Post Random Music-Related Thoughts You Have

[washing machine]

It's catchy as hell, though. It's got a great beat. And they do look good together.

[LoathedVermin72]

Pop's in a good place. There is some unbearable garbage (like that gratingly schmaltzy Ed Sheeran and Andrea Bocelli song, or that eye-gougingly boring "Rockstar" song), but there's also some interesting, inventive and well-crafted stuff that blends genres together in cool ways. At the very least, the current pop landscape can't possibly be worse than when the Black Eyed Peas were active.

Aw man, you mean the Post Malone song? He’s great.

[Jorge]

I just think that song is SOOOOOOO BORING

[bodysnatcher]

i dig that song, but i also really dig 21 Savage

[LoathedVermin72]

Do we categorize Cardi B as pop? I really enjoy Cardi B's approach.

Had to look her up. The first video I found:

I feel like I'm watching a crossover episode of Fresh Prince and In Living Color.

I like this song okay, but it also hits on everything I dislike about pop music in 2018. This obsession with nineties style and references in an attempt to reconnect with the audience's childhood. I don't like how it just reinforces the millennial (sorry LV) tendency to avoid "adulting." Also, most of these artists and their primary audience were like six years old when the nineties ended.

I don’t think this stuff is attempting to reconnect with childhood or avoid being an adult at all. It’s just fashion, and it’s pretty normal for generational style to be informed by aesthetics that influenced them in thier formative years.

[doone]

Holy '80's Batman!

Btw, not that anyone cares but Uptown Funk was Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, so love it or hate it, he didn't write it.

[bodysnatcher]

i totally get the appeal behind Bruno Mars, no doubt about it. and i'm asking this honestly, bc i have no idea... but who's his target audience? i ask, bc i feel like everything he does is just a rehash of something that's been done before. his songs, his aesthetic, his videos, his dancing. if his audience is younger, do they not know better and think he's original? if his audience is older, is he tapping into nostalgia? or maybe it's both, and he's hitting all ages at full stride.

[washing machine]

i dig that song, but i also really dig 21 Savage

ugh

[LoathedVermin72]

i totally get the appeal behind Bruno Mars, no doubt about it. and i'm asking this honestly, bc i have no idea... but who's his target audience? i ask, bc i feel like everything he does is just a rehash of something that's been done before. his songs, his aesthetic, his videos, his dancing. if his audience is younger, do they not know better and think he's original? if his audience is older, is he tapping into nostalgia? or maybe it's both, and he's hitting all ages at full stride.

This is a big part of why I find him boring. His whole schtick is based on being derivative. It’s not interesting at all.

[bodysnatcher]

i totally get the appeal behind Bruno Mars, no doubt about it. and i'm asking this honestly, bc i have no idea... but who's his target audience? i ask, bc i feel like everything he does is just a rehash of something that's been done before. his songs, his aesthetic, his videos, his dancing. if his audience is younger, do they not know better and think he's original? if his audience is older, is he tapping into nostalgia? or maybe it's both, and he's hitting all ages at full stride.

This is a big part of why I find him boring. His whole schtick is based on being derivative. It’s not interesting at all.

completely agreed. he's just not original at all.

[bodysnatcher]

LV what'd you think of that Kendrick performance at the Grammys?

[Jorge]

i totally get the appeal behind Bruno Mars, no doubt about it. and i'm asking this honestly, bc i have no idea... but who's his target audience? i ask, bc i feel like everything he does is just a rehash of something that's been done before. his songs, his aesthetic, his videos, his dancing. if his audience is younger, do they not know better and think he's original? if his audience is older, is he tapping into nostalgia? or maybe it's both, and he's hitting all ages at full stride.

This is a big part of why I find him boring. His whole schtick is based on being derivative. It’s not interesting at all.

completely agreed. he's just not original at all.

Originality is nice but it's not a requirement; a previously existing idea can be executed in an engaging and exciting way. The problem is his stuff is tepid and characterless.

[PHATJ]

[Anders]

i totally get the appeal behind Bruno Mars, no doubt about it. and i'm asking this honestly, bc i have no idea... but who's his target audience? i ask, bc i feel like everything he does is just a rehash of something that's been done before. his songs, his aesthetic, his videos, his dancing. if his audience is younger, do they not know better and think he's original? if his audience is older, is he tapping into nostalgia? or maybe it's both, and he's hitting all ages at full stride.

Not sure, but:

«To date, he has sold over 200 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. Seven of his singles are among the best-selling singles of all time: in order of release date, "Just the Way You Are", "Grenade", "The Lazy Song", "Locked Out of Heaven", "When I Was Your Man", "Treasure", and "Uptown Funk". As of 2018, the singer’s total single sales exceed 180 million singles worldwide. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), he is the sixth-bestselling digital-single artist in the United States with sales of 52.5 million.»

[LoathedVermin72]

LV what'd you think of that Kendrick performance at the Grammys?

I didn’t watch the Grammys, but while I like Kendrick, I usually find his TV performances to be poor. I think the way they are conceived and orchestrated is often emptily provocative in a banal way that misrepresents what makes the music compelling.

[washing machine]

Do we categorize Cardi B as pop? I really enjoy Cardi B's approach.

Had to look her up. The first video I found:

I feel like I'm watching a crossover episode of Fresh Prince and In Living Color.

I like this song okay, but it also hits on everything I dislike about pop music in 2018. This obsession with nineties style and references in an attempt to reconnect with the audience's childhood. I don't like how it just reinforces the millennial (sorry LV) tendency to avoid "adulting." Also, most of these artists and their primary audience were like six years old when the nineties ended.

I don’t think this stuff is attempting to reconnect with childhood or avoid being an adult at all. It’s just fashion, and it’s pretty normal for generational style to be informed by aesthetics that influenced them in thier formative years.

That's not been my experience. When I see this stuff shared on facebook and see young people play this for each other on their phones at the bar I work at, it's usually bundled with other traits of arrested development. More enlightened music fans and the artists themselves can dig deeper, but I think a majority of people this is marketed to are addicted to nostalgia and afraid of fully embracing the future.

[LoathedVermin72]

i totally get the appeal behind Bruno Mars, no doubt about it. and i'm asking this honestly, bc i have no idea... but who's his target audience? i ask, bc i feel like everything he does is just a rehash of something that's been done before. his songs, his aesthetic, his videos, his dancing. if his audience is younger, do they not know better and think he's original? if his audience is older, is he tapping into nostalgia? or maybe it's both, and he's hitting all ages at full stride.

This is a big part of why I find him boring. His whole schtick is based on being derivative. It’s not interesting at all.

completely agreed. he's just not original at all.

Originality is nice but it's not a requirement; a previously existing idea can be executed in an engaging and exciting way. The problem is his stuff is tepid and characterless.

Yep

[bodysnatcher]

i totally get the appeal behind Bruno Mars, no doubt about it. and i'm asking this honestly, bc i have no idea... but who's his target audience? i ask, bc i feel like everything he does is just a rehash of something that's been done before. his songs, his aesthetic, his videos, his dancing. if his audience is younger, do they not know better and think he's original? if his audience is older, is he tapping into nostalgia? or maybe it's both, and he's hitting all ages at full stride.

This is a big part of why I find him boring. His whole schtick is based on being derivative. It’s not interesting at all.

completely agreed. he's just not original at all.

Originality is nice but it's not a requirement; a previously existing idea can be executed in an engaging and exciting way. The problem is his stuff is tepid and characterless.

Yep

yeah, agreed. by originality, i guess i didn't mean inventing some brand new thing no one's ever seen. everything is copied or used as an inspiration, but i find the ones that stick out to me are the ones who are able to put their own new spin on it. Bruno Mars, on the other hand, has no spin.

[Anders]

I don’t think there is a single other artist out there that could pull off an orignal The Police inspired song, and make it sound as authentic as Mars.
So really don’t know what you are talking about.

[LoathedVermin72]

I don’t think there is a single other artist out there that could pull off an orignal The Police inspired song, and make it sound as authentic as Mars.
So really don’t know what you are talking about.

This is a weirdly specific hypothetical concept to laud someone for