Music today sucks.
Believe me, I'm not trying to come from a mightier-than-thou standpoint, or to try and influence other people. I am just making an objective comment on current music.
For some proof, let's take a closer look at some of the top downloaded songs from iTunes as of 3/12/08:
Love in This Club - Usher
The hook in this song, the real ear-catcher, the chorus, the driving force of this garbage:
I wanna make love in this club, EY!
(In this club, EY! In this club EY!)
I wanna make love in this club, EY!
(In this club, EY! In this club EY!)
Other singles from 2007 to the present include such rare gems as "Low" (Whose main hook consists of "low low low low low low low low"), Crank That (Soulja Boy) (Wammy Wammy Wammy NO!), Girlfriend (easily the dumbest post-punk song since, well, Sk8er Boi...) and (my favorite) This is Why I'm Hot by Mims.
In contrast, 40 years ago (March 16, 1968, to be precise) the top single was "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding.
Other number 1 hit singles that year include Hey Jude by The Beatles, Mrs. Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel, Hello, I Love You by The Doors, and I Heard it Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye, all timeless pieces of art produced by the most successful and influential artists of their or any other generation to date.
Does anyone else see a difference here? Not just in genre, instrumentation, timbre, key, etc, but in quality of songwriting? In subject matter? In general musicianship?
When did this happen!? How did we go from Paul McCartney to Paul Wall!?
Now, don't assume I am not a fan of current music. In fact, my musical taste is pretty diverse. I like everyone from John Mayer to John Legend. Muse to Iron & Wine. Spoon to Wilco. Foo Fighters to Gorillaz. David Crowder to Dave Matthews. All of them on my iPod.
But when the predominant force in music can find nothing better to write about than their "lovely lady lumps", there is a serious problem with society...
My Humps, by the way, may have been the most disappointing song in a long time, at least to me. Will.i.am is a brilliant musician. He knows how to make a powerful statement. Look at "Where is the Love?". Look at his very political "Yes We Can". Both show the potential of a young, burgeoning songwriter. Then he somehow gets Fergie to sing about her Humps, which shows as much musical creativity as a bag of M&Ms. Methinks Apl. and Taboo have gotten hold of his notebook...
Between Gangsta rap (we owe it all to you Ice-T!), Nu Metal (great job, Korn!), and Screamo (thanks a bunch, Orchid!) there isn't a very popular market for other forms of music.
Once upon a time, "limitless undying love/which shines around me like a million suns/it calls me on and on/across the universe" could move a generation
Nowadays, "See my game is outrageous/I got her to the crib and exchanged some fuck faces/but it wasn't no use for me to rush to bust one/cause I wanted her to have a eruption" drones mindlessly through the earbuds of teenagers...
Snoop, what happened? Why are you so popular? And if Sexual Eruption is music today, what exactly will music sound like tomorrow?
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so... not all music today sucks. Just mainstream rap.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/sawaboof
"...There is a crushing guilt that comes with being a Catholic. Whether things are good or bad or you're simply... eating tacos in the park, there is always the crushing guilt."
-30 Rock-
Amazing things are happening in modern day music. Just not in modern day rap/pop/rock music. Take a listen to what these folks are doing if you have a few spare minutes...you'll be glad you did.
Gregory Wanamaker, composer
Kristin Kuster, composer
Mark Saul, techno bagpiper
KT Tunstall, singer/songwriter
You left out The Mars Volta singer and guitarists and John Frusciante.
Oh, I'm sorry. I was being a smart ass and it didn't get through. I suck at the internet. I don't have a problem with modern day music--just the radio stations that can't seem to grasp the idea that all these talented bands recorded more than one song--and that song doesn't actually have to play 7 times a day.
I was trying to refer to how the OP only really gave examples of rap when s/he was saying that all of today's music sucks.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/sawaboof
"...There is a crushing guilt that comes with being a Catholic. Whether things are good or bad or you're simply... eating tacos in the park, there is always the crushing guilt."
-30 Rock-
erm, actually, I pointed out Avril Lavigne (punk/pop), Orchid (screamo), The Black Eyed Peas (hiphop/funk/pop), and Korn (nu metal)...
If that still isn't satisfactory, how about these: Nickelback, Creed, Clay Aiken, Brad Paisley, Bowling for Soup, Linkin Park, Aqua, Limp Bizkit, Hannah Montana, Blink 182, Bush and Paramore (just because ghost-writing pisses me off...)
Perhaps I should have said, "Nearly any song on the top 40, or the Hot 100, or iTunes 10 most popular downloads, or just about any other singles chart sucks."
Either way, it was a generalized, not literal statement.
Nickelback, Creed, Clay Aiken, Brad Paisley, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Hannah Montana...
ugh I had successfully blocked these from my own personal existense.
I take back my previous statement
you should have said nearly any song on the Top 40, etc. Those are, usually, all bands promoted with big labels and flashing lights. I can easily pretend they don't exist because, in my world of music, they don't.
If you need to listen to some good, recently made music, I have invites to the Cellar... Promoting bands and singers/songwriters who don't happen to be on RIAA affiliated labels. It's good people.
I'm sorry. I just get edgy when I see statements like 'all music sucks' because... it doesn't. You just have to look elsewhere for the good stuff.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/sawaboof
"...There is a crushing guilt that comes with being a Catholic. Whether things are good or bad or you're simply... eating tacos in the park, there is always the crushing guilt."
-30 Rock-
mainstream music is the mainstream.......in the 60's and 70's rock and roll was new and edgy......in the 80's it was rap/hiphop....now all forms of music are basically mainstreamed...
there are no new forms of music to grab ears on a world level....when people lose interest in the mainstream music they will just move on to another form...
personally, I miss the music of the 90's....not all of it but....you know there’s bad songs in every era. you’re totally right though...i cant STAND most music today. screamo really tics me off... i love metal, but screamo KILLS everything music is. why? BECAUSE IT TAKES NO TALLENT TO SCREAM THINGS PEOPLE CANT UNDERSTAND....every once and a while is fine...but not every song all the time. and i agree with you on almost all pop and rap. its just a bombardment of sex and drugs and the abuse of it. i mean there are some exceptions.....