SRS how come every song on the radio is about relationships? v.artdegeneratedpartdeux

or other banal crap?

Even the really "deep" shit is about being a drunkard or a drug addict (a la "Hurt" by NIN) or having low self esteem.

Today I watched the Watchmen trailer and heard this old pumpkins song playing to it. If you listen carefully it talks about what it's like to be Batman. Basically the quandary of why someone should work so hard to save a world that's so fallen. Why should someone be a hero to the masses? How often is a theme like that ever present in a song?

There are so many interesting stories out there. Especially the Greek mythologies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPHXo8wS5zI

Sometimes I'll read poems like Lays of Ancient Rome that talk about heroism or things like that, and I'm just blown away. Here's a sample:

Then out spake brave Horatius,
the Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods

Have we as a culture become so self-obsessed that our art is suffering as a result?

Your thoughts

 

there is plenty of deep music out there, the problem is that there is almost absolutely no play on commercial media, you have to look "deeper"

 

because everyone who listens eats that shit up.

 

Easiest emotions to appeal to is love/pain from a breakup.

 

that's pretty weak sauce

 

gimme an example

 

Pop music is inherently geared towards the lowest common denominator, by appealing to simple base emotions. With maybe 1-2 exceptions like the classical and jazz station, radio is filled with nothing but 'pop' music.

Of course I mean 'pop music' in the general usage of the term, and not the specific genre.

--

Narcissism is part of it, but I think it's part of an overarching shift with bottom feeding culture.

 

There are plenty of amazing bands out there that aren't getting radio play. I mean in the age of MP3 players and even Sirius why are you listening to crap radio?

 

Because only angsty teenagers listen to the radio.

Do we really need to have this conversation?

 

Love and relationship songs popular throughout music history. It's not just now.

 

Also the Smashing Pumpkins, along with the Beatles and many others that people consider great had some pretty juvenile lyrics. Doesn't mean that it's not a good song or that simple lyrics aren't good. I mean not everyone can write lyrics as well as Leonard Cohen.

 

The music you hear on the radio is the music made b those looking to make money, not those who genuinely do the music for the music. Radio stations are going to play what the listeners want most...if they didn't, advertisers wouldn't pay as much for airtime.

 

I was gonna use Leonard Cohen as an example but i forgot. that dude was awesome

 

ive noticed a surplus of break up songs lately...holidays are emo season..

 

dear diary,
mood: apathetic

 

I listen to Switchfoot, so unfortunately they don't sing about break-ups or romantic relationships.

 

Do what I do, listen to music without lyrics. Your mind makes up its own story that way, it's beautiful.

 

fuck the radio!

 

Muse - Soldier's Poem

Throw it all away
Let's lose ourselves
'Cause there's no one left for us to blame
It's a shame we're all dying
And do you think you deserve your freedom

How could you send us so far away from home
When you know damn well that this is wrong
I would still lay down my life for you
And do you think you deserve your freedom

No I don't think you do
There's no justice in the world
There's no justice in the world
And there never was

 

.

 

honestly that sounds like it was written by angsty teenager.


try this on for size:

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance 5
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade, 10
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate: 15
I am the captain of my soul.

 

That's all pop music is. Watch the movie "High Fidelity". Aside from being a hilarious, well-made film, there are a few lines in the beginning that really say a lot about pop music and American culture.


"What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?"

 

thanks for the insightful post.