Modern Pop Music and Its Lack of Creativity

                                                                         By Brennan Cox

   Throughout the years, pop music has impacted the world with its catchy hooks, its unique fashion  

style, and originality. It all started with the Beatles’ first LP, “Please Please Me”, which was released

in the ‘60s. Artists like the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Prince, and David Bowie (who experimented

with both pop and rock), had something to add to the world of music: Originality.

  These musicians wrote songs that no one had ever heard before. Michael Jackson Invented the

“Moonwalk” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6pomaq30Gg). David Bowie and Prince had an

eye-popping fashion style and wrote such unforgettable songs like “Purple Rain”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHxmctgKFL8) by Prince, and “Heroes”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgcc5V9Hu3g) by Bowie.

Prince

David Bowie

   Over the years, modern pop music has copied other artists such as Prince and Michael Jackson,

and it has grown to be more about an image than about the music. Everything sounds the same,

leaving nothing new to add to the world of music. This is mostly due to the music industry

and the amount of control it puts on their artists. The industry relies more on pitch perfect singing,

image, sex, drugs, and partying more than being creative. For example, the lyrics to the song

“Talking Body” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzRyxGBGiAE) by Tove Lo says, “Put your body

on me, if you love me, babe, we’ll f--k real late, on and on and on.”. This song contains an

electronically produced back track and a simple, catchy hook.

Another example is the song “Can’t Feel My Face” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEI4qSrkPAs) by the Weekend. This song romanticizes cocaine.

   The industry has grown to be anything but creative. As long as they make money, then they’ll keep

enforcing easy pop music. If you listen to songs on the radio, you will find that most songs sound

pretty much the same. Simple, catchy, and easy.

On this site (http://onehallyu.com/topic/216994-prince-criticizes-the-state-of-modern-music/),

Prince explains his views towards modern pop music, stating:

“There might be music that sounds like me, but what good is that? You're essentially in the

feedback loop. It’s a bad time for music in general. There’s not a lot of pop music in the mainstream

that makes you feel scared, that makes you wonder what’s happening.”

This helps to prove that pop music is not pushing boundaries, leaving it with as much nutrition as a

McDonald’s hamburger.

   Aside from the lack of creativity and originality in the major labels, the indie scene has been

starting to overwhelm the music industry. In the indie scene, artists are free to do whatever they

want musically. There are no boundaries. Artists like Vampire Weekend, Chance the Rapper, and

Macklemore

Macklemore have jumped on the indie band wagon, allowing them

to create and produce whatever they want, while still obtaining

massive fame without labels controlling their musical style.

Spotify has made a contribution to independent artists, allowing

musicians to get noticed and make a bit of money  without the

power of a major label. http://www.ibtimes.com/.

   Chance the Rapper has not signed up with a music label because he does not believe in them. Not

signing to a label has allowed him to push musical boundaries (http://www.thisisinsider.com/why-hance-the-rapper-refuses-to-sign-a-record-label-2016-6).

The only way to listen to his record, “Coloring Book”

Chance the Rapper

(https://play.spotify.com/album/71QyofYesSsRMwFOTafnhB?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open), is to stream it on Spotify.

   The indie scene is being renovated and is starting to grow with

help from businesses like Spotify, which BMI has teamed up with

 (http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/spotify_placeholder), Bandcamp

(https://bandcamp.com/), and Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/). Maybe one day businesses

like Spotify will overthrow the power of major labels.

   Brennan Cox is an artist and musician from Murfreesboro Tennessee. He creates psychedelic art

and music. His biggest passion is music and aspires to be a producer. Brennan and his brothers have

The Outaded Guys Logo

a page called, The Outdated Guys         

(https://www.facebook.com/theoutdatedguys/), which incorporates

both music, art, and film. He currently lives in Murfreesboro Tennessee

with his family.