why is pop music so generic
Sorana, recently signed to APG/Atlantic, will serve as our guide through the intricacies and commonalities of pop music as it stands today.Hopefully by the end we’ll have a better understanding of why pop continues to shape generations of musicians and … Clear Channel's "On the Verge" program is one of the most talked about. A hit is a song that sells many copies, and the latest hits are listed every week on the charts . Characteristics of Pop Music. “Generic Pop Song #3” is perhaps the most winking of the pop-taunting trio of tracks, opening with the so-called “millennial whoop” that dominates the Hot 100 singles. We can champion the genuinely original and leave aside the derivative. To get on the charts, a song must be released as a single , although most singles are also released on an album . Everything about pop music is designed to be as generic, unoffensive, and understandable as possible. In fact, this is a problem as old as pop music itself. Our greatest pop composers aren’t re-inventing the wheel or pushing boundaries because it would impact sales. [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22.3″ custom_padding=”0px|||||”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.22.3″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_padding=”0px|||||”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=”3.22.7″ title_font=”||||||||” title_text_color=”#000000″][/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.7″ text_text_color=”#000000″], We have teams of the best songwriters from all around the world writing chart toppers with funding from big music labels. Repeated exposure to a piece of music increases familiarity and moves the preference of the music from right to left through the inverted-U. Genres standardize over time as a way to plug into this psychology. Iggy Azalea may be the harbinger of hip-hop's eventual homogenization, but she is only a pawn of the larger media circuit. This undoubtedly helped launch Iggy Azalea to incredible new heights of success, which she may not have otherwise earned with her talent alone. My favorite genres range from soft rock to heavy metal. This is an industry, the faster and greater number of songs/albums/concerts we consume, the greater profit. There are three main reasons why pop songs today sound so similar. Daniel Berlyne’s Inverted U theory. Exposure and familiarity cannot increase because the generative music is always changing. Daniel Berlyne’s Inverted U theory. Instead they focus minimal friction with catchy hooks and rip-offs to get listeners enjoying the music from day one. As reported by the Atlantic, "Top 40 stations last year played the 10 biggest songs almost twice as much as they did a decade ago.". It is all really starting to annoy me. Radio hosts achieve this cycle by: You’ve probably heard of fast fashion, well this is fast music. Take other genres. And they know that now better than ever. For example, an unplugged or acoustic version, instrumental version, dance cover or remix, or even a free jazz interpretation. On the extreme right, unfamiliar, high complexity and unusual music such as avant-guard free jazz. And ones that have — folk, folk rock and experimental music — aren't exactly big earners. August 27, 2013 at 4:56 pm. Symphonic and polyphonic classical pieces are great examples of this because each listen you hear something different, hidden in the complexity. The study is right — and it's more of a problem now than ever. "This can be interpreted," the researchers write, "as music becoming increasingly formulaic in terms of instrumentation under increasing sales numbers due to a tendency to popularize music styles with low variety and musicians with similar skills.". She has since established herself as an international force in contemporary music. The characteristics of pop music tend to orientate around the genre of music that sells the most. 'Why is modern day POP music (aka mainstream music) so generic' - I wasn't asking 'Why is ALL music generic' And was just simply asking the question why music on the radio is so generic, I don't sit their. By Tom Barnes. For store managers, I would be concerned about the implications on staff’s wellbeing and if this validates increased sales. And why is it that when a new hit is released we hear it 100x in the first day? It’s also a slow and initially unpleasant procedure. Sorana is a pop artist born in Romania. Medium complexity, familiarity and unusual music decreases from preferred to less preferred. Once a worthy song or artist emerges from the data, radio conglomerates have mechanisms in place to ensure that music will connect with an audience. They rated the genre's complexity over time — measured by researchers in purely quantitative aspects, such as timbre and acoustical variations — and compared that to the genre's sales. The findings are somewhat intuitive. When a song is dubbed "On the Verge," every station in the Clear Channel network has to play it at least 150 times — blasting it to a potential network of about 245 million listeners. Permalink. So if you're wondering why the top 10 features two Meghan Trainor songs that sound exactly the same and two Taylor Swift songs that sound exactly the same, scientists think they finally have the answer. Local pop music hits were rarely played if at all. Country is often about patriotism and the loss of identity. Low complex, very familiar and generic music is still not preferred. Maybe it's because everywhere we look, we are bombarded with the same music: on the radio, on TV, on the computer. Just having a little rant about pop music. I doubt the author seriously follows to pop music. Punk is about social and financial inequality. In the 21 st Century, this has largely become the province of what can broadly be classed as a song. Why is mainstream music (such as generic pop like katy perry, Electronic music such as Skrillex, hip hop such as Dr Dre and mainstream rock such as linkin park) so mainstream and popular when older songs such as classic rock, Jazz and older pop are far superior in every way (lyrics, vocals, instrumental complexity and how they sound in general)? For me, I’ve never gotten the appeal to pop music. Alternative rock, experimental and hip-hop music are all more complex now than when they began, and each has seen their sales plummet. What if I had listened to an altered version of Thrift shop. On the image above, the inverted-U represents our preference with two opposite ends of the spectrum. This theme however is intangible with each re-iteration of the theme becoming a new theme which is then re-iterated and so on. Scientists Just Discovered Why All Pop Music Sounds Exactly the Same. This theory proposes that preference for a piece of music is informed by familiarity, complexity and unusualness of the music to the listener. Pop music really stagnated when rap dominated the industry starting in 1990s and continuing up through around 2007. This is how Can’t Sleep App works. Popular music is a generic term for a wide variety of genres of music that appeal to the tastes of a large segment of the population, whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical genre within popular music. Like a theme and variation, the app composes a theme and varies it. Startlingly few genres have retained high levels of musical complexity over their histories, according to the researchers. Often, these creators optimize further by titling tracks and albums with related words and reuploading the same songs ad nauseum, which can look especially absurd when filtering to see just a single tune. Country Music Has Become Generic And Boring A quick listen of Billboard’s top 50 songs reveal that as long as you use certain words in your song , … So why is pop music so generic and simple? K-pop is just following the same trends of western pop music. Of course a genre will sell more once it forms an established sound that listeners can identify with. So here’s our five reasons: 1. And why is it that when a new hit is released we hear it 100x in the first day? Not sure whether it's more or less exploitative than American or British pop music but Korea didn't invent exploiting vulnerable young artists, plastic surgery or slimy record execs. all day listening to the radio - it's simply a question. Ever had a song grow on you? We’re sure most of you would agree when we say, Pop Punk just doesn’t do anything for us anymore… After (hardly any deliberation), we’re here to easily convince you why of all of the genres that are in the musical realm, Pop Punk is by far the worst. It was the future we all wanted so desperately to come true… Lie #1: Great music will naturally find its audience. Ambient background music tends to be familiar, low complexity and generic compared to other styles. [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section], Highly complex, unfamiliar and unusual music becomes more preferred up to a point and then becomes less preferred. This music would be similar but not true repeated exposure, slowing the process through the inverted U theory. On the extreme left familiar, low complexity and generic music such as a lullaby or nursery rhyme. Agreed. In extreme cases this could be considered noise pollution. Anyone who listens to pop radio regularly has probably been hit with this realization at one point or another – a ton of pop music sounds very similar. Today I listened to Thrift shop by Macklemore, it has been long enough that it’s awesome again. In the early 1950s, a new approach to programming music on the radio began. A psychology theory on musical preference. Others name themselves after popular uses for certain kinds of music, well-known generic tunes like children’s rhymes, or entire music genres. Perhaps they have never listened to anything else. Popular music songs and pieces typically have easily singable melodies. No instruments are played. This brings awareness to the customer of Christmas spirit and increases sales for the store. They found that in nearly every case, as genres increase in popularity, they also become more generic. Nebraska radio broadcaster Todd Storz is credited with inventing the top 40 radio format. Yeah, I know. The Can’t Sleep App combats this habituation by composing new music in Realtime every second. This is known as dishabituation, where avoidance of an overexposed stimulus (thrift shop in this case) increases in preference. The first time you might not like it, but after 10 listens you love it…and after 20 you don’t like it anymore. Find out the psychology below. are mostly heavily despised and disregarded by MANY critics and audiences world-wide, why are they so popular? As a Korean-American, I'm inclined to support my ethnic group, but in this case I'm very critical: Western music audiences usually require anything new to actually be new, not a near clone of something recent. Well, timbral variety went down. This concept is similar to the western classical form known as a theme and variations where each movement takes the musical themes and uses them in a different style, emotional expression or purpose. At school, pop and rap are discussed religiously. This theory proposes that preference for a piece of music is informed by familiarity, complexity and unusualness of the music to the listener. The mere exposure phenomenon, studied by social psychologist Robert Zajonc suggests that things familiar to the human brain are often more pleasant. It's a cycle. So why is pop music so generic and simple? We can make a better musical culture. Listening to the same ambient music very quickly becomes repetitive and unpleasant. For an industry where image is key, pop music itself has got an image problem of its own. In other words, all pop music sounds the same now. Of course we all have different music listening habits and music skill and possibly a musician studying jazz may not find avant-guard free jazz so complex or unfamiliar. That means that songs are becoming more and more homogeneous. Kimbra) - official music video Popular music is a generic term for a wide variety of genres of music that appeal to the tastes of a large segment of the population, whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical genre within popular music. I personally don't care much for pop music, my ears think they all sound the same. So, what happened since 1955? Not everyone is going to identify with these themes. A new study, surveying more than 500,000 albums, shows simplicity sells best across all music genres. Author has 64 answers and 14.3K answer views. This is the type of music that grows you as a music listener, challenges your music taste. The same 10 tunes repeated back to back, every year for 2 months, in every retail store near you. But this is nothing new. The singers have the most unbearable vocals… Pop music grew into its own genre in the 50s with the emergence of rock ’n’ roll. Or maybe peer pressure is part of it. And her success, in turn, is spawning legions of hip-hop pop imitators whom labels will choose to blast out because their chance at success has been proven. Repetition factor plays an important role in two ways: First, repetition is a characteristic trait for a music in general, but more so in case of pop music. Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Additionally to that pop music is the one genre that we are most exposed to. What the industry wants is short, simple and generic songs that we enjoy on the first listen to engage us, and possibly for us to purchase and then for us to move on from. I don't care for the music much but I can see why so … The study: In a recent study, researchers from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria studied 15 genres and 374 subgenres. Record labels are pouring resources into data analysis tools, using them to predict which songs will be the next breakout hit. I look for rock, rock is usually good because it isnt mainstream pop crap. Many critics view it with disdain, while even fans of one sort of pop music consider other types of pop music to be beneath contempt – valueless and not worthy of being considered music, let alone art. I think we can all relate to the horrible musical experience that leads up to Christmas. “Pop” music suddenly wasn’t just what was “popular” at the time. Because pop music is intended to reach the largest possible audience - which is why it's called pop, short for popular. Unless, of course, they fit into the Mumford & Sons/Lumineers pop-folk mold. According to Derek Thompson at the Atlantic, executives can use services like Shazam and HitPredictor to see which songs will break out next with surprising accuracy. And now, thanks to a new study, they know why. Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock.Like post-punk, the term has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Most if not all of the top music today is generic pop music from people who were already fameous. And then we hear the same songs, over and over again. Metal is about being misunderstood. ... they also become more generic. DMB is far enough removed from mainstream pop (no chart-topping singles … One, the similarity of music gives the listeners a feeling of nostalgia. love how your so jealous that you have to target K-pop fans.We get it your stupid american pop is “better” but its everyone’s like on their music.K-pop idols want fame but … Numerous psychological studies show that people choose songs they're familiar with over songs that more closely match their reported music tastes. Pop music has actually improved over past 7 years thanks to a new crop of producer/songwriters such as Dr. Luke and Max Martin, and others. If you bother looking for the songs you like, you can find it. Why do most teenagers exclusively listen to pop and rap music when so many other genres exist? If we're aware of these sort of trends and practices, we can better resist what they do to our music. Harmony, rhythms, time signature, lyrics. Not only that, but complexity actually starts turning people off of musical styles. Building hype around a “pre-determined hit single” with snippets from the singles chorus to warm up the listener, Playing the single multiple times a day when the single is released, Once the single is over played, beating the dead horse (for any late adopters). As something becomes popular, it necessarily dumbs down and becomes more formulaic. A self-perpetuating cycle that is very beneficial to the music industry. Our somewhat manipulative music industry, which chooses familiar-sounding music and pushes it to listeners in massive quantities, knows well how to capitalize on those cravings. I would like to elaborate that it's not necessarily that there aren't any … Pop music is the genre of popular music that produces the most hits. So music … Find out the psychology below. He purchased the Omaha radio station KOWH in Omaha with his father Robert in 1949. Because they're safe. But the science is only proving the now-dominant truth of pop music: Record companies are only comfortable promoting things they already know will sell. But there's a point at which that becomes tired, and the space opens for something revolutionary — something that totally shifts the way we think about music. You often find a very simple 4-chord chord progression in the harmonies, a strong beat, usually a simple 4/4 time signature, lyrics that are easy to remember, a melody that most people … It’s probably due to the fact that it’s not my genre of music, but for one reason or another, I’ve just never gotten why it’s so popular. So music all starts simplifying and sounding similar. Post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. For as far back as you care to look, poor old pop music has been bullie… Human beings crave familiarity. If this "modern day" commercial, generic pop music, of the likes of Britney Spears, boybands, as well as stuff like 50 Cent-style rap and even the various talent shows (X-Factor included!) It seems like grandpa logic, but a growing body of research confirms what we all suspect: Pop music is actually getting more and more homogeneous.