Music Is Being Degraded Day by Day

[6cgonzaleznunez]

Article: mic.com/articles/98310/scientists-prove-that-pop-music-is-literally-ruining-our-brains

The media is being degraded as the days go by. From "What Does the Fox Say" to "Anaconda", music is beginning to lose its touch and intelligently creative composition. Too many songs are beginning to use auto tune or have become totally monochromatic. It has become about having expensive music videos which inflict upon the musical experience.
What I mean by monochromatic is that music is beginning to have fewer chord and melodic variations. Some songs still manage to maintain this such as "All of Me" by John Legend or "Just Give Me A Reason" by P!nk. Chords make a song beautiful because it adds color to the music and brings out emotions rather than having a catchy and constantly repeated chorus and beat. Music has also been degraded because it is easy for absolutely anything to become popular. I once again bring up "What Does the Fox Say" because the song makes no sense and is annoying in my opinion. It was overplayed on the radio which only made it more popular. Music production mostly targets adolescents because they are the largest audience attracted and exposed to social media. They are easily entertained which in the eyes of the music industry only means more money. Being an adolescent myself, I have to say it is fun to jam to Bobby Shmurda now and then but the music business needs to step up their game to produce music that can inspire us in different ways. Music can be a brainwashing tool, and it should be used to get more adolescents interested in more genres of music and create music with a message worth listening to. I am not saying that there is not music out there with an inspirational motive. I am just saying that the amount of music that does not outweighs the amount that does.

[6pkatherine]

I agree with your statement completely. So many of society's "hits" today either have the same thing constantly repeating or have a vulgar message along with the song. A lot of songs are digitally enhanced, either making the singer sound better or to make the music of the song. Artists today also use the same music or beats as other songs that were popular from another group. This had happened with Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" and Queen's "Under Pressure". Queen took Vanilla Ice to court for songwriting credit, however Vanilla Ice chose to buy the publishing rights for "Under Pressure". Another example of this is T.I. and Rihanna's "Live Your Life" and O-Zone's "Dragostea din tei". Most people do not know O-Zone's song due to it being in Romanian. Both beginnings start the same, however in T.I.'s version they switch two of the words, changing the order. Much of this society's creativity is being lost as well as their general appreciation of music.
People also tend not to actually understand what the song is portraying, and if they do, they choose to ignore it. It is really a sad thing too because music is such a beautiful way to express oneself, yet many artists today talk about money and being under the influence. These artists also do not realize that making this music has two sides to it: some people aimlessly go along with it and others lose respect for them as an artist.

[10tanyas]

Hmm...well I think this is a rather complicated topic to argue. First we have to consider the fact that everyone has their own music taste. For example, someone may like Nicki Minaj , and while her music may not be ridden with "good messages", according to the public point of view, if you can find comfort in an artist's songs that makes the artist and their music vital enough. When talking about the quality of music we need to look at it from an individual perspective rather than overall. For example, when I was in the 7th grade, I was going through my "emo" phase, as most would label it. I had the skinny jeans, the flippy hair and a negligent view towards the world and people around me. I didn't have many friends, but I had music, I grew up listening to bands such as Green Day, Cannibal Corpse, My Chemical Romance, and Bring Me To The Horizon. Now, back then if i told someone i listened to those groups, I would get many dirty looks, "How could you listen to such garbage?" or" All they do is scream into a microphone and talk about death. That's /not/ music." And, if i'm being honest, those words hurt, because there I was, I was no older than 12 or 13 and I was being told that everything I stood for and the things that made me happy were invalid? And looking back at it now I realize that it shouldn't be the lyrics in a song or the genre of the artists or band that emphasizes quality. There's more to music than just lyrics or sound, music is culture, and downgrading a culture unknown or foreign or even somewhat "unappealing" to us is wrong. Even songs meant to be funny like, "What Does The Fox Say" are valid in the sense that they can make someone smile or laugh, or even the common knowledge of the song between a group of people can make room for new shared experiences.

[10pmadison]

I think that some of the music today is indeed being degraded day by day. The majority of the pop songs today have set music's credibility at an all time low. With so many pop artists now just thinking of ways to create catchy lyrics that have pointless messages to become rich and famous, some of the music of today is lacking the creativity and commendable lyrics desired by creation individuals. For me, I absolutely despise some of the pop songs of today such as "Blow" by Kesha or "Cool Kids" by Echosmith. I am not one to turn on the radio and listen to the same repetitive music every hour. It is so disheartening when I see talented individual spike Ariana Grande "dress to impress" rather than explore their creativity and share their emotions with the audience. Though some of these catchy monotonies of songs can be enjoyable at times, they are not truly moving to me or even empathetic in my feelings. But then I must keep in mind that pop music is designed to just SELL regardless of the quality. Who am I to say the music is being degraded when some of the artists and bands regard music as just a way to gain popularity and wealth? Since the genre of pop was created, I believe the alleged rules were designed to just gain a cheap buck or have everyone love the artist. It's just that as time went on, these rules became more conspicuous with the songs played on the radio today. Yet, it must be acknowledged that this is just one genre. There are plenty of other genres that have more noteworthy songs to be heard. "Creep" by Radiohead and "Space Oddity" by David Bowie both fall under the genre of rock and have fervent sounds and lyrics that provoke so much emotion out of the human spirit. Just like rock, in other genres can be found heartfelt songs. And despite the fact that pop tends represent music begin degraded, there are some artists that fall under that genre that have garnered acclamation like Bruno Mars or Sara Bareilles. Lastly, it must also be pointed out that here and there we will encounter songs from other genres that lack the creativity and emotion that are to commendable. It's all a matter of the artists we listen to rather than the genres in my opinion. One way or another there will be both music held in high esteem and music held in denunciation.