I'm writing this partly in response to this well-written post. I couldn't agree more. There is a serious dearth of good mainstream music today. Granted, my tastes are geared more towards various forms of Rock and Metal and so I'll be referring to bands that mainly play that kind of music.
I rarely listen to mainstream music anymore. I find it to be completely boring. Of course, there are a few catchy tunes now and then that are good for a listen or two, but there is nothing that captures and captivates the mind - nothing that you can listen to over and over again and hear something new each time. Gone are the complex chord and rhythm changes and meaningful lyrics. Instead, mainstream music has devolved into predictable chord-progressions, simple rhythm structures, and inane, uninspired lyrics. In fact, it's almost embarrassing when you realize that songs from some bands sound almost exactly the same. Try listening to the choruses from Dirty Little Secret and Swing Swing by The All-American Rejects, or for that matter, any song by Nickelback. I won't say that these bands lack talent, but the fact remains that their music isn't exactly stellar.
If you really want to compare, take a look at these lyrics from Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. These lyrics come from the second chorus:
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.
Haunting. Nostalgic. Beautiful. You'd be hard-pressed to find anything this profound from music these days. The entire song is a conversation (of sorts) between a doctor and Roger Waters. The non-chorus parts of the song are sung from the point of view of the doctor, and the chorus is from Waters' point of view. The song and the entire album is built upon a set of themes. It's a little too long to go into now, but if you'd like, take a look at this analysis of the song, and this analysis of the movie and the album. It's very hard to find a complex, self-referential, and thematic work like that in mainstream music today.
The bands that I listen to now include Coldplay, Muse, The Shins, The Strokes, Modest Mouse, Pinback, and Sigur Rós (just to name a few). A quick tangent on Coldplay. Many accuse them of sounding too much like U2. I'll admit, I did that too initially, because Chris Martin did sound like Bono. But this is only true of their early works. Bono's voice evokes in you a sense of pain, longing, aching, and hope. Chris Martin's voice is much mellower. Furthermore, their later works may sound superficially like U2's, and this happens only if you concentrate on Chris Martin's voice. But the music is very much different. Anyway, you may not have heard of some of the bands above. If you have, kudos to you! If you haven't, I urge you to listen to them. I try to listen to music from independent labels because I do think that they sound better, are more innovative and have their own sound and character. Major labels mainly support bands that will get more air play, that will top the charts and that can get the most number of 12-14 year-old girl fans (I'm sure an accountant at one of the big labels has come up with a formula that translates this number into a dollar amount). The latter seems the be the major metric these days for the success of a band, and the first two seem to have an inverse relation to the quality of music these days.
Now that this decade is almost over, I'm left wondering what exactly would define this decade in terms of music. The 60's and 70's both had amazing rock bands in addition to disco (which defined the 70's in some sense). The 80's of course, has 80's music, replete with synthesizers and synth-drums. The 90's is definitely grunge and alternative. What about the 2000's (or 00's)? I can't find any particular genre that defines it. If you go by mainstream, the only thing that defines music for me in the 2000's is terrible, music-as-a-commodity stuff. But if you go by independent music, you'll find a bunch of rich, innovative (and definitely fringe and avant-garde) music. Their success definitely has to do with the growth of the internet. Bands no longer need labels and radio to promote them, and this only highlights the fact that good music these days doesn't come from big labels (corporations that just want to make money), but they come from small, independent labels that just want to make good music. But that's another topic to explore.
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you may be surprised how coldplay can rip a song off, and make it work in a pop culture.
Wow Sheehan, I had no idea. I also had a look at this analysis (based on music theory) and it shows how similar the songs are. If it was blatant plagiarism on Coldplay’s part, I’d be very surprised, because I think they do pretty well on their own.
On the issue of chord-progression though, there are a bunch of songs that use the exact same chord-progression. But I guess the added factir is that the meter is almost exactly the same as well. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
maybe the classical indian notion of raagas are more universal than we previously thought- basically that there are a set number of basic melodies, tunes, progression of notes and that nearly all songs are based on a known raga, or a slight variation of one- but of course, new ragas are constantly discovered. I have know idea what the difference between a new raaga and a variation of an existing raga is told- viv, would you be able to ask your mom?
Haha Sunil will be psyched you cited his blog post. :p
Found you through Wikipedia – I have a female Red Heeler x Jack Russell terrier that looks VERY much like your dog!
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2898043560041397343TZbNBF
That gave me a double take when I saw the picture of yours.
I agree with you about the music too. 🙂 Popular music since the turn of the century is blah.
@sadhu:
The concept of rāgas is similar to "modes" in Western Music. A rāga is a set of notes or musical events. A piece that conforms to this set of notes/musical events is said to be in that rāga. I’m not sure whether there is term for a variation of a particular rāga. However, there is a system that defines the various rāgas.
@Saroj:
Haha I’m glad!
@Bodrell:
Wow, small world! Yeah, the picture of the dog in Wikipedia is my sister’s dog Honey. She’s a Red Heeler-Jack Russell Terrier mix too! She was originally my dog, but I gave her to my sister when I deployed to Iraq three years ago. I saw that picture of your dog and she looks remarkably similar to my sister’s! How is she with other dogs? We got ours from the animal shelter (she was abandoned) when she was 2. She loves to be around people, but she’s not very friendly around other dogs; takes her a while to get used to them and she is kinda jealous too. But for some reason, she loves cats!
Haha, yeah! Popular music is terrible these days unfortunately!
BTW, wow @ the analysis of Comfortably Numb. Thank you for that – I saved the site. I’m old enough to have listened to Floyd chemically enhanced, when their music was brand new. 🙂
Loved a lot of 80s and 90s music! Bleh to current popular music though. Too commercial, no innovation. I probably need to find a good alternative radio station to hear good current music.
Honey is a mix of two dogs prone to be aggressive and bossy with other dogs, like my Fiona, so not surprising. A lot depends on early experiences. Mine was a pup from a shelter, my Rottweilers helped "raise" her and I also have four cats. She has learned not to pester them too much, and mothered the orphaned kitten. I got Fiona for an agility (dog sport) prospect and she is doing awesome with that. So she’s had a lot of early training, which helps. I call her my "herding terrier." Or just The Little Spotted Dog.
(Don’t get me started on dogs; I write about them for a living.)
@Bodrell:
Yeah, the analysis is pretty amazing! I had no idea there was so much depth to it. I got into Pink Floyd later in my teen years (this was in the late 90’s), so it was many years after they came out. I’m pretty sure they sound good chemically enhanced! 🙂
I figured Honey’s bossiness came from her Jack-Russell half, but I have read that Heelers also tend to be pretty bossy. I figured that her previous owners probably didn’t socialize her much with other dogs. I’ve noticed Honey is pretty agile; she is a little on the chubby side at the moment and apparently it has to do with an underactive thyroid, but that hasn’t stopped her from being active or jumping on to high places! She loves being chased too.
So Fiona mothered a kitten? Wow that’s awesome! Another question – does Fiona hate water? Honey does. She goes out of her way to make sure she’s as far away from any water as possible! I don’t mind hearing about dogs! I love them haha! Do you write books or articles about them?