Notes

An Obituary - The Death of Modern Western Pop Music
It is with deep regret that I would like to inform you each of the untimely (but blatantly obvious) death of modern Western pop music.

Sadly, 'Pop' since it was fondly called was ailing for sometime, no one appeared to notice when it finally bellied up.

'Pop music' was renowned for bringing us many great hits over the decades. Many of these 'hits' date as far back at the 1940s, and over the decades there were many memorable songs from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

One can even dare say that popular music from each age and from other areas of the globe (Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic) also have stood the best test of time, with the works of numerous composers being studied and performed to the very day.

But something strange happened from the dawn of the brand new millennium. Initially none took any notice, but by the end of the next decade it was painfully clear.

There was no innovation and originality anymore. Actually most artists, irrespective of musical category all started to sound the same, as though each one of these musical groups were being manufactured from the same warehouse. It didn't matter if you were pop, dance, electronica, hip-hop or rock 'n roll (although I doubt the latter two will truly make it onto a mainstream radio playlist), all music had exactly the same flow, exactly the same chord progression (I, V, vi, IV), the same breaks, dynamics, and virtually all the singers sounded exactly like one another.

It was terribly formulaic. It was too obvious never to notice, yet there have been no cries for change.

Everyone appeared to be deaf to what was playing.

This writer believes the death was due to three culprits, almost like the three legs of a good chair. But like other things after a while with wear and tear, the legs of the musical chair began to rot, and there was no carpenter to repair the problem, therefore the legs became wobbly and the chair eventually collapsed.

The three legs were: Record Labels, Radio and the Artists themselves.

Record labels sprang up round the mid 1920s as a way to record, produce, market and distribute the music that has been happening at that time. There were A&R departments (Artist&Repertoire) that sought out new talent and developed a roster of artists/groups that would 'sign' compared to that label and sell records to the buying public. But alas, the record execs became greedy and lazy over time and have all but stopped their A&R departments. The end result is, you being an artist, you gotta have it all, ready to go for a label to jump in on your own bandwagon. And you also gotta be sell-able. If you're not cute, sexy, young or be hip with whatever gimmick is the latest trend, then you won't sell. It's that simple and crude. A label is only a bank now, plus they want an excellent return on the investment. And the artist is the investment. The three main labels that are left now (because the others got swallowed up through the years) couldn't care any less about real music than a bank cares about helping low-income earners get a loan.

Next up: Radio.

In its' infancy, radio helped build a knowledge of a new, hip trendy music that has been taking the planet by storm. The initial radio news broadcast occurred August 31, 1920 and soon after music performances begun to be aired. The new trendy music didn't have a name as yet, but all that has been about to change.

America was sitting on a goldmine, and alongside British kids, musicians took to the blues and jazz, mixed it all up and gave it their own twist. Next thing you knew, Rock n Roll was created and the music of the late 1940s and 50s had spunk and VOLUME.

Rock n Roll brought music of the working man right to very doorstep, it gave birth to numerous sub-genres - Heavy Metal, Indie, Alternative, Grunge, Shoe-Gaze and Pop music all owe their life to Rock n Roll. It's worthy to notice that each sub-genre bore their own children, so we are able to say that Rock n Roll had many children and grandchildren.

To have a consider the children that Rock n Roll will leave behind (thanks to Wikipedia, just check out Google).

But Jazz and Blues also had another offspring around the same time - R&B, a term sadly coined to differentiate music of African-American origin from Rock n Roll. Absurd and truly racist, nonetheless it is really a term that 'stuck'.

Thus, Jazz and Blues leave behind two kids - R&B and Rock 'N Roll. Both had their fair share of radio airplay in the first days. Both kids helped to make Pop what it had been.

But as the story goes, there came along a thief - Payola.

Thanks to the labels, they made sure that the only real content on radio, was theirs. Soon mainstream radio was only paid advertising for a label. If you don't believe me, turn on any mainstream Top 40 station and leave it on for a day or two. The station will play a handful of songs at the very least about five times each day. So t here 's only a couple songs on radio for airplay? Never mind there are hundreds of thousands of musicians/artists/bands worldwide, only a couple of songs get played on mainstream radio.

Which brings us to Artists: it seems that most artists these days all desire to be famous and rich (if that's even possible with the label and entertainment lawyers owning everything. And rather than writing anything of creative substance, most modern-day pop artists are out to make an instant hit. The term one-hit wonder can't apply to them as the terrible hits keep coming. They should re-name 'Artists' to 'Factory Clones' because in almost every music genre there's a few that mostly sound/look exactly alike.

And then arrived the worst part - the disease to end everything - Autotune (these devices that made an awful single a star)

Together, these three with their man-made disease helped kill the pop music industry.

Sad that no-one saw it plainly coming, maybe something could've been done.

But it is too late, and we now have are simply the memories of when music used to mean something.

When we could remember a song from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s.

But is it possible to remember any pop song from the brand new millennium?

I sure can't. And generally, I don't desire to, it's that terrible.

Rest in peace Pop, we had fun for a little while.

Francesco Emmanuel is really a classically-trained guitarist who is madly in-love with the guitar. He teaches guitar for a living, and when he's not composing music for film/TV, he's off touring with Canadian world-beat group Kobo Town.
My Website: https://worldidol.tv/how-to-get-started-in-online-marketing-right-away-and-build-a-solid-platform-for-future-growth/