I know good modern pop music exists, I'm talking about the terrible shit that plays on radios, commercials, TV etc. The stuff that the media has decided is current pop music.
This is probably my most boomer opinion , but most of it is awful. Where have all the strong voices gone? It's all baby voiced feel good insurance commercial stuff or warbley break-up songs.
If I hear another song that sounds like 'Tonights Gonna be a Good Night." or Ed Sheeran or any of the 100 songs sung by women that all sound like infants I am going to screm.
Also anyone notice that these songs are all safe as far as lyrics go? No ones allowed to be mad or defiant in music anymore. Its all "Lets party." or "Boohoo my Boyfriend left me." Mainstream music used to have tons of "Fuck the system" songs, not any more. There seems to be no genre represented outside of singer-songwriter. Also let women have strong voices again, damn it. Also let bands that play instruments exist. Let multiple genres exist!
Anyway, Boomer_Owl out
It's just you, we make sure the radio only plays the shitty stuff when you are listening, as a joke
I'm fifty and even I think this post reads like "old man yells at clouds".
Find a YouTube channel dedicated to commercials from any era and you'll find plenty of music that'll make you wish for death's cold embrace.
Me:
Show
Commercials always have sucked btw, I was saying that mainstream music all sounds like its from a commercial
Bach's coffee cantata was an ad jingle and that goes hard. Not much since then though.
the business freaks that decide what is mainstream pop literally run prospective songs through an algorithm that makes sure they are similar to past songs that made a lot of money
I exclusively listen to police dispatch and recordings of 911 calls
the mainstream is kind of disappearing anyway as culture has become stratified into a million small subcultures. sure there are still some big artists like Taylor Swift or Megan Thee Stallion or whatever but I have to wonder if they're the last of a dying breed. you can go through life without caring about any of these famous people, which was much more difficult before the internet. most people don't listen to the radio anymore, they get their music from Spotify, TikTok and Youtube algorithm geared towards their specific taste
like, ask 5 random teenagers what music they're into and you'll probably get 5 completely different answers
Death Grips and Post Punk are borderline mainstream. There's a level 4 alternative where yknow, you're part of a music scene and know a lot of underground music.
Yeah no, mainstream music has always sucked in those "fuck the system" songs have always been alternative music that gets some playtime exclusively on alt channels, til about 15 years after it's no longer relevant.
It still gets produced, but it's never been on mainstream radio.
i mean frank sinatra and elvis were mainstream in the past, no? that's certainly good music, and if nothing else there's the beatles which is like.. the definition of mainstream and viewed by many as the best music ever
even nowadays there's the odd bit of actually creative music on the radio now and then
If you are not a mainstream pop music enjoyer, you probably do not enjoy mainstream pop music, regardless of the decade it was produced or the artist who performed it.
If you're sick of the derivative, algorithmically optimised songs on iHeartRadio or any other equivalent corporate station, you're not going to stick around for the 1-2 marginally different songs that get playtime per week. Even most of the alt radio stations have been captured by one of these massive companies that own hundreds of stations.
In my entire province, there is only a single AM station (originating in the US) we can pick up that isn't owned by Bell, Corus, Rogers, or iHR. It's 24/7 right wing talk radio. I haven't listened to radio in years. There's nothing there for me.
I regret to inform you that mainstream music always sucks more or less the same amount and that you are getting old. It gives me no pleasure to relay this
popular music always sucked, old music is on average better because no one makes effort to preserve or remember the shitty songs
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Mainstream music really shit the bed in the late 90’s when Clear Channel took over most radio stations. That isn’t the only thing that went wrong, but I feel like that was a defining period when things got noticeably worse.
All the pop songs of my youth were like: "Baby I know I did you wrong. Can we make reenacting our traumas together again work, baby?"
music swells with notes of struggle and triumph, string section weeps with hope that the horrifying relationship dynamic will be restoredTrue, lol. There are some old songs I hear the lyrics and I'm like "Thats kind of terrible"
Not even December yet and here you go subtweeting The Pogues.
Tonights Gonna be a Good Night came out in 2009 and its much closer to being nostalgia music than being current pop music
Yeah yeah but theres still a buhjillion new songs that sound just like it
I exclusively listen to weird shit I bought on Bandcamp so I wouldn't know
On the plus side, I feel as though independent music is more interesting than its ever been. Every genre under the sun is being created at a DIY and I find that beautiful. You can find DIY pop, DIY noise, DIY punk, DIY hip hop, DIY folk, DIY country, and everything else. It rules. Songtrader might ruin this moment with the destruction of bandcamp, but I hope people keep making the art. I hope I find a new place to discover it.
I haven't really listened to the radio since Bomb the Music Industry and Defiance Ohio started putting their music online for donations, so I'm a little out of touch on mainstream. Some really good stuff does make it out of the mainstream, but I have no idea how common it is, because it mostly gets filtered through other people for me lol.
