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Has pop music lost its fun? - BBC Music

I have reconsidered my recent rant regarding the poor current state of pop music.

After ploughing through a truck load of trash, there is still the odd moment of pure pop brilliance for the youth to dance around to.

Not something I would personally purchase but decent pop pap
Play it a few times, that chorus will never leave your brain.
Lyrically inane, musically inept but catchy nonetheless.


The days of angst are well & truly over though
Punk never happened
 
At work we have pop music on the radio [yes there is s proper PRS License] in the production room all the time. It is a nightmare for me, who could never ignore music of whatever type if it is audible.

The range has narrowed. The emotions are almost always "me-me” and the tone so often dirge-like.

I find it makes me angry, and that is just like some classical music also.

The relief is to be sent on deliveries where I can use the van radio for a choice of R4 or R3 depending on mood. It has reached a sufficient pass that I have seriously considered a change of employment so as to avoid eight hours each day of modern pop music. Of course secure employment wins out on that!!

The trouble is that I can easily identify the “artists” concerned, and where their latest song has been copied from!

I think the last uplifting pop song I can remember was Bruno Mars’s “Lazy Song,” which is a joyful and original parody of youth-culture!

ATB from George
 
Ragaman said:
Not something I would personally purchase but decent pop pap
Play it a few times, that chorus will never leave your brain.
Lyrically inane, musically inept but catchy nonetheless.
Click to expand...

Ouch! They must have worn out their Autotune! :-/
 
The Green green grass was one of the all time high points of pop music, IMHO, of course! A real tune, unforgettable lyrics, and singer who did not need auto-tuning to be credible ...
 
The UK number 1 before "Green green grass" was "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys, the one after was "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees. Hardly a miserable phase!
 
Exclusive to all newspapers: most old people don't like new fangled contemporary popular music.
 
Not here surely. I do honestly believe, around 4, or more, people on here like new current hip-hop/jazz.

Bloss

I feel better than James Brown, now.
 
Pure pop music's kind of gone underground hasn't it? Everyone got "too cool" for it a few years ago, when R&B took its place in the mainstream charts.

I'm not surprised if self-centred complaining is more popular in music today, because it sure as heck seems more popular in every other walk of life.
 
I don't normally listen to Bono but he said recently pop has lost it's balls or something similar, Where is the rock 'n roll, I have to agree.
As much as I admire the doom laden qualities of London Grammar, I am a fan but sometimes you want to give them a shake.

Problem is, the youth have nothing to complain about
Punk would never happen in modern Britain
Mollycoddled at school, scared of their own shadow when they leave.

I imagine many thought the world was ending a few weeks back when we had 3 inches of snow.
Gone off the subject again....
 
The closure of so many small music venues has to be stifling new bands coming up through the ranks.
Whilst I openly admit that the stuff that inhabits the charts is wayyyyy off my radar, I can still enjoy a young new band giving it some beans on stage.
Sadly, there seems to be loads of tribute bands & not much else playing whatever small venues that are still open.
 
Ragaman said:
I don't normally listen to Bono but he said recently pop has lost it's balls or something similar, Where is the rock 'n roll, I have to agree.
As much as I admire the doom laden qualities of London Grammar, I am a fan but sometimes you want to give them a shake.

Problem is, the youth have nothing to complain about
Punk would never happen in modern Britain
Mollycoddled at school, scared of their own shadow when they leave.
Click to expand...

One should perhaps compare and contrast Bono’s limp aged and corporate U2 with say Kate Tempest or Sleaford mods! There is plenty of ‘punk’ around, it just isn’t ‘punk’ anymore. Tons of stuff with a message in rap too, e.g. Kendrick Lamar’s writing is so complex and layered I actually need to resort to web resources to unravel it as I just don’t have the cultural references anymore! I’m too bloody old and out of touch, but I do at least realise stuff is happening big time.

I mentioned on one of the year end threads that anyone who thinks music is stale or dead should pop into Rough Trade, Bleep, Piccadilly or whatever decent sized local independent record store and honestly admit how few of the albums in the racks they recognise. I suspect many here would be lucky to identify just 5% of the new happening now stuff. I am utterly ashamed whenever I go into Piccadilly as it just hits home that I am the out of touch middle age bloke I swore I’d never become. I always thought I’d be another John Peel!
 
Some of the best pop music has been "miserable" / serious, e.g The Smiths and the post punk movement (s) Perhaps musical cool restricts great records from making it? Was this corker from The Pale Fountains such a casualty?


I know many music venues are closing but there is still a constant stream of cool bands appearing if you know where to look!
If it's fun 2017-8 music you want to hear then you could do worse then listen to Superorganism.

 
I don't follow the mainstream myself so I can't really comment on current pop. This is the sort of music I like:

https://soundcloud.com/Nick_G/likes

There's plenty more where that came from. I also hear lots of interesting new music on the likes of WFMU, Intergalactic FM, KFJC, etc.

I think the more interesting music is happening outside the mainstream.
 
Thanks for the recommendations, Nick - I was familiar with WFMU, but Intergalactic FM is amazing. KFJC is currently playing some death metal, which is intriguing too.
 
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