Why is most American pop music rubbish?

mattyman · Post by **mattyman** » January 28th, 2011, 3:18 pm

How come the most popular songs seem to be about or include a lot of shallow, melodramatic, sacharine, materialistic lyrics? Why do we have such rubbish as lady gag and kesha on the radio over here?
How come so much rap and hiphop today seems to glamourise a lifestyle of deviancy, violence, gangsta's, cars, money etc. rather than talking about political and social issues?

I don't understand why mainstream american music is so popular? What is it about commercial american music that appeals so much to so many people? I don't get it. I find most the commercial stuff to my ears is nothing but intrusive cacophony. Is it mainly due to aggressive marketing tactics on the part of the corporate music industry or are people's tastes everwhere being dumbed down and homogenised?

Is it true that the world trade organisation can stop countries passing laws to protect indigenous cultures and art forms?

Is this all an attempt to seduce people into materialist and hyper-individualist ways of thinking? Could this be part of the most gargantuan assimilation program in the history of humanity? Is this nothing but a mechanism to control people for corporate interests?

This is such a beautiful world with so many different cultures. I feel that in some respects western popular culture is a threat to diversity. I feel that a lot of the themes in much of modern music carries a lot of materialist, selfish, narcissistic and sometimes even escapist messages. That's what worries me. Does anyone else feel the same way? Plus the fact that a lot of it is utter shit.

I feel that 'western' pop culture along with its idols is nothing but a psychological and cultural pollutant 10 times worse than CO2. Should I add the fact that a lot of people suffer self esteem issues because of the expectations of pop culture, because of the pressure to conform. I don't mean to sound so negative but I strongly feel that western popular culture is a very bad influence on people and also that it maybe partially responsible for a lot of the shallowness, narcissistic issues talked about in the articles on this site. Globalisation being nothing but an excuse to spread this toxic culture to all corners of the globe. I would hate to see this world transformed into a bland, homogenised, americanised, shallow, narcissistic, hyper-individualistic, dumbed-down wasteland devoid of culture, humility, respect, kindness and freedom to be oneself. I feel in some ways, that's what american popular culture is trying to acheive and I hope for the love of god that it doesn't happen.

have2fly · Post by **have2fly** » January 28th, 2011, 4:39 pm

YOU HIT MY WEAK SPOT WITH THIS POST!

I HATE HATE HATE pop music in the U.S. Every freaking car passing by is blasting hip-hop and r'n'b! People look at you as a "weirdo" if you listen to anything else besides hip-hop! I used to listen to some rap/r'n'b when I lived in Europe, but now I HATE it completely! In Europe radio stations play a mix of hip-hop, Euro-pop, trance, techno, dance club music, rock etc. It feels like a whole country just needs to get a freaking life! Young people don't even see, don't even understand or even wonder about any other music, what is played on the radio and MTV is "cool" automatically! WTF??? Where is underground? Where is hip styles of music that are special and unique??? I am all techno-trance-Europop, at least European music has a taste, melody, positive and UPLIFTING lyrics about love, tenderness, emotion and feelings. Mainstream hip-hop is all about money, gangs, jail, rape and bling-bling. What is the value of that kind of music? Trash, garbage... There is SO MUCH great music coming out of the UK, take Sting, Freddie Mercury, East 17 (when I was in middle school in Europe), Robbie Williams (not great, but good), now they have HURTS and so much more. WHY WHY WHY this music does not make it to the U.S.??? When I lived in Europe, many people loved Madonna. WHY no one is listening to Madonna IN THE U.S.??? She has some awesome songs. Complete retardation and degradation! And how can I let my children grow up in such conditions being dumbed down by MTV and B.E.T.??? By the way, Where is white television? Where is Asian Television in the States? What makes Blacks so special??? What happened to N'SYNC, Backstreet Boys and all that romantic stuff?

There is so much pop music being played in Europe, take Ace of Base, Whitney Houston, Cher, E-Type, Basic Element, Rednex, Enigma (amazing new age), Morandi, Savage Garden (Darren Hayes), Inna, Edward Maya, In-Grid (French), Mylene Farmer (French), Duran-Duran (UK), Pet Shop Boys (UK), Booty Luv (UK - awesome dance house)... I can go on and on...

I remember how Soldier boy song came out and every college party was blasting it and everyone was even trying to copy stupid moves from the video. DUH? GET A LIFE!!! Thank Heavens, I am not the only one that sees this crap happening.

One more song from the United Kingdom that never gets old. Although that guy has emotional issues and he is gay, but F#CK, find me one similar song on the pop radio in the U.S.!!! They still play it on Russian radio stations every week or so, they remember it!

odbo · Post by **odbo** » January 28th, 2011, 5:09 pm

i hate to be a broken record and i dont want to trigger any "conspracy theorist" conditioned responses but... where the hell have you been. it's 2011

the mainstream entertainment industry is 100% controlled
avoid it like the plague. don't wonder why it's bad, wonder why it's not worse.

do you honestly thing it's based on quality? as in the best musicians get to the top?

odbo · Post by **odbo** » January 28th, 2011, 5:37 pm

the different genres are there on purpose. its to further divide society and for the distraction to be more potent by targeting a specific group

i believe the only genre where they really failed is trance/techno (to some extent) versus pop, rap, r&b (after it was f***ed with), rock-n-roll (heavy metal, punk rock,etc) which are all mind-f***s of epic proportions. obviously there is still a large portion of young people, particularly in europe, who listen to complete mind-numbing, disruptive, house music or techno.

imagine this scenario. some young people in slovakia get in a car on friday, travel hundreds of miles to get to a massive rave party, and spend the next 2 days staying up all night, blitzed off their ass on ecstasy & alcohol. the rest of the week they're recovering and concerned only with plans for the next trip

that's as perfect a control mechanism as you're ever going to get. they're happily lowering their vibration. no revolutions will be planned by this ^ lot.

but some good things can come out of nefarious ventures:

we can't listen to bach all the time..

The_Adventurer · Post by **The_Adventurer** » January 28th, 2011, 6:07 pm

They're not going to infect the world anytime soon. People here in Asia love this stuff. They like the sound, but they have no idea what the lyrics are saying. I remember I asked one girl about one of these overtly sexual songs she like, if she knew what it meant. She didn't. When I told her, she almost fell over. They don't want to be like that.

S_Parc · Post by **S_Parc** » January 28th, 2011, 6:20 pm

Is this nothing but a mechanism to control people for corporate interests?

I think this has always been the case, however, in the 00s and now 10s, it's really gotten out of hand.

Realize, the Beatles/Stones/Hendrix/The Who were the mid-to-late 60s break out from the post-boogie woogie 50s sounds of Billy Haley/Presley/Buddy Holly.

Then, when classic rock saturated, we had the punk movement with Sex Pistols/Ramones/Clash during the 70s. Then, newer punk rockers got absorbed into a more mainstream types of genres.

And finally, when Punk/New Wave/Classic rock all became *corporate* rock, then we had the early 90s alternative with Jane's Addiction/Soundgarden/Nirvana/Alice in Chains.

Well, looking at the calendar, it's been almost 17 years since Soundgarden's "Superunknown" CD was released. In all that time, we haven't had one significant change or alteration which tries to break with the mainstream way of doing things. Almost all alternative bands, since that era have been trying to mimic Nirvana or if they're metal-leaning, Metallica, or if they're more *industrial*, Nu-Metal. It's pathetic, a whole generation of copy cats and mediocrity.

odbo · Post by **odbo** » January 28th, 2011, 6:25 pm

Terrence wrote:They're not going to infect the world anytime soon. People here in Asia love this stuff. They like the sound, but they have no idea what the lyrics are saying. I remember I asked one girl about one of these overtly sexual songs she like, if she knew what it meant. She didn't. When I told her, she almost fell over. They don't want to be like that.

um, the fact of the matter is

humanity is headed off a cliff. we have a few years to wake up to the realities of who controls us and what they want for us, and to change course, but people are too busy thinking about nonsense.

frankly the power structure could care less about some asians in a poor country being free, even being enlightened because they are not in a position to jeopardize their power

who controls the military? who controls the economy? thus who has the power? white nations. who controls the thoughts of these people? hollywood does.

but if you're speaking purely about the satanist dogma, they don't have to understand the lyrics. it's multi-layered. and they have their own, korean or chinese culture creation business. even if it's not controlled (which I'm sure it is), by merely mimicking hollywood they're part of the problem

like al pachino said, the 20th century belonged to the devil. we have yet to decide whose century the 21st will be

S_Parc people really are blind. Hendrix, the Beetles and all the rest, I mean a huge portion of them came out of Naval families. Many had 'elite' bloodlines, many were at least 1/2 jewish. And people are mindwashed into thinking this is all an accident. Simpson made a episode partially about t this, although the "Navy" is involved in a lot of "black ops" stuff which has absolutely nothing to do with the sea (like HAARP), modern hip-hop is all about getting people to join the army/marines.

People are also programmed with this black-white thinking. Everyone is either good or bad guys to them. Hendrix might of been a paid hack, but he, just like John Lennon and MANY others who at one time worshipped Lucifer or other occult nonsense, rebelled. Which is when they were killed. Didn't Hendrix get a poison cowboy boot from the CIA director's son and died of toe-cancer shortly after..

momopi · Post by **momopi** » January 29th, 2011, 1:04 am

I recall reading that there were some 8 million music bands registered on Myspace couple years back. Have no idea how many are on facebook. Your choice of music is so broad in the internet age, anyone still watching "top 40 video" on TV is passÃ©.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2I7TbLK ... re=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGjK6hKa ... zQiSod8qkh[/youtube]

djfourmoney · Post by **djfourmoney** » January 29th, 2011, 7:48 am

Being the resident "DJ" (since 1986) I saw this change happening WAY before most people.

For entertainment value strictly I don't Hate, hate is a strong word. I don't mind new artist, in fact I enjoy Lil Wayne to a point.

I can't really explained what or why its happen but its because most of our media is owned by a handful of sources and with the recent Comcast/NBC/Universal deal being finalized by Congress and the FCC, the choices in media have narrowed even further.

Political Discourse in music just doesn't sell. Most people don't know Immortal Technique for example and won't play his stuff on the radio or even Sat Radio like Sirius. Even on Rap shows they'll get calls mostly from Women asking for say Chris Brown or some other genre of Black Music that isn't Rap. That's because the line between Rap and R&B blurred with "I Need Love" by LL Cool J and "The Rain" by Oran "Juice" Jones and other songs in that era. Plus there's almost always a rapped verse on almost all dance oriented R&B that you can hardly tell if it was an R&B or a Rap song.

Hell I knew when Rap was going to start sounding more like House Music which it does now (Pitbull, Lil Jon, etc) and the invention of "Dirty House". The roots of "Dirty House" are in Miami/Florida's Bass dominated Rap Sound. From Beat Master Clay D to the 2 Live Crew who are ironically from Los Angeles, but gain fame in Florida with former club promoter Luke "Skywalker" Campbell in the early 80's.

Anyway its another way to keep a population DUMB. They (the Music Industry, RIAA) By saying "All the kids wanna hear is Money, Cars, Sex and Private Jets" its a lie but we aren't program directors at radio stations...

Hip Hop is not dead, its just not as easily accessible as the "fluff" is.

House is successful in Europe because its about the experience. It has always been spiritual in a sense, has some elements of gospel so that makes sense. So many times its uplifting and positive. Things mostly missing from R&B these days. House is an invention by Black Folk and don't let anybody tell you otherwise it just ain't true. But its an extension of positive elements of Disco.

Remember Disco was largely embraced, by not only Blacks but other minorities and Gays. This is why when it finally reached the mainstream in "Middle America" it started be roundly criticized and rejected it. It was decried by the Religious Right (Moral Majority) because of its connections to Gays. It was rejected by Rock & Roll Purist because some of their prized artist had to make Disco sounding records to remain relevant and finally there was elements of racism, which most people wouldn't think but c'mon you would have to stupid to think that there isn't a element of racism involved.

When Disco Sucks came and went, Disco faded into the underground, but not really. You can retrace Disco's History and Houses Roots all the way back to the late 1960's in New York, Detroit and Chicago. Listen to Donna Summer's "I feel love" or Moroder's "The Chase" and you can already hear elements of House Music, that's 1974... Also listen to "Rock Creek Park" by the Blackbyrds. That's considered one of the first Disco records, but its Jazz Fusion. Its been sampled a millions times, mostly in Hip Hop.

Anyway the history of music I find WAY more interesting that the present and it reflects in how I DJ. I don't play new stuff that much, its not like I do have it. I had Midi Mafia "Last Call" a few months before anybody hear it and "Go Ape" by Pitbull and Lil Jon before the radio had it. I still got my connections.

MrPeabody · Post by **MrPeabody** » January 29th, 2011, 7:56 pm

I like European pop music a lot better. I also listen to Latin music and Italian pop music.

E_Irizarry · Post by **E_Irizarry** » January 31st, 2011, 2:56 pm

Awesome thread, guys.

I am feel mad weird when I talk about producers and songwriters and publishing companies to the laymen & they don't know what the f**k I am talking about.

Yet when I hung out with music industry cats at parties and expositions, they didn't like the fact that I knew alot about the industry I guess.

But now everybody is swinging off of Trey Songz 5-inch cock. Whereas I think Bobby Valentino is the best R&B singer of Gen Y hands down. Thanks to super producers Tim & Bob (whom used to name their publishing company after their idols Jam & Lewis) who orchestrate Bobby Valentinos records.

djfourmoney · Post by **djfourmoney** » January 31st, 2011, 4:58 pm

MrPeabody wrote:I like European pop music a lot better. I also listen to Latin music and Italian pop music.

European Pop music is really fluffy and that's okay. I just need to be mad as a Black Man in America and that doesn't help. I need something angry, besides there are many European artist on our radio stations just not the majority. Look at the UK Top 40 and its dominated by American artist. Many American artist that are hard to find markets for often start in Europe as well.

As I said most European based stuff (in English) is positive and uplifting, which is fine. I listen to Tim Westwood as well one of the fathers of Hip Hop in Britain and much of what he plays is US based, in fact 95% of is US based. He does put UK artist on there as well.

American music at least R&B and Rap has more attitude, its also dirty, like banging your girl in the butt. I love house I just can't sit there and listen too it for hours and hours and hours. I can go maybe ONE club night and have my fill for the month. I also find people that are into house don't dance together, its more like a group of people just having a good time.

Its not ideal for hooking up.

My desktop is down otherwise I would share some of my mixes.

I'm reliving my youth I mean when I was like 10 or younger. So I'm mixing a much of 70's and 80's tracks now, its fun, from Cliff Richard to Blondie to Hall & Oates, even Stevie Wonder and a whole bunch of others.

djfourmoney · Post by **djfourmoney** » January 31st, 2011, 4:59 pm

E_Irizarry wrote:Awesome thread, guys.

I am feel mad weird when I talk about producers and songwriters and publishing companies to the laymen & they don't know what the f**k I am talking about.

Yet when I hung out with music industry cats at parties and expositions, they didn't like the fact that I knew alot about the industry I guess.

But now everybody is swinging off of Trey Songz 5-inch cock. Whereas I think Bobby Valentino is the best R&B singer of Gen Y hands down. Thanks to super producers Tim & Bob (whom used to name their publishing company after their idols Jam & Lewis) who orchestrate Bobby Valentinos records.

I like Bobby and your right he doesn't get as much attention as others do. But its hard to get attention in that market. Its very crowded.

djfourmoney · Post by **djfourmoney** » January 31st, 2011, 5:05 pm

If you wanna help DJ Kool Herc has Kidney Stones and can't afford to have them removed, so his sister is looking for donations. I'm super broke and unemployed but for those of you that are old school hip hop fans, we wouldn't be here today without Herc's pioneering DJ style.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/201 ... ord_s.html

Truthville · Post by **Truthville** » January 31st, 2011, 5:30 pm

Ahh Music!

"American Idol" is the biggest threat to Western Music in my mind. While you MIGHT have good or great singers, it's really not about their VOCAL talent as in their MARKETABILITY talent. Music is really about the business instead of creativity it seems these days. It's always been that way, perhaps it was just hidden more in the past. I'm just surprised I haven't heard any "product placement" lyrics yet, I 'm sure they are coming!

Thank God the Internet has greatly destroyed the old music business models of the past. Back then, whom got played on the radio seemed to be rigged to a certain extant. Nowadays, ANYONE can make a quick video, post it, and try to build a following. Of course, with the old gatekeepers dead, alot of stuff gets through that is just horrible BUT whom am I to judge?

I also think the novelity of Auto Tune has come and gone. While it was OK on the first record I heard it on, which was "California Love" by 2Pac in the 90's, it just gets on my nerves to hear it these days, and makes me think the singers or singers are just creatively dead and/or using it because other people are. Anyone else agree?

As far political songs and such? Most people seem to want to only eat the frosting, and not touch the cake.

TruthVille

P.S. I remember when "rap" and hip/hop were about solving/identifying social issues instead of creating/perpetuating social issues.