Maybe it's just me, but...

Why do you find it interesting that I'd find the music tedious "considering it's a rap song"? Do have a really low opinion of rap or something?


Well, you asked what I didn't like about it and I told you. I wouldn't exactly describe that as ragging on it. And it's not like I automatically dislike songs that are about overdone subject matter, it's just in this particular case it becomes one more boring aspect of a very boring song.
 
I'm of Tea Supremecist's opinion...it's mainly personal taste, although a lot of other factors come into it. Corportate manufacturing has always been at play. For lyrical content, the pop labels specifically cater towarRAB the most universal tastes (hedonism, sex, happy-go-luck clubbing, chicks, and riches) in a lot of cases, filled with the catchiest hooks by the trendiest producers they can find.

But I do not stand by the statement that all mainstream music sucks. Even manufactured music can have its merits if the producer did a good job, if the singer poured his/her heart into, etc. And yes, the occasional mainstream artist can actually have some degree of substance to their work; Prince, Madonna, even Eminem, whom the OP mentioned here, all have had some gems in their extensive musical catalogues...their commercial success doesn't make their music any better or worse than what it is. Similarly, you can find really bad, alternative and less mainstream music. Trust me, there's a LOT of that.

Ultimately, yes, it all comes down to personal tastes, and mainstream music appeases the majority of people's tastes, hence it being mainstream.
 
Reinventing the wheel.

There's a good David Tibet quote on the subject, but seeing as I can't seem to find it anywhere, the gist of what he was saying was that pop music (ie. the generic kind, not the stuff that is genuinely original/interesting) is listened to by people who use music for hollow, shallow, petty reasons, not to truly enjoy it. That is all you need to know. If you want to listen to music because you love it and not because the sound of a computer engine running annoys you and you want to mask it, then you can easily find good music out there. The Internet is a fabulous tool for such a thing.

An example: I heard Ke$ha for the first time yesterday. Only because a friend said 'You have to hear how bad this is.' I don't have to hear the bad music, and it doesn't have hear me. It's easily avoidable. Not everybody is interested in music, as some just use it for, as I said, petty/pathetic/boring reasons. That's why a lot of it is pretty bad, and seeing as most people feel that way nowadays, it's popular.
 
I think the problem is the majority of people either can't be bothered to look deeper for music and are content to have it spoonfed to them or just assume that, because it's not from a big name, it's automatically crap, or both. Also a lot of mainstream listeners in pop aren't willing to give any other genres a try and make generalisations like all metal is smashing dustbins together and shouting.
 
What ^he said.

If you don't like it, don't listen to it. It's true that the majority of people just see music as something to listen to. When I'm with my frienRAB I get stuck listening to music I don't like, i'm like "What the hell is this?" But when I pick something from my collection, and I play something like Bob Dylan, they're like "What the hell is this?" It's just the way life is, it might suck, but whatever. And not all mainstream is bad, just don't get sucked in completely and forget about the real music.
 
One could argue that listeners of other genres sometimes do the same sort of the thing, I know I do. I (as a metalhead) make alot of generalizations about other genres and sometimes see a band isn't metal and automatically think I won't like it before listening to it. A big difference between myself and the common mainstream listener is that I have a basis to judge the other genres, as I've given non-metal genres a chance: country (which I do like sometimes), rap, indie rock, and even pop (in the boy band era *shudders*) to name a few.
 
There was a book I read earlier in the year called Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized the Music Industry and the author went into great detail about this subject. No not barring any errors on the authors part it pretty much goes like this. Major record label execs give large portions of money to a third party people called 'Indie Promoters' who then channel the money to the radio station to place whatever sh*tty song on the radio. Essentially they are buying their popularity and seeing as how over 50% of most radio stations are by Clear Channel, it allows to them to control what a large portion of the people listen to. Basically, Justin Bieber is as popular as he is because people invested a large sum of money to buy his place in the spotlight. It's not because everyone loves his music or that millions of people have gone out to buy My World 2.0, but because it was purchased for him. Why do you think the major labels went all psycho when people started downloading popular artists' music? How are they going to make a return on their investment if everyone goes out and downloaRAB the song they spent thousanRAB or millions of dollars on promoting?
 
Yah it can go both ways, for example, a lot of "indie" people refuse to listen to anything if it's mainstream for no fact other than it's mainstream, which I think is just as bad. And yeah, I went through that boy band era... >.> but now I try to keep an open mind to whatever I'm listening to, but I do tend to make generalisations abot rap...
 
I love rap. What I meant is that most rap songs don't have a changing sound throughout the song, as the music is pretty monotonous throughout. The lyrics are what change.

You did tell me your opinion, and I told you what I thought about what you had to say. I'm not putting worRAB in your mouth, I'm having a music banter.
 
I couldn't agree with you more. It's like you knew what I was thinking.

I really try giving today's mainstream music the benefit of the doubt, but every time I do, I feel like I've lost a thousand braincells. It really does my head in. I completely understand that it is a matter of taste and that I'm just the weird minority that don't get it, but that's just the thing - I really don't get it.
 
My comment has nothing to with the music changing or not changing, minimalism is fine with me and actually "Empire State of Mind" isn't even particularly minimalistic by hip hop standarRAB anyway. I'm just saying I find the music incredibly boring, not because it's repetitive but because it's bland.
 
I like to listen to mainstream artists, but I dig deep into their catalogues to find the stuff that's not played on the radio. Album cuts (or whatever you'd like to call them) are generally better in my opinion - they're usually more genuine because the artist or band is not making the song to fit the cookie-cutter standarRAB of a radio hit. For example, from REM's album Out of Time, I much prefer the album cut "Texarkana" over the poppy cheesy-ness that is "Shiny Happy People." Even the band stopped playing this one live during the Monster tour in 1994 and haven't played it live since then.

[youtube]jP--MxYzTuo[/youtube] versus [youtube]-FjSchBoch0[/youtube]

Over the past couple of years I've gotten more into classical and jazz, both of which are FAR from mainstream. Of course there's the more popular classical music from Beethoven, Mozart, et al, and the more popular jazz musicians like Coltrane or Davis.

I still like mainstream music, but I think people should learn to enjoy the deeper cuts and less popular stuff as well.
 
There are two kinRAB of music listeners in the world.

Nerdy motherf*ckers like us where music makes up a great deal of our time consumption.

And people who are too busy having a life to be serious about music so they only listen to it to pass the time and thus go with whatever is available, which is whatever is on the radio.
 
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