Why does Pop music consistently outperform Rap?

i still can't believe people are really arguing this. i mean, if you wanna argue that there's still good music around, it's just not popular/mainstream, i could possibly see that as reasonable. but i mean, i can think of probably at least 50 great bands/musicians from the 60s/70s and they were all relatively mainstream...less than half that from the 80s, 90s, and 00s.

i would have loved to turn on a modern rock or pop radio station and hear some quality rock and roll, rather than the ghetto rap crap and profit-driven producers'-formula-written pop that makes it onto the modern radio stations today.

 

Lol did you check my stats, I can't believe you are still arguing this

 

it's one band, dude. i'm talking about what's constantly on the radio.

 

I just named 3 of the most legendary bands from that era with a cumulative total of less than 10 top 40 singles and only one number 1 single amonst them.

 

billboard top 100 2010: http://www.billboard.com/features/b...tory#/charts-year-end/hot-100-songs?year=2010

billboard top 100 1969: http://www.chairborneranger.com/top100/top100-1969.htm

are you honestly telling me these lists are equal in music quality?

 

why does pop music consistently outperform rap? Because the record companies who sign up pop musicians make great efforts and take great expense to promote them

just ask Greenday :mickey:

 

My take on it is that people will respond emotionally more to a melodius musical structure than to poetry done in a monotone. Of course,what do I know--I only watched the progression of music from the big band era and the constant changes through the 50s ,60s,ect to the present. How the record companies have convinced people that rap or hip-hop is music rather than monotonous poetry is beyond me. My age ,I guess.

 

2010 didn't load for me, there are some good songs in that one specific year but even so there is tons of crap on there I wouldn't listen to and stuff I've never even heard of.

 

x2

Also if you can only think of 30-40 bands from a whole decade that are good and mainstream you're obviously only glossing the surface, which means missing a lot of good, and also means missing out on all the shit from those decades we're talking about. Not to mention a lot of these "mainstream" bands have had their popularity skyrocket over the decades. Hendrix was never as famous alive as he is now, same with Janis Joplin. Zeppelin and Floyd were hella famous in the 70's, but were not the demi-gods they've become since then, Alice Cooper despite not having had a hit single in god knows how long is probably more famous and respected now than he's ever been, same with Johnny Cash, ect.

I can think of dozens of artists today that are decently mainstream and good from the past 10 years
Vampire Weekend, Black Keys, Rilo Kiley, Dropkick Murphy's VNV Nation, Cat Power, Dessa, Distillers, Gogol Bordello, M.I.A., Birthday Massacre, Silversun Pickups, The Kills, Wolf Parade, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, ect, ect
(I count decently mainstream as expecting them to be able to fill up a 1,000 seat area by themselves.)

 

here's a 2010 top 100 list that'll load more easily: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_top_10_singles_in_2010

if you compare that '69 list with the '10 list and think theyre even remotely similar in quality, i hope i never have to listen to your crappy music in your car, 'cause your taste is awful. i mean that in the nicest way possible.

 

Yes, just because you don't like something doesn't make it worse, christ. Sugar Sugar isn't a particularly good song, Age of Aquarius is fucking terrible, Hair is just goofy, Elvis is the eptiome of pop, Build me up Buttercup is almost boy band level of sugary sweet pop, I see Tom Jones pretty up there, like christ it's not in any way better. You just want music to say forever as it was in 1969 because 2 minute long 4 chord guitar songs or doo-wop songs are somehow empirically better because your taste in music doesn't agree with what's popular now.

I see the Brooklyn Bridge on there though, that's cool, my grandmother was friends with frontman Johnny Maestro until his death last year.

 

back in the day, music was written by musicians (cept motown). now it's written by producers using formulas to produce a profit. there's very little art left. as far as mainstream goes at least

 

actually it's coming full circle.... with the massively succesful festival circuit these days a band/artist who wants true commercial success needs to be able to perform live at an exceptional level again, and at truly massive venues ... which is where many rappers fail

a hard working band can easily play in front of a million+ people during a summer festie season .. that's a helluva lot of publicity

could be a reason again why many genres outperform rap

 

You obviously never tried making electronic songs, a simple good electronic song is harder than the entire genre of punk, or almost all music on that precious 1969 chart you posted. Music isn't about how complex you can make a song otherwise punk wouldn't exist, and Stevie Ray would top the chart every other week. There is no different between these songs and those songs, they're both sheer pop music, and if anything the pop music today is much harder to create, back in the day 4 chords and 110 seconds produced on a control panel with 8 knobs on it is all it took. A musician from 1967 would have his brain explode looking at how hard it is to produce a single these days. The only difference is OMG THEY'RE NOT HOLDING GUITARS.

 

Well if build me up buttercup or neil diamond is your definition of quality music you don't need to be anywhere near me in the first place.

 

those bands never get any radio play though. where i live at least

 

same with metal...and the fans don't seem to understand that...rap as well. everyone was loving lil wayne for like 2 years and now he's making dumb pop music(as was predicted by anyone with a brain) and now everyone hates him...

all the metal people like bands like shadows fall, august burns red(i think its a band) and dumb stuff like that...makes me feel hopeless with my band..

fucking wannabe bandwagon hoppers ..

 

yeah, sadly things havn't quite come full circle.... the media can still play a massive part when it comes to success

 

i'm a fan of old school hip hop and grunge, so a lot of the early 90s stuff i enjoy. the fact that music was bad for a whole ten+ years then was good (not as good as what i consider the golden age of rock and roll, but still good imo) for a while again, gives me hope that it could happen again. i dunno what it'll take, but i hope it happens before im too old

 

yeah man, have faith .. i consider myself very lucky to have been at an age where teh music suited me perfectly (the nineties) ... after the electronic nu romantic spandex wearing metal of the 80's it was a fookin' delight to see real music again :afro:

hope you get you're decade too