanical sounding and aggressive and could be mixed easily by DJs into their drum & bass setlists and such. All very very cool. The popularity really started to pick up though the genre was still very much underground.

Then some money grabbing suit and tie dude at a music label, who doesn't even know what the hell music even is, caught the scent of dubstep music, thought it would sell and then forced random pop artists to make dubstep songs to cash in on all the hype. The result? We have talentless nomarks like Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez bringing out VERY weak dubstep songs and over saturating the market with their filth, causing people like me (i.e. someone who actually has a taste in music and doesn't just like a pop 'artist' because they're on the radio and have a catchy melody to one on their songs) to completely lose interest in the great genre that all this blasphemy sprang from. I actually feel like a bit of a noob saying I like dubstep now quite honestly!

Eventually dubstep will die off and it will be no thanks to greasy record companies and their slave artists.

Very ranty but pop music frustrates me. It happened with house and dance music, now it has happened to dubstep. Whatever next?
 

Geekachu

_____________

[img139]http://25.media.tumblr.com/34494f1dcea13acd428130240b5cb869/tumblr_mzvb5lx9aw1rqfhi2o1_250.gif[/img139]

Your rant reeks of hipsterish self-righteousness. Lemme direct you to some points which caught my attention:

Dubstep is meant to be a very underground music genre.

[sarcasm]Oh okay so the audience of the genre is indicative of the music itself? Okay this sounds sincere.[/sarcasm] You do realise how silly this is, right? Music in it's intention is an art and not designed to be some sort of indication of it's audience. You saying it's 'meant to be underground' - almost as if a correlation exists between audience and quality - just undermines the entire, intended sincerity of music.

It strikes me that this is more so an excuse of yours to pretend that your so-called 'underground' choices are objectively better pieces of music, because it makes you that much more of a special snowflake to know that the 'objectively good' music to which you listen is only enjoyed by a select elite of people, as underscored by this point:

I used to enjoy these genres until the music industry got their grubby claws onto them and oversaturated the market.

aka, you only like the genre if it's not well-known because you really want to be that special snowflake, or in other words

someone who actually has a taste in music and doesn't just like a pop 'artist' because they're on the radio and have a catchy melody to one on their songs

I mean, yeah, let's generalise a whole genre shall we, ignoring the fact that there exists some pop music that isn't necessarily traditional radio candy... but any way to amplify the importance and standard of your own taste, eh?

I'm just so sorry that pop music had to bastardise the genre you oh-so loved. I guess 'commercial songs on the radio with a catchy melody' have such a profound effect on the underground scene, almost as if as soon as any underground musician hears their music appropriated into a pop song they suddenly lose their ability to make the same quality of music they used to make for people who 'actually have a good taste in music'.

And now it means

I actually feel like a bit of a noob saying I like dubstep now quite honestly!

Sorry! Not as if you didn't anyway ;)
 
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Lorde

Let's go to the beach, each.
Is it, though?

The song has received critical acclaim and is sure to top charts all over the world. I mean this is Nicki Minaj we're talking about. She's very successful so imo, there should be little doubt that her new song will be a smash hit.
 

The Admiral

the star of the masquerade
The song has received critical acclaim and is sure to top charts all over the world. I mean this is Nicki Minaj we're talking about. She's very successful so imo, there should be little doubt that her new song will be a smash hit.

this

I don't like the song (I don't like any of Nicki's work at all tbh), but it's pretty likely to be big.
 

TurtwigFan1

burning it down
We have talentless nomarks like Taylor Swift

lmaooooooo

1) Taylor is definitely not talentless. She wrote an entire album by herself that sold over one million copies in a week. I know sales aren't indicative of talent, but it's impressive. 2) She's not "forced" to do anything, she writes her own music and carefully chooses what to release. I'm sure she gets advice but she wouldn't have released dubstep-influenced songs if she didn't want to.

Music elitism is honestly so ridiculous. Not liking pop music and instead liking "underground" genres doesn't make you a "real" music fan. There's no such thing as a real music fan. I'd love it if 2014 was the year anti-pop elitism died out for good but that's never going to happen.
 

The Admiral

the star of the masquerade
Music elitism is honestly so ridiculous. Not liking pop music and instead liking "underground" genres doesn't make you a "real" music fan. There's no such thing as a real music fan. I'd love it if 2014 was the year anti-pop elitism died out for good but that's never going to happen.

Also, he's citing dubstep as his example of underground. Yeah, of course. Also, he claims that it will ~die~.

Music genres don't die. They just retreat to the underground.
 

cagedWINGS

The Poké-theorist.
I'm not a music elitist lol. I'm sorry if I have come across as that, and its easy for you to think of me in that way quite clearly because of the atrociousness of my posts today. Yeah, reading my post back, I sound like a complete douche.

The thing is, I'm actually pretty open minded when it comes to all forms of music. Yeah, everyone says that, right? Well, what gets me hooked with particular songs is if they have a certain element that makes me go "oh, that's weird and cool", or "oh that's different". It might be a song's middle eight or even something as simple as a particular synth with an unusual timbre in the background to a verse or something. Any type of genre of music could float my boat in that way, but if it doesn't have that "je ne sais quoi" then I'm not really interested. Going back to my previous example, 'mainstream dubstep' generally doesn't have those elements I'm particularly looking for when compared to 'non-mainstream dubstep'. Aye? That's not to say all dubstep that isn't mainstream is absolutely zomg amazing - there is a lot of crap out there..

Honestly, anyone can listen to whatever they want. No one has the right to judge. My post was just my passing and quite clearly ill-informed view of the inner workings of the music industry. I'm sorry that it offended.

Maybe I was a little quick with the Taylor Swift remark, but I just can't see how a girl can go from sweet little poppy country numbers to a dubstep song like 'Trouble' without some poking and prodding from some executive producer dude somewhere. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, artists' styles and tastes change over time (I mean look at someone like Miley Cryrus) and their music may reflect that. But it just strikes me as a little odd and a bit too convenient that she chose to have a complete change in sound to a genre that just so happened to be blowing up at the time, right? She didn't even need to do it really. I thought the country thing was working out for her?

And yeah, genres don't die, they do go back underground. My choice of words were a little strong there.

Hope that cleared things up at least a little bit. Sorry.
 

cagedWINGS

The Poké-theorist.
Christina Aguilera is EXTREMELY talented though. I honestly think she's probably the best female vocalist of our generation. I don't know what's going on. She hasn't had a hit in yonks, and Christina love, you don't need to do songs with Pitbull to make yourself current.
 

The Doctor

Absolute Beginner
Christina Aguilera is EXTREMELY talented though. I honestly think she's probably the best female vocalist of our generation.

That's a funny way of saying "Mariah Carey" there. She has a ridiculous range and makes it sound effortless. Aguilera just oversings every note.
 

Lorde

Let's go to the beach, each.
Christina Aguilera is EXTREMELY talented though. I honestly think she's probably the best female vocalist of our generation. I don't know what's going on. She hasn't had a hit in yonks, and Christina love, you don't need to do songs with Pitbull to make yourself current.

I like Christina, but I think Mariah and even Beyonce are better vocalists overall. At least judging from the live performances that I've seen from them. But yeah, the thread title is so shady tbh. Christina might not be at her peak, but she's still highly successful and quite relevant.
 

Dax

Legend
Call me back when she actually has another solo hit. Then we'll talk.

She's still getting hits, currently one as a lead singer in the top 10 and #1 in Canada and Australia, so her career is definitely not dead.

I've never been a huge Christina fan, but I recognize that she truly is the best voice of this generation. I wish she could set trends again instead of following them. She's good when she's herself but Lotus and Bionic were cheap attempts to continue having commercial success.
 

cagedWINGS

The Poké-theorist.
That's a funny way of saying "Mariah Carey" there. She has a ridiculous range and makes it sound effortless. Aguilera just oversings every note.

Oh ho ho nooo. Not a big fan of Mariah Carey at all. I really don't like her personality, from what I've seen on TV and stuff anyway. She's all like "don't mess with me I'm a diva". No love, you're a *****.

Same goes for Madonna. I don't care how talented she's meant to be - I saw her on a chat show over here in the UK (The Graham Norton Show) and she was awful. Just so rude and ungrateful towards her fans. Me no likey.
 

The Doctor

Absolute Beginner
Oh ho ho nooo. Not a big fan of Mariah Carey at all. I really don't like her personality, from what I've seen on TV and stuff anyway. She's all like "don't mess with me I'm a diva". No love, you're a *****.

Mariah made "Beautiful".

[video=youtube;USF55GUALyQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USF55GUALyQ[/video]

I'm sorry, everything else you could say falls down with this, the best Springsteen-meets-Phil-Spector song never made by Springsteen or Spector.

Also, if you hate your pop stars for being assholes, where do you stand on James Brown and John Lennon?

She's still getting hits, currently one as a lead singer in the top 10 and #1 in Canada and Australia, so her career is definitely not dead.

But not a solo hit. Just stuff where she's a featured artist. If she uses that as a springboard to getting a solo hit of her own, fair enough; Dusty Springfield used her partnership with Pet Shop Boys to re-emerge in the 80s. I'm not sure being a prolific collaborator is quite the same thing as still having a sustainable career, since she has presence but not personality other than dragging out the melisma on every goddamn song.
 

cagedWINGS

The Poké-theorist.
James Brown was awful. Everyone holds him and his music in such high regard. I don't. You fall out of my good books when you beat your wife so badly that you nearly kill her. Scum. I wasn't sad when he died.

John Lennon was a bit of an arse, not going to lie, but I'm from Liverpool originally so its sorta hard-wired into my DNA that I'm supposed to like him :p. Yeah, some of the comments he came out with in his life were pretty controversial, but for every "The Beatles are bigger than Jesus" he gave us "give peace a chance". He was a genius and was ahead of the curve, but its often that the brilliant ones are also pretty weird. John Lennon falls into the same category as people like Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Prince, Freddy Mercury and Elton John. They're all brilliant and bat-sh*t crazy in equal measures.

And 'Beautiful' isn't such a bad song, I'll give you that. I kinda prefer the dude's parts to the song though. And that's in no way me trying to being awkward just for the sake of it. What's his name? I don't believe he's broken the UK yet.

I like Christina, but I think Mariah and even Beyonce are better vocalists overall. At least judging from the live performances that I've seen from them. But yeah, the thread title is so shady tbh. Christina might not be at her peak, but she's still highly successful and quite relevant.

DERP! Yeah, I completely forgot about Beyonce. I think she's my favourite actually.

[video]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2XY3AvVgDns[/video]

That is why. You know in my previous post I was talking about the "Je me sais quoi" to a song that gets me interested in a song? Dem brass stabs during the verse at 1:10 of Beyonce's 'Countdown'. OOSH!!
 
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Lorde

Let's go to the beach, each.
Same goes for Madonna. I don't care how talented she's meant to be - I saw her on a chat show over here in the UK (The Graham Norton Show) and she was awful. Just so rude and ungrateful towards her fans. Me no likey.

I know what you mean. I'm a huge fan of her music (I own all her studio albums, compilation albums, and soundtrack songs), but I'm not a fan of her personality.
 

Chris-kun

i still believe
Oh ho ho nooo. Not a big fan of Mariah Carey at all. I really don't like her personality, from what I've seen on TV and stuff anyway. She's all like "don't mess with me I'm a diva". No love, you're a *****..

"I don't like her that means I totally have the right to ignore her vocal talent becuz MUH FEELZ"

Seriously though, nothing about that has anything to do with Mariah's vocal talent which is what the person you were responding to was talking about to begin with.
 

cagedWINGS

The Poké-theorist.
"I don't like her that means I totally have the right to ignore her vocal talent becuz MUH FEELZ"

Seriously though, nothing about that has anything to do with Mariah's vocal talent which is what the person you were responding to was talking about to begin with.

I never even mentioned her vocal talents. If I had said something along the lines of "I hate her singing because she's a horrible person" then you'd be right to criticise. She's got talent in spades, that's for sure, but I'll personally never be a fan as I don't like her personality :)

I even mentioned I liked that song 'Beautiful' of hers.
 
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Chris-kun

i still believe
I never even mentioned her vocal talents. If I had said something along the lines of "I hate her singing because she's a horrible person" then you'd be right to criticise. She's got talent in spades, that's for sure, but I'll personally never be a fan as I don't like her personality :)

I even mentioned I liked that song 'Beautiful' of hers.

Someone commented that she was more the voice of a generation than Christina, because of her talent, and your response was "wow no she's not because I don't like her personality"
 
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HoennMaster

Well-Known Member
That's a funny way of saying "Mariah Carey" there. She has a ridiculous range and makes it sound effortless. Aguilera just oversings every note.

Christina is the voice of "our generation". That doesn't mean Mariah is all of a sudden nothing. Most people in their late teens to mid-20's grew up knowing Christina first.

Lily Allen - L8 CMMR

I love that Lily doesn't hold anything back in regards to subject matter, but I'm not sure how I feel about this song. I like it, but of the three songs we've heard so far it's my least favorite.

And now for the Queen:

[video=youtube;w8zErggrSjE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zErggrSjE[/video]
 
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