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More Damning Evidence Of Today's Pop Music

landtuna said:
Pop music has never been considered "intellectual" but now:

The lyrics of recent No. 1 singles average at a third grade reading level
[
Click to expand...

That is only if you read them in Comic Sans.

Back to the subject: please get back to me on the reading level of:

The Twist.
Teen Angel
Sugar Sugar
Born to be Alive
The Bristol Stomp
At the Hop
Who Put the Bomp
Sugar Shack

And of course two of Billboard's top 20 songs of the decade,

Love is Blue
Theme from a Summer Place
 
You left some out, David.

Witch Doctor
The Oogum Boogum Song
The Name Game
Hooked On A Feeling (Blue Swede version)
Boogie Oogie Oogie

(Titles placed in Comic Sans to better fit the thread.)
 
Yeah, today's tripe is nothing like what I listened to in the Good Old Days(TM). You know, like this super-literary intellectual poetry:

Ooh eee ooh aah aah
Ting tang walla walla bing bang
Ooh eee ooh aah aah
Ting tang walla walla bing bang

:D
 
I was listening to my local Classic Hits station this morning - they played Paul McCartney - "Silly Love Songs".

I thought "Gee, this is dumb- and it turns out it is also at a 3rd grade level. Thanks for the inspiration, Tuna.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
I was listening to my local Classic Hits station this morning - they played Paul McCartney - "Silly Love Songs".

I thought "Gee, this is dumb- and it turns out it is also at a 3rd grade level. Thanks for the inspiration, Tuna.
Click to expand...

Most of Sir Paul's solo/Wings stuff was at the 3rd grade level, despite John Lennon calling it "Paul's granny s#!t." Of course, when he heard that comment, he cried all the way to the bank.
 
Haters gonna hate! :mad:

I almost added some of those same comments and titles to my original post but then decided aw, what the heck - let 'em foam and get it out of their system.

One big difference though....many of the titles you guys criticized (correctly) were intended as parody or comic songs. I can't think of any current pop singles in those categories - intentionally anyway although Justin Blooper comes very close.
 
This reminds me of my friend who loves pizza. Poll after poll shows that chain pizza is more popular than mom & pop pizza. In cities that have famous pizza places, you'll still see Pizza Hut or Dominos as winning the annual food polls. My friend doesn't care. He says people are stupid and don't know good pizza when they eat it. That's what I have to say about pop music. It's pop because it's designed to appeal to everyone. By definition, it's lowest common denominator stuff. It doesn't matter what era we're talking about. There is serious music being made now. There are songs that talk about intelligent subjects or deal with real human emotion. Some of them become popular. But it really doesn't mater because Pizza Hut and Dominos are going to win the poll. So that leads some people to make generalizations about music. It doesn't mean any of it is true.
 
landtuna said:
One big difference though....many of the titles you guys criticized (correctly) were intended as parody or comic songs. I can't think of any current pop singles in those categories -
Click to expand...

Other than the Witch Doctor, which was obviously a novelty tune, the remaining songs were mainstream at the time.

Of the ones I mentioned, several were "dance fad" or "dance step" songs, which were very common in the late 50's and well into the 60's. "The Stroll" was one of the earlier ones in 1957, and we had every imaginable type in the years following. "The Mashed Potatoe" and "The Monster Mash" were several more, followed by "The Monkey", "The Dog" and "The Frug". Madison, Hully-Gully, Watusi, The Pony, The Swim, The Freddy. They were not comedy or parody songs.

"Hooked on a Feeling" and "Boogie Oogie Oogie" were simply hit songs of the moment. Not parody, not comic. And one was a fair representation of the whole Disco movement that lasted nearly half a decade, from "Rock the Boat" to "Funky Town".

Catchy, simple songs go back to the creation of music. How old is "On Top of Old Smokey" or "Oh My Darling Clementine" are over 100 years old and still remembered because they are memorable, although perhaps not in the manner that "Swan Lake" might be considered.

A lot of pop music, no matter what decade or era, is seen as drek from a historical perspective but was fun and popular at the time. That fact is the reason why stations playing older music of any kind don¿t play every song from the era they specialize in as many had a short shelf life.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Other than the Witch Doctor, which was obviously a novelty tune, the remaining songs were mainstream at the time.
Click to expand...

I would have included the following in the categories of novelties:

Witch Doctor (definitely novelty)
The Oogum Boogum Song
The Name Game
Boogie Oogie Oogie
Who Put The Bomp (parody of Doo Wop)

But, of course, there were many, many others (from the 50's and 60's):

Purple People Eater
Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Little Polka Dot Bikini (made famous in the movie "One, Two Three" as the East German torture song).
Monster Mash
They're Coming To Take Me Away
Alley Oop
Charlie Brown
Mr. Custer
Does Your Chewing Gum...
Flying Saucer
Chipmunks
Along Came Jones
Tie Me Kangaroo Down
Martian Hop
Short Shorts
My Boomerang
Wildwood Weed
Splish Splash

Those off the top of my head. Nothing out there like those today. The fun is gone but the drek is here to stay. Oh, a modern one:

Video Killed the Radio Star (and how appropriate)

BTW, I didn't write any of those songs nor even suggest you listen to them again. I merely sent along a link to someone else who shares an opinion. Don't shoot the messenger.
 
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LOL this are the type of threads I like! Music has always been entertainment, nothing more, nothing less. Yes, you are going to tell me that they deal with emotions, personal stories and a long list of romantic etc's, well, movies too, books too, even some products like cars, bikes, houses, the list is infinite!

The main difference I think is that 100, 80, 60, 40, even 20 years back you had the "silly" songs that everybody sang and danced and then you had artists like Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, Frank Sinatra or even Queen, they indeed navigated on deeper waters either with the lyrics or with the sounds, or both. And they used to have their big number of followers. Nowadays we don't have artists like that, at least not on the mainstream circuit, massive rock bands? It's been at least 10 to 15 years since they scored a true hit. I think THAT is the difference.
 
vchimpanzee said:
No, that wouldn't count.

According to the movie of the same name, Ritchie Valens heard old men performing this traditional song. That would put the song in the category with "My Darling Clementine".
Click to expand...

Yep, the song is very hard to date but it is well over 100 years old, maybe 150. The Valens version, as was the Los Lobos version several decades later, is just a remake of a very old song.
 
landtuna said:
I would have included the following in the categories of novelties:

Boogie Oogie Oogie
Click to expand...

That Taste of Honey song is not much different from the "Born to be Alive" or "Le Freak" mainstream disco song of the mid to late 70's disco period.

It's hardly a novelty; it's about partying and partying is what disco was about.

Then there is "YMCA" or "In the Navy"...
 
Then there were the nonsense songs like Judy in Disguise by John Fred and The Playboy Band.

Similar was Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by Steam.

I heard stories about both songs, maybe fact, maybe fiction. It seems both John Fred and Steam had been rejected by labels after several demos. For John Fred, he intentionally used nonsense lyrics since what he was inspired to do had not produced results. Steam, as the story goes, were having a few beers during practice and decided to get silly. The song was not planned, rehearsed nor written. It was a big departure for the band's usual sound but the song went on the demo as a joke, that the label had no clue what was good music. When the label loved the song, they were told to come up with more material and signed a deal. Obviously they, like John Fred were one hit wonders which might give some credence to the story of how they tried to 'pull one over' on the record execs.

Commenting on the music listener, I was shocked at how many times a song would become a big hit only for the record company to release the same song with some alteration as the follow-up (ie: Chuck Berry, The Twist followed by Let's Twist Again). There were others I just don't recall. As a young kid I remember thinking it was a crazy thing to do.
 
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