Is pop music at its bottom?

[chagzuki]

Isn't 99% of the industry owned by about 5 people now? Probably about 4 people write most of the tunes that are in the charts at any given time.

I just made that up, but it's probably not far from the truth.

A couple of geezers in suits wave loads of cash at some other geezers to go research market trends & hire a bunch of stylists, choreographers etc, to train up some naive dancing and singing monkeys. Then they pay the radio stations to play the single and plaster the universe in billboard advertising that says that if you don't buy this shit the rest of the universe will laugh and spit in your face.

Watch the parade of booty jiggling.

[Mikomi]

It reached its bottom at the end of the 90's. Now it is going back up, it seems.

Personally I find that although cheesy, the stuff at the end of the 90's still had a much greater depth of sounds and ideas than most of the popular music released today.

Maybe that's just me though...

Yes, all those boy bands, girl bands, Scatman John/Dr Alban/I'm a barbie girl euro dance crap, gangsta pop (c)rap --- very "deep", very great ideas, no doubt.....

I'm not saying that the music was 'deep' in that sense of the word . It's merely my obeservation that in a lot of the late 90's pop you had full lyrics, backing singers, piano lines and/other distinct melodies, tempo and key changes etc... Nowadays it seems you can get away with a hip hop beat, a suitably low bassline, and a catchy but oft repeated lyrical 'hook'.

[Voidoid Surrealist]

Which brings up the question: When was pop music at it's top?

My vote goes to the 60s.

[Dunbar]

i remember when it was all fields around here...

[Rangtangtang]

An airline maybe the thing to get into.

[davor]

Yes, all those boy bands, girl bands, Scatman John/Dr Alban/I'm a barbie girl euro dance crap, gangsta pop (c)rap --- very "deep", very great ideas, no doubt.....

I'm not saying that the music was 'deep' in that sense of the word . It's merely my obeservation that in a lot of the late 90's pop you had full lyrics, backing singers, piano lines and/other distinct melodies, tempo and key changes etc... Nowadays it seems you can get away with a hip hop beat, a suitably low bassline, and a catchy but oft repeated lyrical 'hook'. [/quote]


Give me a break. All those "manufactured" boy crap bands, and girl crap bands, like backstreet boys and All saints and the like - not only did they have backing vocals, they also could dance:) It's just the pity that they all sounded the same, had the same "manufactured" melodies, which were anything but distinctive. Piano lines? You gotta be kiddin'. Listen to "The Way it is" by Bruce Hornsby, now that's a piano line.
I don't remember many key changes in the 90's music, let alone tempo changes. In fact there weren't many changes of any type if you listen to all that 90's gangsta pop (c)rap, which is absolutely horrible.

[peejunk]

Well at least 90s pop had massive attack, tricky, prodigy at their creative peak, radiohead, underworld, bjôrk, soundgarden etc. all of these were selling tons of cds had videos on mtv and were part of the pop establishment.

Acts that are that kind of popsy, marketable underground stuff have a lot more difficult time coming out today than in the 90s when the industry all of the sudden went crazy about the indie dollar and didn't reserve the airwaves only for 100% clean corporate-generated products.

Besides, pop was it it's worst in mid to late 80s, the "zeroes" are a pale reflection of the pap that ruled the charts at the dawn of corporate pop era.

And some of the hip-hop that has surfaced together with gangsta tripe was actually very good (Cypress Hill for example).

[vurt]

Which brings up the question: When was pop music at it's top?

My vote goes to the 60s.

more specifically june the 14th 1965

[davor]

Well at least 90s pop had massive attack, tricky, prodigy at their creative peak, radiohead, underworld, bjôrk, soundgarden etc. all of these selled tons of cds had videos on mtv and were part of the pop establishment.).

That's not pop, you bosnian bonehead. If you call Soundgarden pop, you must be an idiot. As far as I know their style was called grunge or ,at least, "rock". Bjork is the morst overrated piece of "quasy art" crap, I've ever heard - although that doesn't make it pop either.

Besides, pop was it it's worst in mid to late 80s, the "zeroes" are a pale reflection of the pap that ruled the charts at the dawn of corporate pop era.

You're wrong again, 80's were the golden age of pop music. Izgleda da ti u Bosni nisi bas dolazio u kontakt sa pop-om osamdesetih, sto nije ni cudo s obzirom gdje zivis. Ako mislis da je Lepa Brena pop, onda bih se cak i mogao sloziti s tobom. Ako ti je Soundgarden pop, onda se ne bih cudio ni takvoj kategorizaciji.
All in all, this point of view is not surprising since it's coming from a man who doesn't know what a melody is, and for whom rapping=singing.

And some of the hip-hop that has surfaced together with gangsta tripe was actually very good (Cypress Hill for example).

I don't see much similarity between Cypress Hill and Coolio.

[Mikomi]

Give me a break. All those "manufactured" boy crap bands, and girl crap bands, like backstreet boys and All saints and the like - not only did they have backing vocals, they also could dance:) It's just the pity that they all sounded the same, had the same "manufactured" melodies, which were anything but distinctive. Piano lines? You gotta be kiddin'. Listen to "The Way it is" by Bruce Hornsby, now that's a piano line.
I don't remember many key changes in the 90's music, let alone tempo changes. In fact there weren't many changes of any type if you listen to all that 90's gangsta pop (c)rap, which is absolutely horrible.

You completely misunderstand my point. I don't claim the the late ninties pop was musical genious, far from it infact. However, as a comparison to the tripe being released today, it is certainly much more diverse and original. At least the late ninties stuff was trying to have melodies and such.

[vurt]

That's not pop, you bosnian bonehead. If you call Soundgarden pop, you must be an idiot. As far as I know their style was called grunge or ,at least, "rock". Bjork is the morst overrated piece of "quasy art" crap, I've ever heard - although that doesn't make it pop either.

actually your the idiot,pop music = popular music so with that definition in place any music which enters a chart is popular.so any music which includes grunge or quasi art shite or yep even rock that makes it into the top 40 is pop

[CypherOne]

still, it's good that we've got something to argue about.

[tetraplan]

Why do we (TINW) care, anyway? We can make our own music, share it with anyone who wants to hear it, distribute it through different channels, all over the world.

Pop is dead. So what?

Groet, Erik

[CypherOne]

long live the pop!

[vurt]

still, it's good that we've got something to argue about.

no it isnt