Pop Music is Stuck on Repeat

[Groove58]

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[Marzzz]

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[I-missRichardTee]

I have played jazz blues pop soul spread across 3 instruments ( bass sax keys ), my entire career. I have therefore had ample opportunity to wonder about what changes in music over time.

 

ir seems like repetition was a good thing in the hands of John Coltrane. I believe he was influenced by North Indian Raga music, which could be conceived as repetitious although those fine musicians from India might disagree, feeling there are finely subtle distinctions in their eg drones on the tamboura.

Before John Coltrane's endlessly experimental creative ventures, I did not notice repetition as I did when I listened to Coltrane.

Maybe a question that might help is, what elements are repeating? And how many elements are you aware of?

I think if music were literally constantly repeating with no variation, you would quickly be alerted and offended by it... like a recorder on loop.

But when eg the lyric is repeated, that is not in itself an uncreative idea. Repeating a word, is like a mantra, and has power contained in those repetitions.

That is just one element ( words ) , there are many.

I am thinking the computer applied to modern music could easily be the culprit, in causing one to feel "this music sucks because it is too repetitive".

If a human repeats, he cannot help but make subtle meaningful variations.

 

[elsongs]

It's so HILARIOUS when non-musicians try to analyze music.

They think it's all about the lyrics!

[David Emm]

"Pop" almost means simplistic by definition. The very fine jazz pianist Mike Nock once said that Disco was popular because it didn't have much content, so it was easy to digest. "Complex music written over an extended period of time can't be absorbed from just one listening." He's right.

 

Asking most people to listen to a 7-minute instrumental has become akin to asking them how they'd like an earwig. We live in a grab-it-&-go world, including musically. You miss a lot through impatience. As Sparks once sang, "No time for relationships, skip the foreplay, let 'er rip, you gotta beat the clock."

 

If you want to blame computers, you should first blame that early Moog sequencer, which defined so much of the Berlin sound. I'm a fan, with a special Michael Hoenig chaser, but after a while, "hypnotic" can morph into "dulling."

 

The real problem isn't the gear, though; its trying to get people to move beyond the music they liked in high school! Not me, though. I was whistling "The Rite of Spring" when I was 10.

 

[MalH]

Thanks for posting this. I think it was quite clever to use compression ratios to measure repetitiveness in lyrics. An excellent presentation.

[Jazz+]

I recall chatting with a college student that wrote music reviews for some national rock indie review column. She told me "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was a terrible song. I asked why? She said the lyrics were bad. I said I didn't pay attention to the lyrics, that I listened to the sounds and notes. She looked at me like I was a kook.

 

Pop stuck in repeat? The soul of the machine, you're cool? Young creators with their roots in the drum machine? $$$$$ the McDonald's formula? Keep selling what the common folk want! $$$$

[EricBarker]

I honestly don't understand why Poetry isn't more popular. 99% of pop music has lyrics, and 90% of the time, people aren't listening to anything else. I guess that's why Rap & Hip-hop are so popular, they've stripped out the things people don't listen to: the music.

 

It bothers me that people require concrete words in order to enjoy the raw ecstasy of sound.

[CowboyNQ]

This discussion has gone in a really interesting direction.

 

Not three weeks ago a mate of mine asked my opinion on whether or not he was shallow because with a lot of the music he likes he really doesnt listen to, or care about, the words.

 

In short, I said no. Hes entitled to like what he likes for his own reasons.

 

For what its worth, I dont believe a song needs great words to make it worth listening to. However IF great music is accompanied by wonderful lyrics and the two somehow complement each other, for me the listening experience is significantly enhanced.

[Bob L]

I know a lot of people who pay no attention to lyrics. Seems a shame. I enjoyed Elton John's music in my youth, and a big part of it was the amazing lyrics Bernie Taupin wrote. I can't imagine one without the other. Sure, some songs with lame lyrics manage to become hits, but the songs that have stuck with me had something to say.

[EricBarker]

I guess my attraction to music is largely in the abstract. I do like concrete imagery (I'm not a Brahms absolutist) but I like to let my mind wander and see things other than specifically the "human condition" (which I find stressful after a while). I'm much more comfortable with Yes's lyrics than U2s. Or if I'm feeling cheeky and intellectual, King Crimson or Rush.

 

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the human voice, it's an amazing and versatile instrument, and I particularly love composers who choose lyrics and syllables for their sound. But concrete meaning gets draining to me. It's weird, because I consider myself an extrovert, but lyrics drain me the way introverts talk about being at parties.

[CowboyNQ]

I particularly love composers who choose lyrics and syllables for their sound.

100% with you on this Eric.

 

Where lyrics really come to life for me is where composers have the ability to find vocal sounds and word forms that beautifully complement the music, but also say interesting things.

 

Here are two examples from a band I know better than any other:

 

1. "You were caught in the crossfire of childhood and stardom".

 

Note the alliteration present in "caught and crossfire", and the assonance in "crossfire and childhood". Then step back and think about the meaning of the words. They speak so beautifully to the subject's challenge of trying to remain an innocent whimsical man-child with muse at full force, while coping with the pressures of gigging, touring, professionalism, fame.

 

Furthermore, the lyrics, when sung, sit in a nicely syncopated pocket alongside the 6/8 time signature of the song.

 

2. "...got to be able to pick out the easy meat..."

 

Check out all those short, incisive words and hard, edgy sounding vowels, particularly if the "t"'s are clearly articulated in "to" and at the end of "meat". It adds punch and venom to the author's feelings about the cold hard reality of capitalism and what one needs to do to thrive in such an environment.

 

When the guitar solo comes in a little later it's similarly brittle and harsh, stabbing, prodding, wailing and screaming at the listener. Don't get comfortable - this is not a comfortable world (it says to me)!

 

Recently our brother Josh (MoI) posted an original track in the "Shameless Plugs" section which I admired for the way the lyrics drove the song along relentlessly, like a book I couldn't put down. Another great example of marrying meaning, feeling, sounds and style.

[elsongs]

I honestly don't understand why Poetry isn't more popular. 99% of pop music has lyrics, and 90% of the time, people aren't listening to anything else. I guess that's why Rap & Hip-hop are so popular, they've stripped out the things people don't listen to: the music.

 

It bothers me that people require concrete words in order to enjoy the raw ecstasy of sound.

 

In the 1990s and 2000s, Spoken-Word Poetry was really big among college-aged youth; I personally couldn't stand it, it sounded like rap minus a consistent rhythm.

[ProfD]

As mentioned, when it comes to Pop music, follow the money. It is definitely manufactured like McDonald's food.

 

News flash..Pop music is intended for consumers under 35 years old. Repetition grabs and holds their attention.

 

Modern technology innundates us with so many sights and sounds it's easy to get caught up in a loop of BS, er, information overload.

 

Otherwise, most music listeners gravitate towards the music they grew up on or some semblance of it. "Newer" music isn't meant for them.

[CEB]

After Rachmaninov died it all went to hell.

[I-missRichardTee]

After Rachmaninov died it all went to hell.

 

You may have something there. Is the avatar pic, what, a friend of yours?

 

 

[Markay]

After Rachmaninov died it all went to hell.

 

I like lyrics in Italian so it has all been downhill since Puccini's Madama Butterfly with Volare providing a brief respite.

[BRW]

It's so HILARIOUS when non-musicians try to analyze music.

They think it's all about the lyrics!

 

Yeah! Most people dont have a clue what music is or how it is made.

 

I suspect this is why the same simplistic ideas and cliched chord progressions get a pass being repeated over and over, because its the lyrics (and maybe the beat) that most people pay attention to.

[GRollins]

People who are accustomed to getting their world view from a screen the size of their palm want a message that will fit on the screen without scrolling. Add short attention spans and you've got a recipe for repetition (alliteration! love it). It performs a valuable service in that it becomes a verbal shorthand, like LOL...it saves letters, space, and time and demands less of the listener/reader.

 

Me? I like settling in with a good book. Gimme something with meat on its bones. I'm okay with Jon Anderson's abstract lyrics and also with Mark Knopfler's more story-driven approach for listening. If I'm writing, I tend more towards the Knopfler end of the spectrum.

 

Grey