I vaguely recall a prominent creator, maybe Zappa, saying that US pop music exploded drastically in the 60s and 70s because society was changing so fast politically / socially that the music industry didn’t know how to respond to retain control. Music of that time could not have emerged earlier or later. So a lot was just thrown at the wall to see what sticks.
As noted, pop music has always been formulaic, and Sturgeon’s Law applies.
I wonder when my “everything used to be better” phase will kick in. 50? 60?
Modern pop is the same as any music genre in any other era. A few winners, a whole lot of losers. The nice thing, IMO, is that it feels like the middle of that, where music is listenable and inoffensive, neither awful nor great, seems to be wider and more accessible than ever. I don’t need the best music ever written to be on in the background. But if you’re looking to actually listen, and you care to pay attention, there’s still plenty of really good stuff out there.
Ezra Furman is amazing.
But a lot of the pop stuff was written by studio regulars working behind the scenes and were backed by session musicians up until the early 70’s. Very talented writers and musicians that few knew about unless they struck out in their own like Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell, Jimmy Page…
For anyone interested to hear what OTHER songwriters have to say about songwriting, mostly their own, I warmly recommend the “Sodajerker on Songwriting” podcast. Two personable Liverpudlian guys interviewing scores of famous and less famous, older and younger accomplished colleagues. It’s been quite the eyeopener for me. https://www.sodajerker.com/
Lou Reed…
I believe this might be the interview that you are referring to:
Carol King.
Oh, so many thoughts about this.
My early album collection included Madman Across the Water and Tumbleweed Connection. Those collaberations with Bernie Taupin color my personal soundtrack heavily.
We have a peach tree next to my garden plot, and every year, as I pick the small rotten fruits out of the beds, I hear “Rotten peaches, rotting in the sun” echoing in my head.
@BobDobbs Yes, there is still a Billboard Top 40! but instead of just pop and country, you have a dozen different genres and delivery methods. It certainly isn’t the old days, but it’s certainly representative of today.
I love pop music, and I mean from singalong songs from before Gutenburg to everything you heard on the radio. But I also love a good ballad done by a songwriter that wont be remembered except by a handful of their audiences, and any kind of rhythm section that gets my hips shaking, even if it’s electronic. There’s so much music out there now, and there’s always stuff that some people love and others hate. That’s the nature of the beast.
An obligatory Pratchett quote to illustrate that:
“There was a long-drawn-out chord that by law must precede all folk music to give bystanders time to get away.” From Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
@pigman For me, it’s “Mustang Sally.” How many times do I have to sing that chorus so the drunk girls can keep dancing?
I think what the kids are missing out on nowadays is the variety we used to get within the one delivery method. In an afternoon listening to the local top 40 station in the 70s/early 80s I would have heard in a single afternoon disco, funk, hard rock, country, soft rock ballads, pop-prog, singer/songwriter stuff, R&B, soul, definitely not everything happening at the time but a very wide range. I just don’t hear that anymore on radio that plays contemporary music- if you want variety, you have to flip around yourself. College radio is now where I go when I want to try and keep current because it’s where there is still variety within one show or station.
I pin the beginning of the end on MTV, which flattened taste into one limited nationwide playlist. People get nostalgic for MTVs beginnings but forget it was not a force for good in music and was much reviled by many at the time.
This might be getting at what Sir Elton is complaining about. I guess my response to both John and the maker of that video is that we shouldn’t make too much of a trend. As a teenager I listened to Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. I have a teenage relative who basically just listens to show tunes and it drives their parents crazy. Things swing one way and then another. I thin it’s interesting how much can be accomplished with just one or two notes, but at some point people will get tired of it and we’ll move on to something else.
At some point in John Cage’s life Cage said that there was no point in listening to music anymore because you could just go on the street and listen to the noises of the city. That’s never going to be a billboard smash hit, but I don’t regret that pop music sometimes visits a spot as close to that as it can go without completely freaking out the normies.
Right. Sessions work was a hothouse for growing talent.
The mention of show tunes hits close to home. My maternal grandfather used to work in music publishing. Mostly relating to broadway. It gave my mom weird and varied taste in pretty much anything other than rock and roll of the 50’s through 70’s (showtunes, folk music, country)
Grandpa had an interesting view of show tunes. “If you can’t remember at least two songs from the musical, it’s junk”.
Funny, I had a weird experience last week or so, listening to some music from the early-to-mid 90s. It was GREAT, the BEST, AWESOME, OMFGWTFBBQ!
Except, it wasn’t really. I mean, it was pretty good, and different to what came before and after it … in the same way that what came before and after it was different to what came before and after it. Then I realised that the early-mid 90’s were a good time in my life. I was at university for a good chunk of that time, and although poor as a church mouse so was everyone else I hung out with. On the other hand we all had a common and clear goal, practically no responsibilities, and were young, healthy, and exploring the world and our place in it together. My life then was as simple as it was exciting. The music of the early-mid 90s was the sound track to that, so of course it holds a special place in my ear.
The music of the late teens and early 20s will be the sound track to that phase of my kids lives, and I expect that in decades to come they will look back on it the same way I look back on Nirvana (which, to be honest, I never really liked) Smashing Pumpkins, Afghan Whigs, Soundgarden, Morcheba, Basement Jaxx, and so on.
They are doing it right, I’d say.
I assume you’re talking about the George Ezra song… which I just heard half of for the first time (fairly sure there’s no musical twists and turns missed by not finishing it)
Just play the Junior Walker song instead. Pretend you’ve never heard of the new one.
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