Some times I think I've lived too long...'cuz I really don't get it!

[maverickronin]

Plato was complaining about his day's pop music all way the back in The Republic.

 

[mhardy6647]

speaking of pop and the British invasion and whatnot...
In October of 1977, National Lampoon produced a Beatles-themed (well, kinda) issue that, among other things, imagined an alternate universe where the Dave Clark Five, in essence, won the British Invasion (or at least, in which they were poised to do so).

http://www.luckyfrogfarms.com/cook/NL/1970's/1977/1977_10.pdf
Trigger warning: If you didn't experience the 1970s as a young adult, and/or if you don't remember or haven't seen National Lampoon from that era -- you may be a tad bit taken aback by some of the things you'll see and read. You have been warned.

 

[mhardy6647]

Not the OP but I like Avril Lavigne and Lady Gaga.

I also really like Christina Perri.

Lady Gaga, at the least of my not-entirely-randomly chosen list, is the real deal.

I don't have a strong opinion about Avril Lavigne, but I remember that our son, like most humans his age (and probably all male humans his age), was most infatuated by her first album.

 

[mhardy6647]

I was really, really, really impressed by Lorde's Royals.
She was, if memory serves, fifteen when she recorded it.

Not unlike the aforementioned Billie Eilish video, I don't like the 'official' video for Royals (either).

 

[kokishin]

I've really been into the MonaLisa Twins lately who do mostly 60's cover songs and a few originals. These ladies are quite talented. (English is not their native language although they do quite well).

 

[RayDunzl]

A reminiscence from a Voice of Reason

--- just the first two minutes

 

[Daverz]

Just one more thing: in the OP admits that there was a lot of popular crap in his day, too. You would have to listen to a lot of records to get to the good stuff. So you can't just select something really popular now and then proclaim music these days is shit.

 

[LightninBoy]

Here's a video explaining how to make a Billie Eilish song

 

[amirm]

Wait, did he just say they don’t use pitch-correction (Melodyne/Autotune)?! That’s pretty interesting. Also, the mentioned one overtly auto tune they did was for the film Roma, I too do not like it:

Hey, I like that track!

 

[Doodski]

I can remember the days when my mother would toss my smokes and Marianne Faithfull and Blue Oyster Cult cassette tapes into the pot belly stove. They where considered weird and too progressive. Billie Eilish reminds me of Marianne Faithfull.

 

[Wombat]

I can't believe I just ordered the original Readers Digest 5CD set and the two Singles CDs of The Carpenters.


Re the latest big thing - every so often the old, in this case angst and soul bearing, is reinvented as new for the times:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03...nny-cash-singer-songwriter-rock-star/12091824

Torch songs/singers.

Blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Big Momma Thornton.

 

[MZKM]

Hey, I like that track!

I think that the auto-tune/vocoder, while on purpose, is just so overtly noticeable that it is just off-putting to me.

 

[RayDunzl]

Here's a video explaining how to make a Billie Eilish song

 

[Daverz]

I can remember the days when my mother would toss my smokes and Marianne Faithfull and Blue Oyster Cult cassette tapes into the pot belly stove. They where considered weird and too progressive. Billie Eilish reminds me of Marianne Faithfull.

I wonder what the OP would make of this:

That was the first Marianne Faithful I ever heard (I was unaware of her long history at that point). On FM radio! It must have been late at night, and I suppose the FCC in those days was more lenient (or there ware repercussions I was unaware of).

 

[Wombat]

I wonder what the OP would make of this:

Marianne and Leonard. Some called their songs "Music to slash your wrists to". I quite like both of them.

 

[Dimitri]

Nothing, and I mean nothing, in the popular realm has stuck with me for a long long time.

Some songs are better when accompanied by a video, some become more likable once you've read the lyrics.

Had to have high, high hopes for a living
Shooting for the stars when I couldn't make a killing
Didn't have a dime but I always had a vision
Always had high, high hopes
Had to have high, high hopes for a living
Didn't know how but I always had a feeling
I was gonna be that one in a million
Always had high, high hopes
Mama said
Fulfill the prophecy
Be something greater
Go make a legacy
Manifest destiny
Back in the days
We wanted everything, wanted everything
Mama said
Burn your biographies
Rewrite your history
Light up your wildest dreams
Museum victories, everyday
We wanted everything, wanted everything
Mama said don't give up, it's a little complicated
All tied up, no more love and I'd hate to see you waiting
Had to have high, high hopes for a living
Shooting for…

 

[MZKM]

View attachment 57253

Here is one with more views than many artists will ever get on their own music;

 

[Doodski]

Billie Eilish needs some Company B as a influence.

 

[MZKM]

I don't get the "rap" thing either, probably because I'm not personally aspiring to be an inner-city hustler/pimp/thug/drug dealer/cop killer of some sort.

I teach high school seniors, and sometimes I play music over the classroom’s sound system during independent work, and the amount of boys that will try to get me to play music by NLE Choppa and the like just makes me sigh:

Shooting enemies, degradation of woman, etc.

That said, the acting tough and bragging type of rap isn’t always off-putting to me, I like ‘ISIS’ by Joyner Lucas and Logic for instance, and it doesn’t hurt that I like dance and Fik-Shun’s choreo/freestyle to it is great:

I like rap/trap, it’s just that there is a smaller % that I like compared to other genres.

 

[Bamyasi]

I grew up with this, every age digs its own hole. No point in making a comment I can't listen to any current pop music at all.

Well well well...

I've first heard her record when I was 10 probably and till today Connie's voice is what defines America as a country to me. Obviously, this is generational but still... can you really compare them?? And Connie Francis was considered 100% commercial popular artist at the time.