The state of POP music today.......

[onewilyfool]

I got this from another thread, comparing Janice Joplin to Lady Gaga????????? Unbelievable!!!

 

Janice Joplin was a raw, bluesy, powerful singer. One of a kind. A great singer! Had some demons, but still, a great singer. Lady Gaga is really just a performer, performance art performer, kind of cartoon. Lot's of sizzle, but no steak......I actually pity the young kids today, if this is the best they've got...... I saw Taylor Swift singing with Christine Mc Vie at the Grammy awards.....and she could barely keep in tune?? Christine, at over 60, handed her her lunch. If you can gyrate and dance, and wear almost no clothes, it must be enough to distract most young folks from the fact that their stars can hardly sing. I just don't understand it? Another mis-match at the Grammys, the Jonas Brothers with Stevie Wonder??????? Unbelievable......

 

I remember a quote from Joni Mitchell who said that today's musicians are two generations away from greatness. I must agree. Again, with the world of video and game boys, music has to be intense and provocative electronically altered, and two dimensional. It is beyond me......lol....please excuse the rant.....

[maninblack]

Amen brother! Amen. I'm a 70 year old trapped in a 30 year old body. Even when I was 12 my soul was as old as the hills.

 

Everything in the marketplace is disposable now. Why not music too? Lady Gaga will meet cultural oblivion soon enough. Just pick up a Rolling Stone from 5 years ago to know what I mean.

[Buc McMaster]

Lordy lordy! What a can of worms! I agree with you, OWF, and, while what's acceptable as music these days is saddening, that's just the tip of the iceberg. What this generation accepts as entertainment in general is quite scary. Just look at the collection of television shows, most particularly on cable channels like E! and the like, that pass for entertainment. Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Jerseylicious, Kendra.....what is this!?!? wtf?!?! How is this entertainment? Who decided these folk's lives, fine Americans they may be, should be given primetime TV exposure?!?! Oh man..........don't get me started......

[grampa]

Pop music is commercially driven. Whatever sells is the only consideration. Janis only sold a small number of records and really can't be considered "pop". The "pop" music of that time was about as bad as the current "pop" stuff.

Gaga on the other hand is pure commercial pop.

[ajsc]

Janis only had one number 1 "hit", & didn't live to see it!!

(A little diddy written by her good friend Kris Kristofferson)

[Danner]

I'm not so sure. Janus joplin was drug induced, and really, her vocals weren't "all that". Joplin's songs were also pretty simplistic in structure. I would say Lady Gaga has a better voice, more musical talent, a better understanding of musical theory, and is a better all around entertainer.

 

Not that I am a big Gaga fan.

[BigKahune]

The state of POP music today.......

 

Deplorable.

[suburude63]

I'm not so sure. Janus joplin was drug induced, and really, her vocals weren't "all that". Joplin's songs were also pretty simplistic in structure. I would say Lady Gaga has a better voice, more musical talent, a better understanding of musical theory, and is a better all around entertainer.

 

Not that I am a big Gaga fan.

 

Please! Actually it was Southern Comfort induced. Lady Ga Ga better than Janice

[bkharmony]

I agree that Pop music - that is, pop music is on the charts - is horrible. Most commercial music today is and has been throughout history. However:

 

1. There's a TON of great music available today - just not on the charts

2. Pop music in the 60s was pretty horrible too. Most of the stuff you remember didn't really chart, and that's what will happen with today's music as well.

3. Janis Joplin was an embarrassment as a singer.

 

So, to summarize: Today's pop music bad, but not all of todays music bad. This is the same as it always has been. Janis Joplin sucked.

[Tennroots]

The genre has lost it's SOUL & it's ROOTS. There's no swing.

Syncopated urban white noise/black noise de-tuned angry wall of guitar synthetic hip hop pop puke.

GOD it makes me want to wretch......

Blame it on George W. Bush

 

Thankfully I have the Gibson Acoustic Forum to keep it real..or is it all an illusion?

[Danner]

Please! Actually it was Southern Comfort induced. Lady Ga Ga better than Janice

Oh really. Take a look and listen to this

 

ETA: I watched that video again, it's be a long time. I'll be more succinct. Janis Joplin couldn't hold a candle to Lada Gaga's talent.

 

BTW, I remember the day JFK was shot.

[zombywoof]

Never listened to Lady Ga Ga and all I know of her is what I see on the tabloid news. I wasn't sure it could get any worse than the Hair Bands of the 1980s but most of what I hear today is gutless and souless.

 

How many of you ever saw Janis perform? That lady surely could sing. She had a great voice and there ain't no denying it. But she also had a tendency to lapse into what would best be described as alot of hollering. For my two yen, the best lady singer I ever saw was Tracy Nelson with Mother Earth. Tracy released her first LP in 1965 and is still out there pretty much most nights belting it out.

 

A tune she recorded on the first Mother Earth LP released in 1968 (which also featured Mike Bloomfield on the cut "Mother Earth)."

 

[Guth]

In this day and age, it isn't so much about the musicians or the music as much as it is the media and our society. We've got all kinds of acts that are more or less forced upon us by the media (most of the time I choose not to listen/watch mainstream outlets). More often than not, the acts that are pushed at us have far less to do with how musically talented they are and much more to do with how marketable they are. It's not just how they sound, but how they look as we spend increasingly more time in front of screens of some sort or another (yes, the irony is thick given that this is an internet forum). Unfortunately, music, for music's sake has seemingly fallen out of favor with the majority of people these days. I get the impression that most people today only experience their music in a compressed format via a portable mp3 player or via their computer, serving primarily as background music. The days of sitting around listening to albums on the "hifi" for the sake of actually listening are more or less over. Nowadays, a person is more likely to download a single song from iTunes because they heard it on a GAP commercial or something of the sort. Music stores (Albums/CDs) are drying up left and right. Music as a whole is just not considered nor consumed in the same way as it was a few decades ago. Change happens.

 

That said, there is still lots of great music being made out there, and I imagine there always will be. If you look past the stuff that the media giants are trying to cram down our ears/eyes, you can find all kinds of great music being made today. One advantage of the Internet is that it provides a great distribution vehicle for independent artists to get their music out there. If you go searching, your bound to find quite a bit that appeals to you.

 

All the best,

Guth

[Tennroots]

Oh really. Take a look and listen to this

 

ETA: I watched that video again, it's be a long time. I'll be more succinct. Janis Joplin couldn't hold a candle to Lada Gaga's talent.

 

BTW, I remember the day JFK was shot.

Stephanie definitely has some talent but GaGa has turned into a circus freak act because it draws attention. Some of her notes in the video remind me of Nora but Nora's side project or alter-ego was with the "Little Willies" - GaGa is getting way too much attention but hey "The Rolling Stones" were alledgedly arrested for pissing on gas pumps and The Who pissing on the "monolith of knowledge" and Jimi lit his Strat on fire. As long as we let it - sensation will sell.

[albertjohn]

Lady GG can sing alright. I'm no fan but from what I've heard, it's a nice sound. Does she use autotune? Janis didn't.

 

If you are over, let's say, 45, then you're not meant to like it. They are the rules.

 

There's alot of singers and pop artists who I think are great; Kanye West JayZee, even Dizzie Rascal etc etc - they are serious about what they do and are trying to perfect their craft. (I'm NOT patronising here). It's just not cool to like them, but my children will get over it.

 

When I was a teenager and listening to Bowie, Roxy Music, punk, even The Who, my parents said they hated it, but I'm sure I caught them humming along sometimes. It was my Dad who introduced me to Steely Dan after a 2 week trip to the USA as a guest of the US Navy, and earlier to Motown so it worked both ways for me.

 

Different times, different strokes. There are still many talented people out there just trying to live the dream. You pays your money etc.................but it's all good.........except for Leona Lewis (yuk!)

[ChrisA83]

Agree that Lady Gaga is just pure 'entertainment'. Wouldn't say there's much musical integrity, whatever that is... and to see her playing the piano there it's weird how she could become GaGa and still be serious, or is she? Probably not, anyway each to their own.

 

A great pop band in the UK at the moment is Mumford & Sons, don't know if you'll have heard of them over the pond but I love them:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLJf9qJHR3E

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i8ml0XnR4k

[larryp58]

It's all about money these days. Sex sells everything. Don't matter if you have talent or not, if you look good, they can market you. When the money stops coming in on you, they drop you and get the next "big thing".

[zombywoof]

I would agree that some of these folks can really sing. But a voice cannot overcome lousy song crafting and techno-crap arrangements.

[onewilyfool]

I just listened to the Stefani Germanotta vintage video (Lady Gaga) that was posted above, and I would say that she wouldn't even be in the top 10 of American Idol???!!! I mean really.....a pale imitation of Christina Aguilera (Who is the BEST female vocalist in the world at the moment IMO) , at most. Below is a song by Janice, "Me and Bobby McGee", listen to that voice!!! She knew how to craft a song, wringing out themaximum out of every word. There is NO COMPARISON....lol.....

 

[albertjohn]

I know this thread is not about who your favourite female singer is but mine is Annie Lennox, very closely followed by Dione Warwick.

 

Most of the warbling women singing vibrato scales, I hear on the radio these days is akin to fingernails being scraped down a blackboard (in my humble and considered opinion)

[pschaafs]

For my two yen, the best lady singer I ever saw was Tracy Nelson with Mother Earth. Tracy released her first LP in 1965 and is still out there pretty much most nights belting it out.

 

 

I saw Tracy several times, and I agree she was the best out there then and now!

As to GaGa and her ilk, I really dont pay any attention to the stars of today - there's too much old music available in new ways it consumes all my time.

[fortyearspickn]

I think Pop music took a big hit it will never recover from when it started to promote "Rap" The music industry realized there was a ton of money to be harvested from people with absolutely no taste - and it just opened up the door to new depths, to mix metaphores. For example, attractive women who wear dresses made out or raw meat. There were always "novelty" acts that happened to sing. Take Tiny Tim (please)for example. Madonna successfully navigated between being shocking and actually good. And we all know how Elvis started out as being despised by the mainstream, traditional public - but eventually was accepted as a pioneer, along with Chuck Berry and others of his time. Later on, the same held true with the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Of course,there were bubble gum bands who never became icons, but many of the truly "pop" groups from generations ago started out being disliked. I agree, the Internet has really given those who are interested in really good music - the ability to find it.If you want to hear a really great female singer - search for Diana Krall on iTunes.

[grampa]

I just listened to the Stefani Germanotta vintage video (Lady Gaga) that was posted above, and I would say that she wouldn't even be in the top 10 of American Idol???!!! I mean really.....a pale imitation of Christina Aguilera (Who is the BEST female vocalist in the world at the moment IMO) , at most. Below is a song by Janice, "Me and Bobby McGee", listen to that voice!!! She knew how to craft a song, wringing out themaximum out of every word. There is NO COMPARISON....lol.....

 

 

Agreed on both counts. Gaga can sing but she doesn't SING. Janis could SING and those of us who heard her live know it.

[Shambolic]

But it's not necessarily about Technical ability. Especially in the sixties it was about feel. Think about it, Dylan, McCartney, Lennon, Joplin, Kristofferson all could quite possibly be beaten technically by Lady GaGa but in terms of feel and content they are leagues ahead. Having said that there is a massive underswell in the UK of independent artist with great skill and creativity but you wont hear them on the Mainstream Radio very often

[grampa]

One more thing. Many years ago when I was in my late 30's a vowed to never, ever say:"You call that music?!" I may not like something but I don't want to be saddled with that attitude. I prefer a broad definition and not a narrow one.