Does going mainstream mean you are destined to be hated?

[iamsomebody1]

People who complain about auto-tune should use it themselves and become famous!

 

 

Wait.

 

 

That won't work...but why?

 

 

Oh yeah; mainstream artists aren't famous for their talents, but their image the record companies think they have. If a rich man offers you to play the violin (you suck terribly at it) for millions of dollars, who wouldn't accept?

 

Blame the record companies. Blame idiotic tweens and teens. But you can't blame a person to hop on millions of dollars...in fact, all of us would do the same thing.

 

Good point you're right it's all the music companies (and the people) fault because there target audience are teens it sucks for most adults though because we have to really search to find good new music nowadays. Oh well most of these people that listen to kesha etc will look back and wonder how the hell they liked that music, I think once you grow older you start to appreciate music more.

[blaah]

Want to get kids to appreciate music? Help out music in schools and require multiple years, and not just at elementary/middle school ages. Teach them to listen to music and hear everything that goes into a composition. Teach them to play an instrument. Put them in small ensembles. Or, go in a direction away from instrumental composition - put them in a choir, a capella. Teach them to make music without the tools we have today to create the songs all of us listen to. Once they know how to listen, how to notice layers, maybe they'll look for "good" music, defined by this thread as anything that isn't pop music. Maybe they won't, they'll learn to hate whatever they hear in school and go for pop music. Or maybe they'll be like me and listen to a mix of songs mostly computer generated and songs with actual strings in the background and many in between.

 

And Ke$ha sounding like a robot... Choir voices sound like geeks, rap voices sound like normal talking, death metal voices are screaming, it's all a matter of what you like to hear.

[Ginger_Warrior]

The thing you have to remember though is alot of Keshas fanbase are young girls and the music and videos whether you want to believe it or not encourages young people that living a scandalous life is okay. I think she is one of the worst artists out right now and I don't see how you can honestly like her music at all she sounds like a robot with all that auto tune, she cannot sing at ALL. I mean if someone said Rihanna can sing I would disagree with you but at least I can see where you get that idea from if your the kind of person that was raised on american idol and somehow think that's what singing is but if you actually think for a split second that kesha can actually sing or has any talent whatsoever you are out of your mind. Majority of the people that like her are teen girls who think there cool because they listen to a song with a little language and subject matter that's a little risky and it's absolutely disgusting.

I said I think her music is alright, I didn't say she was necessarily talented from a musical perspective. She's not pushing the boundaries of contempory music, no. You're confusing music made for art's sake and music made for commercial success. If someone in the latter group uses an autotune to make it more audible, I really couldn't care less. It's not a talent show, it's about what I like listening to and what I'm prepared to pay for. What do you propose: banning autotune and forcing consumers to listen to singers who can't sing that well?

 

As far as Ke$ha's impact on young teens is concerned, young girls since the Second World War have found an interest in songs that refer to alcohol and partying. 12 year old girls want to behave like 18 year old girls within their cultural group. That's pretty much universal across all western countries. Your attitude is similar to those who say punk music turns adolescents into uncontrollable anarchists, when it clearly doesn't. If young boys do turn into anarchists, I'm more likely to blame their parents since such boys are very much in the minority.

 

Ke$ha may give young teens an image to chase but she doesn't create the situation where they turn drunk just to have a good time.

[All_Is_Great]

A lot of artists on the radio have this really heavy nasal breathing sound after EVERY SINGLE WORD. It is ANNOYING.

[iamsomebody1]

The thing you have to remember though is alot of Keshas fanbase are young girls and the music and videos whether you want to believe it or not encourages young people that living a scandalous life is okay. I think she is one of the worst artists out right now and I don't see how you can honestly like her music at all she sounds like a robot with all that auto tune, she cannot sing at ALL. I mean if someone said Rihanna can sing I would disagree with you but at least I can see where you get that idea from if your the kind of person that was raised on american idol and somehow think that's what singing is but if you actually think for a split second that kesha can actually sing or has any talent whatsoever you are out of your mind. Majority of the people that like her are teen girls who think there cool because they listen to a song with a little language and subject matter that's a little risky and it's absolutely disgusting.

I said I think her music is alright, I didn't say she was necessarily talented from a musical perspective. She's not pushing the boundaries of contempory music, no. You're confusing music made for art's sake and music made for commercial success. If someone in the latter group uses an autotune to make it more audible, I really couldn't care less. It's not a talent show, it's about what I like listening to and what I'm prepared to pay for. What do you propose: banning autotune and forcing consumers to listen to singers who can't sing that well?

 

As far as Ke$ha's impact on young teens is concerned, young girls since the Second World War have found an interest in songs that refer to alcohol and partying. 12 year old girls want to behave like 18 year old girls within their cultural group. That's pretty much universal across all western countries. Your attitude is similar to those who say punk music turns adolescents into uncontrollable anarchists, when it clearly doesn't. If young boys do turn into anarchists, I'm more likely to blame their parents since such boys are very much in the minority.

 

Ke$ha may give young teens an image to chase but she doesn't create the situation where they turn drunk just to have a good time.

 

I have no problem with autotune actually, but when you can tell it's been drenched in it I get turned off quickly.

 

When most of the songs on the hit radio stations are about drugs and partying etc etc it most likely is affecting people, I blame the parents also for letting them listen to that music not only because it's horrible but because the message from these [bleep] pop stars are clearly not what young girls should be doing, just party all the time and get drunk that's keshas message to the masses.

 

Music from the 60-90s is the greatest music ever made it's a shame that most new music suck. Probably because artists back then did alot of drugs tbh.

[bongo_man]

Want to get kids to appreciate music? Help out music in schools and require multiple years, and not just at elementary/middle school ages. Teach them to listen to music and hear everything that goes into a composition. Teach them to play an instrument. Put them in small ensembles. Or, go in a direction away from instrumental composition - put them in a choir, a capella. Teach them to make music without the tools we have today to create the songs all of us listen to. Once they know how to listen, how to notice layers, maybe they'll look for "good" music, defined by this thread as anything that isn't pop music. Maybe they won't, they'll learn to hate whatever they hear in school and go for pop music. Or maybe they'll be like me and listen to a mix of songs mostly computer generated and songs with actual strings in the background and many in between.

 

And Ke$ha sounding like a robot... Choir voices sound like geeks, rap voices sound like normal talking, death metal voices are screaming, it's all a matter of what you like to hear.

 

I'm somewhat of a product of what you're saying here. Before I began to take my music studies seriously I used to listen to genres such as rap, pop and in general modern songs that were popular amongst youth. When I delved deeper into the roots of music I learned about things such as harmonic and melodic structure, texture, orhcestration, timbre, etc., and how some of the great composers before us used them. As I continued gaining knowledge my appreciation for composers of the periods before us (i.e., Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionist) increased exponentially. Music I had found to be boring and dull in my ignorant youth years had become a pleasure to listen to. You can literally write a book about the intricacy of these composers' works and how meticulous they were while creating them.

 

Needless to say, I don't really listen to modern-day genres such as rap and pop anymore; hell, I didn't even know who Kesha was until a few months back. Part of this is due to the lack of appreciation I have gained for poorly structured or simple/uninteresting song structures, which unfortunately appear quite frequently in these genres. This is not to say I need a song to be super complex or that I dislike every pop song, admittedly I like a catchy pop song with common chord progressions every once in a while: it can be comforting to listen to.

 

Personally I think it's best to agree to disagree and let people listen to the music they like despite it being mainstream, undeground, or whatever people label it nowadays. We have to remember that one of the main reasons people listen to music is because of the pleasure it brings them, and what may sound good to one person's ear won't necessarily sound the same to someone elses.That being said, a person's innate feelings towards a song is heavily influenced by, sometimes even solely based on, its social status. I can bet that there are hundreds of thousands of people who enjoy Justin Bieber's songs, but because of his status as a bad, untalented artist, their enjoyment of his music becomes incongruent with his social status and they therefore deem his music bad.

 

Trust your ears people, if it sounds good to you then embrace it.

[Omar]

We have to remember that one of the main reasons people listen to music is because of the pleasure it brings them, and what may sound good to one person's ear won't necessarily sound the same to someone elses.

Church. Women appreciate deep voices more while men prefer higher singing registers. It's in their DNA.

[obfuscator]

We have to remember that one of the main reasons people listen to music is because of the pleasure it brings them, and what may sound good to one person's ear won't necessarily sound the same to someone elses.

Church. Women appreciate deep voices more while men prefer higher singing registers. It's in their DNA.

Huh, never thought of that.

[Alg]

When most of the songs on the hit radio stations are about drugs and partying etc etc it most likely is affecting people, I blame the parents also for letting them listen to that music not only because it's horrible but because the message from these [bleep] pop stars are clearly not what young girls should be doing, just party all the time and get drunk that's keshas message to the masses.

 

Music from the 60-90s is the greatest music ever made it's a shame that most new music suck. Probably because artists back then did alot of drugs tbh.

And they sang about it. Just like today, the songs are about sex, drugs, and partying. There really isn't any other topic in '80s glam metal, and '70s rock only breaks out of it to go into stoneresque philosophy and mysticism (Progressive rock) or music about how great it is to be MANLY (AC/DC).

 

The best part about the '60s to '90s is that the [cabbage] has already been filtered out for us. You don't think that the songs you hear on the radio are the only songs that got radio time then, do you? Take a look at this, or this, tell me how many songs you recognize. And that's just the US.

[iamsomebody1]

When most of the songs on the hit radio stations are about drugs and partying etc etc it most likely is affecting people, I blame the parents also for letting them listen to that music not only because it's horrible but because the message from these [bleep] pop stars are clearly not what young girls should be doing, just party all the time and get drunk that's keshas message to the masses.

 

Music from the 60-90s is the greatest music ever made it's a shame that most new music suck. Probably because artists back then did alot of drugs tbh.

And they sang about it. Just like today, the songs are about sex, drugs, and partying. There really isn't any other topic in '80s glam metal, and '70s rock only breaks out of it to go into stoneresque philosophy and mysticism (Progressive rock) or music about how great it is to be MANLY (AC/DC).

 

The best part about the '60s to '90s is that the [cabbage] has already been filtered out for us. You don't think that the songs you hear on the radio are the only songs that got radio time then, do you? Take a look at this, or this, tell me how many songs you recognize. And that's just the US.

 

Alot of the songs they wrote back then had deep meanings about things that were happening then and just about life in general. They also seemed to have alot more passion than todays music and I notice the songs can really move you, but idk everyone has different views on music.

 

I don't listen to classic radio stations I look up old artists and usually just download the songs I like and I actually recognize alot of those songs, the ones I don't are genres of music I don't care for too much.

[Ginger_Warrior]

The Black Eyed Peas are a mainstream act by anyone's definition and they wrote a song about the War on Terror, which was arguably the biggest single issue that dominated the last decade (following as a consequence from 9/11). They've also written a song about getting smashed at a house party which you allege is a bad influence on young listeners, but was the best selling song on iTunes ever. Are they political activists, or the inspiration of tearaways? Perhaps they're just reflecting what the 'mainstream' public already feels and what they already do in their lives. The reality is most young adults go out to parties and get drunk, it's not really any particular artist who caused it.

 

It's just too simplistic to say, "This band from the '70s gives more meaning to their songs". Ironically, it's actually a meaningless statement unless you define what 'meaning' actually is.

[The Observer]

The more people who are aware of it/listen to it, the more people there are to hate it. But that also means more people to like it as well. Obviously there's people who hate things just because they're mainstream, and less because of the content.

 

Personally I could care less whatever people listen to. Although, I have to admit when the bands that I like go mainstream it's sort of annoying because you don't feel as unique anymore.

[Adam007]

I enjoyed this topic until everyone started posting on it and it hit page 4.

[iamsomebody1]

The Black Eyed Peas are a mainstream act by anyone's definition and they wrote a song about the War on Terror, which was arguably the biggest single issue that dominated the last decade (following as a consequence from 9/11). They've also written a song about getting smashed at a house party which you allege is a bad influence on young listeners, but was the best selling song on iTunes ever. Are they political activists, or the inspiration of tearaways? Perhaps they're just reflecting what the 'mainstream' public already feels and what they already do in their lives. The reality is most young adults go out to parties and get drunk, it's not really any particular artist who caused it.

 

It's just too simplistic to say, "This band from the '70s gives more meaning to their songs". Ironically, it's actually a meaningless statement unless you define what 'meaning' actually is.

 

When they made that song they weren't that well known that was there big break and when they pretty much sold out there old fans.

 

I just listened to that song and I hated it so childish.

 

Idk I guess I agree to disagree, you might like listening to songs that have very little meaning and is primarily made to make money off the lazy radio listeners that don't want to explore and discover different music and will swear that the music they play is actually good.

[The Observer]

I enjoyed this topic until everyone started posting on it and it hit page 4.

 

Oh you.

[Ginger_Warrior]

Idk I guess I agree to disagree, you might like listening to songs that have very little meaning and is primarily made to make money off the lazy radio listeners that don't want to explore and discover different music and will swear that the music they play is actually good.

I've not listened to commercial radio in about four years so... I really have no idea where this mass stereotyping is heading.

[iamsomebody1]

Idk I guess I agree to disagree, you might like listening to songs that have very little meaning and is primarily made to make money off the lazy radio listeners that don't want to explore and discover different music and will swear that the music they play is actually good.

I've not listened to commercial radio in about four years so... I really have no idea where this mass stereotyping is heading.

 

You knew a popular groups best selling song and knew what it was about so you obviously listen to the radio I had to look it up to see what you were even talking about so I can only assume you do.

[Ginger_Warrior]

I Gotta Feeling was played at nightclubs and parties me and my friends went to, so there's some good memories there. I knew it was the best selling iTunes song ever because it was on the news. Before Black Eyed Peas I think it was Crazy by Gnarls Barkley, but I might be wrong. Ke$ha was played at the rugby league club I support before matches just to entertain people who were taking their seats prior to kick-off. BarelyPolitical on YouTube made a parody of Tik Tok too, and I'd subscribed to that channel during the 2008 US Federal Elections. Last.fm scrobbler played it a couple of times too. Also, I read Q magazine and the NME online and they're renowned for making hate articles once something gets too mainstream, so I usually hear about pop acts through them even though I haven't listened to them.

 

The only radio channel I listen to regularly these days is BBC Radio 5live, which is a sports/current affairs station.

[Omar]

I'd like to see iamsomebody's top 25 songs...

[iamsomebody1]

I'd like to see iamsomebody's top 25 songs...

 

Alot better than most peoples here a good song your katy perry ears may not be ready for it though

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YNUu7w-WpU&feature=related

 

[Omar]

Pfft, you have nothing to feel special about. This song is set in a very simple i - VI - VII chord progression, and reaches its pinnacle of complexity at the end of the riff with a harmonic minor, which remains within the most basic music theory. The lyrics are nothing special, it's a typical unrequited love story. The singer and the lead guitarist are technically good, but they don't do anything particularly special. This is hardly more complicated than a Katy Perry song (which I dislike, by the way).

Sounds like you don't know much about how music works, and you decided to dislike music based on its popularity and associations as opposed to its intrinsic merit.

[Edit] Haven't listened to the second song, I'll do it later.

[Ginger_Warrior]

Oh, now this is brilliant.

 

Scorpions: 25,603,612 plays (1,021,844 listeners)

Ke$ha: 29,468,090 plays (1,350,538 listeners)

Ratio: 1 : 1.15 plays (1 : 1.32 listeners)

I mean Ke$ha is just so mainstream in comparison to Scorpions. :rolleyes:

[iamsomebody1]

Pfft, you have nothing to feel special about. This song is set in a very simple i - VI - VII chord progression, and reaches its pinnacle of complexity at the end of the riff with a harmonic minor, which remains within the most basic music theory. The lyrics are nothing special, it's a typical unrequited love story. The singer and the lead guitarist are technically good, but they don't do anything particularly special. This is hardly more complicated than a Katy Perry song (which I dislike, by the way).

Sounds like you don't know much about how music works, and you decided to dislike music based on its popularity and associations as opposed to its intrinsic merit.

[Edit] Haven't listened to the second song, I'll do it later.

 

Haha Scorpions are considered to be one of the greatest bands ever you really have no idea what you're talking about. I would love to see your idea of a good song and no trance/rap bullcrap.

 

Oh, now this is brilliant.

 

Scorpions: 25,603,612 plays (1,021,844 listeners)

Ke$ha: 29,468,090 plays (1,350,538 listeners)

Ratio: 1 : 1.15 plays (1 : 1.32 listeners)

I mean Ke$ha is just so mainstream in comparison to Scorpions. :rolleyes:

 

Oh yeah let's compare mainsteam music from the 1970s to 2011 there's no possible way they could have changed there target audience in those 40 years yep.

[Omar]

Pfft, you have nothing to feel special about. This song is set in a very simple i - VI - VII chord progression, and reaches its pinnacle of complexity at the end of the riff with a harmonic minor, which remains within the most basic music theory. The lyrics are nothing special, it's a typical unrequited love story. The singer and the lead guitarist are technically good, but they don't do anything particularly special. This is hardly more complicated than a Katy Perry song (which I dislike, by the way).

Sounds like you don't know much about how music works, and you decided to dislike music based on its popularity and associations as opposed to its intrinsic merit.

[Edit] Haven't listened to the second song, I'll do it later.

 

Haha Scorpions are considered to be one of the greatest bands ever you have no idea what you're talking about I would love to see your idea of a good song and no trance/rap bullcrap

I hate to do some type of battle of tastes, but here goes...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXYOQbdk6dg

Key changes, time signature changes, insane layering.

[iamsomebody1]

Pfft, you have nothing to feel special about. This song is set in a very simple i - VI - VII chord progression, and reaches its pinnacle of complexity at the end of the riff with a harmonic minor, which remains within the most basic music theory. The lyrics are nothing special, it's a typical unrequited love story. The singer and the lead guitarist are technically good, but they don't do anything particularly special. This is hardly more complicated than a Katy Perry song (which I dislike, by the way).

Sounds like you don't know much about how music works, and you decided to dislike music based on its popularity and associations as opposed to its intrinsic merit.

[Edit] Haven't listened to the second song, I'll do it later.

 

Haha Scorpions are considered to be one of the greatest bands ever you have no idea what you're talking about I would love to see your idea of a good song and no trance/rap bullcrap

I hate to do some type of battle of tastes, but here goes...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXYOQbdk6dg

Key changes, time signature changes, insane layering.

 

I got bored after a minute or so you can't compare that crap to Scorpions