Someone has to work at McDonald’s I suppose, and it’s not going to be Timmy from the Hampton's.
The gap in how music evolved between 2001-2021, compared to 1981-2001 is just massive.
I think Mark Fisher was really onto something with the death of social democracy and the death of music (at least in the U.K.). All the music resources that were accessible to me for free as a kid in my hometown don’t exist anymore. It’s grim. I also think that the internet has had a part to play in the decline in innovation too.
A friend of mine I used to play in bands with made it in a metal band that got big. That band has done podcasts where they talk about the importance of passive income, and how you shouldn’t form bands with your friends. You see, there’s a much better marketplace for finding talented musicians online. Christ metal sucks now.
I looked into Doja Cat’s Wikipedia page recently and I was disappointed to learn that she is the daughter of wealthy/well connected parents. She’s talented but knowing that it sort of seems inevitable that someone with all of those advantages growing up would go on to be successful.
This is why you nerds need to just listen to punk, it's like one of the few things anarchists are really good at.
Seriously or any DIY artists at all lol or most rap or anything that’s not shoved down your gullet by stereogum or Brooklyn vegan or what ever.
I hear ya. Depends where you are and what kinda music scene you’re interacting with I suppose, it’s def not close to majority by any stretch of the imagination in my experience. There’s plenty of starving artists out here too. :shrug-outta-hecks:
It’s obviously a much easier path for the rich and well connected tho no arguing that
Yeah you are by no means wrong with what you’re saying. I’ve seen that I also see a lot of people working service jobs or temp jobs maybe they’re not starving, but they’re def working class.
What's more, is the new artists are just the spoiled, rich brats of the last generation of artists. I don't know how in the fuck people I work with find songs about partying on billion dollar yachts in the Hamptons relatable. I've known so many people in their twenties that sing along with pop songs like the song is about their life.
This isn't meant to be an anti-pop screed. I actually find myself enjoying a lot of it on its face. I'm more into jam bands and handmade music, but pop is designed to hit just right, and I'm just not that stone hearted. I have one co-worker that usually picks the music every day, and it's like top 40 stuff. It's been interesting being back in the loop, and it kind of helps me balance my music listening. Some days, I just can't take another playthrough of Doja Cat and I can't wait to get in my car for some ear bleach. Other days, I discover something like Rollin' by Michael Kiwanuka. Never would have heard that jam if it wasn't for the pop station at work.
I don't even have an issue with pop artists presenting themselves as rich, at least they're honest about it, I just have an issue with how the spotlight is given arbitrarily in most cases, and it's an invisible fact to most people. Like I feel there's no point in trying to make anything artistic, because there would be no one out there who will listen because, while I'm by no means destitute, my family simply is not connected, so I don't try. I begin defeated already.
Kiwanuka's You Ain't The Problem is great though, you should listen to Exuma.
I've also noticed that pretty much every popular song that isn't Doja Cat has a lifted hook, lyrics or melody from another song. I understand sampling, but this just seems lazy. Like they can't even pay someone to write them some trite and vapid lyrics, they had to steal the hook from that one The Cardigans song, that as far as the fans are concerned, is awesome and original.
You know this even extends to Rage Against the Machine, which is a band whose lyrics are maybe two degrees away from directly advocating mass revolt. The guitarist graduated from Harvard and his dad was Kenya's ambassador to the US, the bassist's dad was a NASA engineer.
They've always been an anomaly to me. How are they able to get record deals and play concerts? They're openly socialists and don't even shy away from it.
Because the lyrics are so esoteric and all over the place that chuds can be fans of theirs. They're turning exactly zero people from liberals into communists. I feel like Immortal Technique, Bambu, etc. are a lot clearer in the message to the point that it can't be ignored, and they seem a little less well known. And RATM is only a little less "left-wing-as-an-aesthetic" than Run the Jewels (which isn't really left wing at all). Any "dissent" is mostly an aesthetic that adds a tiny bit of meaning to something that is otherwise just silly.
Do they openly criticize capitalism itself or just its most visible symptoms and effects? I'm not a big fan of theirs so I don't know, but I think precedent has shown that criticism for the effects of capitalism is tolerated so long as criticism of capitalism itself isn't mentioned.
Their album "Evil Empire" has a song on it entitled "People of the Sun" which is a positve endorsement of the Zapatistas. They've also performed with an EZLN flag on stage before. Another song on that album quotes Mao. Lyrics can a lot of interpretations (it's actually pretty common for RATM fans to have no clue how socialist they are) so it's often easier just to point to interviews and other activities they've done.
Tom Morello, the guitarist, is probably the most clear. He's said it outright in interviews, in no uncertain terms, using the terms capitalism and socialism. He's blamed capitalism directly for climate change, for instance. He also has a side project where he plays IWW songs.
It's hard to summarize, but at least vocally and where they spend money on charity, the band members seem consistently socialist in their ideology to me. They're rich and work for Sony though, so take that as you want. It's difficult for me to express how much of an anomaly they are. My best guess has always been their symbols and lyrics are obscure enough to fly right over the heads of most Americans to the point where they don't seem threateningly left wing, since they don't focus on the cultural identifiers. How many Americans are going to identify left wing politics through praising Zapatistas and singing Franz Fanon quotes?
I always find it funny that They Might Be Giants is openly communist and their music is used in tons of advertisements.
At their first concert, They Might Be Giants performed under the name El Grupo De Rock and Roll (Spanish for "the Rock and Roll Band"), because the show was a Sandinista rally in Central Park, and a majority of the audience members spoke Spanish.[10]
I love how every time I look up an actor or musician they nearly always have affluent if not famous parents because those are the material conditions that make taking a risk on a career in the arts possible
like... Rob Schneider's daughter has a singing career
Tanner Elle Schneider (born July 3, 1989), known professionally as Elle King
It bums me out, especially regarding ‘high’ art that requires years of training. It is just inaccessible, or at least significantly more difficult, for people from working class families; I have to wonder how many great artists have had to work behind a plow
Pretty much. There's always smaller local scenes that I go to since my country only has one really famous artist lol
But it is interesting how all these artists fetishize "the struggle" and then I find out they came from a lot of money.
I mean, it's a great way for rich people to become poor people. I do laugh a little at some upper-class twit putting 14 hours a day practice to earn 30k a year as 4th desk Viola player.
Less so these days. Most retired classical musicians (ones who retired after a long career) I know grew up fairly well off but now scape a living off of lessons. Admittedly the ones I know skew Vocalist, and they've always been poorer.
But the ones who had their debut during the golden days of Opera in the 50s-early 60s do have some of that. Parties at people's estates with footmen serving up drugs on platters.
Timmy from the Hamptons
Timmy from the Hamptons is the worst indie musician ever. He claims to write and play his own music but professional songwriters actually write his songs and studio musicians play them in an "indie style". And why not? His daddy is a VP at Universal Music Group.
And I don't know a single person who actually listens to that trash. I've always wondered who actually buys that, other than marketing people making commercials.
I still don't know who buys it. The numbers are so big, but I don't know what is the demographic that listens to it. I don't have a picture in my mind of the person who listens to pop music. It's a blank space.
Maybe I live in a weird bubble (half of the roommates I've had were musicians), but the only time I've ever seen someone intentionally, deliberately listen to pop music was at work when managers put on some on Bluetooth speakers. I guess it's a thing managers do, I've seen it quite a few times.
That makes sense. I guess people listen to pop as well and I don't realize it.
I was and still am a big hipster, back in the day I listened to a bunch of indie artists that are big now back when they were only on SoundCloud/bandcamp/etc. I've been a metal head and used to follow my local emo scene very closely. These days I still listen to a lot of that stuff from time to time, but the most interesting thing that's been happening musically lately from a production standpoint has been hyperpop and kpop. And songwriting-wise there is actually a lot of merit to really good pop. I'm actually really big on pop music fussing and the evolution of indie music as it's taken on more mainstream pop and production elements — the progression of Bon Iver's discography is a really interesting snapshot of that phenomenon over time.
I'm also a natural hater so I really enjoy getting to dissect a really well-written pop song followed by eviscerating an exceptionally terrible one.
There's merits to just about every genre of music — the main caveat here is that I stay away from chud pop-country but there are still some good modern country tracks.
I think my top 5 artists this year are gonna be Sufjan Stevens, Taylor Swift, Mamamoo, Lucy Dacus, and Whitney Houston which doesn't all have much in common apart from vague pop and/or indie musical lineage, unless homoeroticism is a genre. I'm on a tangent here but I think dismissing pop music as trash means you're missing out on a lot of stellar songwriting
The way most pop music is made is what I'm referring to when I say trash. This style of music production is applied to other genres as well, but in pop it's the default. The artificial vocals, the weird way midi and or looped instruments are used, the 12 producers for the one song, the way the music is entirely disconnected from any physical thing and becomes this floating sound that comes from nowhere. Nothing sounds like it has a place. Nothing sounds like an actual person made it.
I hear so many edits and awkward cuts and pitch shifts in this style of music it sounds like a meme that uses sentence mixing. You know, like those videos that use TF2 voice lines to make the characters say stupid things.
