Modern Songwriting

I suppose it is terrible etiquette to present my first post as a new topic thread, especially considering I spent very little time scavenging around this board in search of a topic similar to mine…but hell…here goes nothing.

What I am curious of is what others think of modern pop music songwriting. Do you believe it has purpose as music as compared to another time period? Would you even classify most of what is recorded and published today as music? What emotions poke at you when you here another “hit song” on the radio?

To answer my own questions, I suppose I believe that the music created by the pop genre artists of today have some sort of meaning even if no clear meaning can be dissected in between all of the bumps and clangs and ridiculous auto-tuning. I would assume that the artist must have had some reason for recording their song aside from the desire to make financial gains. Personally, I don’t much care for the vast majority of what is played over the radio waves these days, never really have in my life. I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder though.

About half the time a new song is broadcasted over the air, I almost feel enraged by what I am hearing. Half the time I feel that particular emotion it’s because to me it seems the artist has fallen far off their trolley and landed in a thorn bush…I honestly just don’t understand all of it. People my age and even some of my more intelligent friends love this stuff. I get the fact that we are in college and everything seems amusing with the proper blood alcohol level but come on…is this really music or just another stab at making a fortune by some half-wit who left high school to become a musician and has zero understanding of reality outside their own little bubble.

Seeing as how I feel a rant coming on, I’m going to leave it at that and ask all of you what your thoughts/opinions/concerns are pertaining to this subject.

Thanks a bunch!

I’m new too (although this post is kind of old) and wanted to ask these questions too.

To answer some of them, sort of… I think, similar to the 70’s when punk was born, then new wave and goth or the late 80’s when sugar metal burned in the firey wake of grunge…all the crap on the airwaves is driving the artistic creators of music and those who appreciate their creations toward the next dimension of sonic expression.

One of my questions related to this thread was going to be about whether and how everyone should attempt/experience/be allowed to enjoy making music (obviously many successful singers are less talented than people I know who sing in church choir and such).

My opinion is, that in order to enjoy the full depth of human experience we should all create and particpate in musicianship. When there is more of a developed baseline in participation, quality of output and appreciation would probably go up also.

The creativity behind making music would demistify some of the overly idolized musicians, perhaps. Music is used assuch a manipulation and marketing tool, that attempting to put it in the hands of the masses is not a real priority.

I have more to say and more to ask on the subject but typing on my nifty lil phone is a bitch. I’ll give in to that subtle manipulation for now and go play some music on a real instrument (rather poorly too) for awhile.

:slight_smile: