Um, are there still any pop stars?

[fluffy_little_something]

Is Thriller still the best-selling album ever?
If so, that record will probably also be for eternity now that many people don't buy records and CD's anymore, nor complete albums in file format.

yup and like you said probably always will be, I remember like 3 people gave it to me on one birthday lol

I remember the album, big folder-type outer sleeve, blue Epic label I think, rather thick vinyl.
My only copy died in a flooding, along with 100+ other records

[chk071]

I just wanted to post that MJ is the perfect example that pop stars didn't really change that much at all. Then i Google'd, and found out that he actually wrote a lot of his stuff himself... kudos for that, and for also having those singing, dancing, and entertaining skills. I stand totally corrected. Not many who really can claim all that. Shame that he was a bit of a weirdo though.

[Zexila]

Poop stars.

[incubus]

I like coke. I hate pepsi.

[PurpleCatfishBettie]

in 2014 or so, depeche mode had a big tour. over the course of their career, those guys might have actually surpassed the beatles in popularity... definitely in longevity...

[fmr]

I just wanted to post that MJ is the perfect example that pop stars didn't really change that much at all. Then i Google'd, and found out that he actually wrote a lot of his stuff himself... kudos for that, and for also having those singing, dancing, and entertaining skills. I stand totally corrected. Not many who really can claim all that. Shame that he was a bit of a weirdo though.

You have to take in consideration the work of Quincy Jones. If it wasn't for him, I believe MJ would never had the success he enjoyed. Like it happened with the Beatles and George Martin, it was Quincy Jones that polished the raw songs MJ created, arranged them and turned them into complete recording pieces.

[fluffy_little_something]

Actually, it was the team Jones-Swedien. They were a producer couple so to speak, like Jam & Lewis.

[Apostate]

There are plenty, but the vast majority of them know very little about music (or even sing or play their instruments well).

Today's Occidental pop scene is simply the decline began after the Beatles broke up (or, arguably, since Stevie Wonder stopped making that steady run of hit singles). With the above mentioned, we had pioneering Pop stars who were dazzlingly brilliant songwriters (arguably great composers, at least in the context of their times) and knew their instruments and had a good grasp of using the studio as an instrument in itself. There were nuances evident in their music that could be unfolded and savored upon each listen. Even Michael Jackson's hugely successful Pop was very derivative of Wonder and the Beatles, and he probably would have told you so.

Today everything is about the beat, young looks, and latest fashions. If you don't look good on MTV (or at least have an entertaining-in-some-way video) you will have to live on live performances, and even then you might as well just call it a hobby with limited return.

Things will change, as history has proven.

[.jon]

If you don't look good on MTV

I see you're a man with a finger on the pulse of pop music

[Apostate]

If you don't look good on MTV

I see you're a man with a finger on the pulse of pop music

I probably just said what everyone here knows already.

More and more over the years the super Pop stars must have "ugly, unfashionable" people write their music. It's becoming extremely rare to see the songwriter/Pop star, and yet the most pioneering, musically relevant songs came from the latter. Roughly fifty years ago.

The vast majority of Pop music was been there and did that with Wonder, the Beatles and "Pet Sounds" back in the 60s. Argue as passionately as you wish (I respect that passion btw), the scores and/or recordings bear it out. Even if a case is made for "progressive music", the only thing that progressed was the ability for Rock musicians to play their instruments/in different times, and with a ton of silly modulations. And keep in mind, I love a lot of Pop music since the 60s, including King Crimson.

I'm talking from a purely musical standpoint (of course, Pop has never been completely or even mostly about the music, thus its name).

[.jon]

MTV stopped being about music over 15 years ago, and seriously man, your view on the state of songwriting is anything but realistic if you actually claim that no original pop was written after the 60s by highly successful singer-songwriters, we can just agree that you've been living in a barrel tucked away in some long-forgotten dark basement.

Naturally, in the world devoted to optimisation of everything, especially products such as pop music, things are done by teams of highly specialized talents. Not everyone gifted and trained in songwriting is also a world-class performer, dancer and has the charisma of a star. Mediocrity is not an option in today's world.

[Apostate]

Mediocrity is not an option in today's world.

Keep telling yourself that, but at least try to get a clue and study the abovementioned scores.

[fmr]

And keep in mind, I love a lot of Pop music since the 60s, including King Crimson.

King Crimson are POP?

[fmr]

Naturally, in the world devoted to optimisation of everything, especially products such as pop music, things are done by teams of highly specialized talents. Not everyone gifted and trained in songwriting is also a world-class performer, dancer and has the charisma of a star. Mediocrity is not an option in today's world.

Yes, music is basically an industry now (it always were, so to speak, but there was a time where originality and artistic views were accepted). Originality and inventiveness are basically absent now, because risk "is not an option in today's world". So, it's all about mainstream and everything sounds very much the same. (except if you look in the underground and more specialized circuits).

[IncarnateX]

Future of music has always been something to worry about, hasn't it?