My Biggest problem against Pop music

[Grimmjagger]

I'd like to start with Pop is complete trash to my ears, here's why:

Pop music doesn't have any kind of credibilty when it comes to lyrics, nothing serious come out from it, for example, "Say you won't let go" or whatever that shit is called, like, seriously!?

The guy is basically taking 3 minutes to sing about dancing, alcohol and sex, resume the upcoming generation pretty good.

The only thing that made POP get to such a "top level" is only because of radios feeding us that thing over and over, it's really disgusting tbh, anyway, it seem that Rap, Rock and Classic suffer from that, I mean the work in them are way over the ones in pop.

 

[Marmalade]

Well if you think about it,
POP stands for "popular music". Basically catchy music for the general public. And the trends nowadays, have been for years and years, are indeed catchy songs talking about subjects like sex, drugs, parties and with female pop-stars; cheesy love-related lyrics.

Any genre could be categorized in pop-music, as long as it's popular enough.

I'm not too fond of it either, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it every now and then. I don't mind dancing to those songs though, as a lot of them are easy to sing along with after only listening to it once. There is a whole theory behind creating those type of songs actually, making it so catchy people will keep listening to it, hence it becomes popular. Pretty interesting!
(It's kind of like I somehow know a lot about the Kardashian family, but never watch their shows, nor look up information about them. Creepy really)


Thankfully, there are so many artists out there that produce more high quality music, so there is music for everyone. Just not as well known, or popular to the general public. Frustrating sometimes that good artists are underrated, or cannot really make a living with their music, even though their work is amazing.

 

[BluePegasus]

The radio isn’t a good representation of all pop music that’s out there though. There are for sure pop songs out there that do qualify for quality when it comes to creativity and expression. Xenomania is a production group that brought innovation to popular music. They experimented with pop in a way that its composition includes several sections and/or avoids the usual structure (verse-chorus form) completely. It’s renewing, and a good example of why the genre isn’t always samey, basic music.


Don’t mind the video.

 

[Marmalade]

I heard something about artists/their labels being able to pay for certain songs to get played on the radio, but that seems to be illegal nowadays. It's called payola "Payola is the act of paying a broadcast outlet money or other compensation with the explicit purpose of gaining airplay, other promotional features, and consideration on commercial radio"
Wouldn't be surprised if that still happens these days though. I do think it can explain, if it still happens, some things regarding the content of what is played on commercial radio.
+ Following the trends, playing things people like (or predicting what they will like, I'm sure there's a formula for that) will get more listeners.

What you do see on some radio stations is that they try to push less famous artists/bands that are upcoming, simply because the music they make is nice.

And agreed with the statement about that there is good quality, creative, decent popular music out there (used to dig that song when it just came out by the way. Good times). I personally feel that there are phases in that. Like how in some years there are a lot more of those lesser quality songs, while the next could be a bit different in that.
Maybe that has to do with the time/effort put into the music if you think about it. You can't expect someone who writes their own songs, produces it etc. to put out a new album every year.

 

[BluePegasus]

Trend chasing is also heavily noticeable these days, to an extent that most pop artists don’t develop their sound. This year there are just so many songs that use elements of tropical house – a lot of mainstream artists (like Ed Sheeran and Maroon 5) use this hype to get them some coin. To some extent it looks like they barely care anymore about how people think about their music. Sales are everything – that’s the thing nowadays.

I think your complaint @Grimmjagger is valid when it comes to pop songs that recently receive massive airplay. But pop is a very wide genre and it’s undeniable that there are some classics out there.