Is it just me or was music drastically different at the end of the decade than near the beginning? There were a lot of uptempo rhythmic songs on pop, upbeat folk music on alternative and down tempo music was kind of the exception to the rule. Beginning around 2016 the tide began to turn with more down tempo and morose music making the airwaves (which could have been due to the success of "7 years" by Lukas graham.) Rhythmic songs were still around but really fizzled out the next year after the election (I guess no one wanted to dance then.) There were more morose songs in 2017 with songs like"1-800" by logic and"too good at goodbyes" by sam smith. Lewis capaldi and Billie eilish made their debut in coming years. Your thoughts on the music of the decade?
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Early 10s vs late 10s music?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
The mid-2010s were an emotional roller coaster for many people, from marriage equality in 2015 to Trump's victory in 2016. Obviously that was going to be reflected in music.
I think nowadays, music moves at the speed of months instead of decades, thanks to technology. It took a long time starting in the 1960's for "Rock-and-Roll" to truly gain a foot-hold with teens, which is likely why we see most "classic rock" hits come from the 80's and not the 60's. Whereas today, a format could take off and be extremely popular by April, and be dust by June.
By the way, there was one song out of the early 2010's mainstream that I enjoy to this day (One Direction - What makes you Beautiful - 2011) and it is extremely up-tempo. A couple of years ago (so probably 2019-ish), I decided to tune to the local Hot AC station, and I heard Billie Elish putting some deeeeeeeeep and dark emotions into her song. So was there a change? Yes! But, then bands like BTS and The Weekend come along with 2020, and they sound upbeat again, allowing me to kind of enjoy CHR again. (This despite the whole pandemic and war stuff, so I have to suspect they were told to make Americans feel good by writing upbeat songs).
By the way, there was one song out of the early 2010's mainstream that I enjoy to this day (One Direction - What makes you Beautiful - 2011) and it is extremely up-tempo. A couple of years ago (so probably 2019-ish), I decided to tune to the local Hot AC station, and I heard Billie Elish putting some deeeeeeeeep and dark emotions into her song. So was there a change? Yes! But, then bands like BTS and The Weekend come along with 2020, and they sound upbeat again, allowing me to kind of enjoy CHR again. (This despite the whole pandemic and war stuff, so I have to suspect they were told to make Americans feel good by writing upbeat songs).
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The collapse of Katy Perry's career in 2014 was another sign that the party time of the early 2010s was over. Even Lady Gaga's songs started to become a lot darker, with hits like "Million Reasons" and "Shallow".
The slow decline of the big singing pop star sped up about halfway through that decade. Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, etc. were massive stars in the early 2010's. After 2015 their careers declined, with few if any massive stars to replace them.
I doubt that the politics prevalent after November 2016 has anything to do with any of it, either. During the early 2010's much of the country was still either in Recession or dealing with its aftermath, yet most of the pop music was fairly uptempo, despite that being present in the news (or in real life for a lot of people).
The expansion of the internet as a prime source for music listening thinned the slices of the pie. The same thing has happened in book and magazine publishing. The new internet-based business model has changed the way the masses consume their entertainment, and pop music is included.
EDIT to add: another factor that may come into play is there was a change in generations during the 2010's. The Millennials, who grew up during the 00's and early 10's, had gotten out of school and college, and moved on to 'real life', and although they may still listen to pop music, they were replaced by Generation Z, and perhaps a lot of what we hear that changed in pop music during the 10's is merely a change in generational tastes. A lot of Millennials were in their 30s by 2018-2019.
Just throwing that out as a possibility.
I doubt that the politics prevalent after November 2016 has anything to do with any of it, either. During the early 2010's much of the country was still either in Recession or dealing with its aftermath, yet most of the pop music was fairly uptempo, despite that being present in the news (or in real life for a lot of people).
The expansion of the internet as a prime source for music listening thinned the slices of the pie. The same thing has happened in book and magazine publishing. The new internet-based business model has changed the way the masses consume their entertainment, and pop music is included.
EDIT to add: another factor that may come into play is there was a change in generations during the 2010's. The Millennials, who grew up during the 00's and early 10's, had gotten out of school and college, and moved on to 'real life', and although they may still listen to pop music, they were replaced by Generation Z, and perhaps a lot of what we hear that changed in pop music during the 10's is merely a change in generational tastes. A lot of Millennials were in their 30s by 2018-2019.
Just throwing that out as a possibility.
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Gaga just grew up with her music. I think she evolved. Don't forget she was singing standards with Tony Bennett.
Proper interpretation: Bennett saved her career by convincing her that she'll be around much longer if she quits making an ass of herself.
That might be true, or she just realized she needed to grow her image. She found her Little Monsters with the outlandish outfits. Found a broader audience when she teamed up with Bennett.
Personally, music has been mostly in decline, especially since the advent of trap music and its subsequent hogging of the Hot 100 from around 2018 onward. But there has been some recent acts out there from about 2016 onward. Hits like "Havana", "Cake By the Ocean", "Feel it Still", Circles", "Good As Hell", "Señorita", "Don't Start Now", hits by Maroon 5, Doja Cat, Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran and others have added much-needed variety to the music scene, seemingly over dominated by trap artists album bombing the Hot 100 with filler songs that fall off after one or two weeks.
I realize trap style music is popular among current demos, but it cannot be the only genre to dominate the Hot 100. Not everyone likes that genre. Many like recent pop, dance, rock / alternative or even some contemporary music by Adele and Olivia Rodrigo. It's refreshing to hear Sir Elton John come up with "Cold Heart" in collaboration with Dua Lipa. Bruno Mars has gone retro with "Skate" and "Leave the Door Open". The Weeknd have provided the Hot 100 with some hope with their amazing longevity in the top 40 with mega hits "Save Your Tears" and "Blinding Lights", first introduced in late 2019.
The current #1 song is "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals, an appealing song introduced on the Hot 100, 61 weeks ago! And a British act, hopefully this trend continues, in comparison to the late 2010's, where the charts were stagnant with a single genre of music. Remember "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X in 2019? NINETEEN weeks atop the Hot 100?? I just don't get it.
Overall, I tend to prefer the 2010-2014 period a bit more, with an exception to 2017 as Camila Cabello's "Havana" and Portugal the Man's smash provided something really special that year, which unfortunately did not last long.
I realize trap style music is popular among current demos, but it cannot be the only genre to dominate the Hot 100. Not everyone likes that genre. Many like recent pop, dance, rock / alternative or even some contemporary music by Adele and Olivia Rodrigo. It's refreshing to hear Sir Elton John come up with "Cold Heart" in collaboration with Dua Lipa. Bruno Mars has gone retro with "Skate" and "Leave the Door Open". The Weeknd have provided the Hot 100 with some hope with their amazing longevity in the top 40 with mega hits "Save Your Tears" and "Blinding Lights", first introduced in late 2019.
The current #1 song is "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals, an appealing song introduced on the Hot 100, 61 weeks ago! And a British act, hopefully this trend continues, in comparison to the late 2010's, where the charts were stagnant with a single genre of music. Remember "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X in 2019? NINETEEN weeks atop the Hot 100?? I just don't get it.
Overall, I tend to prefer the 2010-2014 period a bit more, with an exception to 2017 as Camila Cabello's "Havana" and Portugal the Man's smash provided something really special that year, which unfortunately did not last long.
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Didn't she want to be the new Madonna for today's listeners??
She was merely a ripoff of Madonna, Twisted Sister, Alice Cooper, and even Arthur Brown. Outrageous antics like that are old hat.
"Havana" and "Señorita" are the only songs mentioned that I like. And the part of "Old Town Road" that actually sounds country.
What happened in the 50s then? With the possible exception of Ricky Nelson, I can't see the parents liking rock and roll.
Yes, and ava max is vying to be the next lady Gaga, so the cycle continues. (Though she's one of the few current pop stars I really enjoy.)
Production got cheaper 2015 and beyond. Lots of the vocal chopping effect. Early half of the decade, everybody still didn’t have a smartphone with Spotify. With streaming came cheaper music. Apple Music didn’t exist until 2015. Labels and a lot of artists don’t really need to make memorable music anymore. They get less than a penny per stream and people will listen to it anyway. Remember the Catch Me Outside girl from Dr. Phil? Atlantic Records gave her a deal. That’s about how much that industry thinks about music. They just used an incident to try and grab a few bucks on the streaming services.
Those charts are also easy to manipulate. Before streaming, they still had to earn your money. Illegal file sharing was a thing, but even with that, they needed people to buy it. Radio was a big part of pushing out songs to make you want to spend your money on them. The single, then the album. Either way they still made more per song than they do per stream.
Now with Spotify and Youtube, they don’t need radio, and they don’t need the budget to make hits that are radio friendly. The whole everybody has a smartphone with Spotify really didn’t peak until the mid 2010s. It was still a luxury before that.
Follow the money
Those charts are also easy to manipulate. Before streaming, they still had to earn your money. Illegal file sharing was a thing, but even with that, they needed people to buy it. Radio was a big part of pushing out songs to make you want to spend your money on them. The single, then the album. Either way they still made more per song than they do per stream.
Now with Spotify and Youtube, they don’t need radio, and they don’t need the budget to make hits that are radio friendly. The whole everybody has a smartphone with Spotify really didn’t peak until the mid 2010s. It was still a luxury before that.
Follow the money
Parents were still spinning 78's of Glenn Miller, the Dorsey Brothers and the McGuire Sisters on their phonographs, while the youth were discovering Elvis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard 45's.....and the rest is history!
The over the top costumes and outrageous stuff that Gaga used to wear, do and say were also part of her marketing ploy at that time. Back then she was in the news often for wearing outfits made of meat, styrofoam, bubbles and other materials, and those often made headlines following awards shows and other performances. Those things got her name into mass media and often kept it there. I still recall a passing interviewer at the time saying "Lady Gaga, your name is always in the news for your outfits, your hairstyles and the over the top things you often do and say...But in the end we actually know very little about "you". She looked at the reporter, said "Exactly!" and walked away. Many took it to mean that she was actually a cunning businessperson: She kept her "Lady Gaga" image in the headlines and discussed sometimes ad nauseum, but at the same time she played it so her personal life and "Stefani Germanotta" (her real name) remained relatively unknown and out of the spotlight.
I went to see Gaga in concert when on her Moster Ball Tour. It was one of the best concerts I'd seen in a while, and along with her music, the theatrics and sets were impressive. I heard the concert required several tractor trailers' worth of sets and props, where they'd set up the first group for the opening, and as the show moved on throughout the evening and there were set and scenic changes, the crew were constantly offloading one truck while packing stuff back into another as stage pieces were disassembled. For me the only low points to that show were when she'd often get caught up in voicing positive affirmations, talking for several minutes at a time about the need for self-love, and at times making it seem more like a giant group therapy session rather than a concert.
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