Is Pop Music Dead?
Is pop music dead?
I can only address this from a
perspective a
“I don't think anything in music is
ever "dead." It just recycles and comes back in a slightly different
form.” Chris says. “Take rock music. Is the rock of Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis
the same as the rock of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, and is that the same as
the rock of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and is that the same as the rock of
Journey and Styx, and is that the same as the rock of Poison and Warrant, and
is that the same as the rock of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and is that the same as
the rock of Green Day and Blink 182, and is that the same as the rock of Linkin
Park and Limp Bizkit, and is that the same as the rock of Creed and Nickelback,
and is that the same as the rock of Shinedown, Hinder, Papa Roach, and
Halestorm? It's all "rock," but it's all different as time goes on.
“Basically, to everything there's a season."
“Pop
has been the same way. The 50s and 60s had your Bobby Darin and Fabian and
Frankie Avalon, the 60s had the Beatles and the Monkees, the 70s had the Bee
Gees, Shaun Cassidy, Andy Gibb, Donny Osmond, the Jackson 5, the 80s had New
Edition, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, and New Kids on the Block, the 90s had the
Spice Girls, Hanson, N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Christina
Aguilera, and it hasn't been that long ago music had Katy Perry and Kesha and
One Direction and Miley Cyrus and "Call Me Maybe" and "All About
That Bass." and "Shut Up And Dance" and "Cake By The
Ocean." It might be taking a back seat right now to Drake and Cardi B, but
that could just be cyclical. People get tired of hearing the same things for
too long.
“Billboard
noted recently that rap has been at #1 on the
Hot 100 for 32 straight weeks and Drake has been at #1 27 weeks this year. This
seems to be a hip-hop phase of music. I recall a year or so ago reading an
article wondering whether hip-hop was fading out because the chart-topping
songs weren't hip hop anymore.
“And
if you look at music as whole, has anything ever "died"? Swing music
was dead after the 1950s, until Jive Bunny came along, and then the Brian
Setzer Orchestra and Cherry Poppin Daddies in the 1990s. Easy listening
standards died out with Frank Sinatra in the 1960s, until Linda Ronstadt comes
back in the 80s with her "What's New" albums and Natalie Cole hits
with "Unforgettable," and Tony Bennett does a duets album with Lady
Gaga, not to mention Harry Connick and Michael Buble. Even disco got reborn as
the dance acts of the 90s like C+C Music Factory and Black Box and Real McCoy
and La Bouche. Are they really that different from Chic? Daft Punk even added
Nile Rodgers to their song to make it more disco.
“Basically,
to everything there's a season. The 1940s had Bing Crosby and the Andrews
Sisters, which gave way to Bill Haley and Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, which gave
way to Motown acts like the Supremes and Temptations, which gave way to the
Beatles and Rolling Stones, which gave way to experimental bands like early
Chicago and Blood Sweat & Tears, which gave way to the singer/songwriter
like Carole King, John Denver, Simon & Garfunkel, and James Taylor, which
gave way to a brief "God music" phase, which turned into rock bands
like Bad Company and BTO, which turned into pop acts like Debby Boone and Andy
Gibb, which turned into disco like Donna Summer, the Village People, and the
Bee Gees, which turned into country/pop like the Oak Ridge Boys, Juice Newton,
and Kenny Rogers, which turned into new wave music like the Human League and
Duran Duran, which turned into the superstar pop era like Michael Jackson,
Prince, Madonna, and Brice Springsteen, which turned to pop music like Tiffany
and Debbie Gibson, which turned into hair bands like Bon Jovi and Winger, which
turned into dance music like Paula Abdul, Snap, and C+C Music factory, which
turned into grunge like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, which turned into Grunge-Lite
like the Spin Doctors, Gin Blossoms, and Counting Crows, which turned into the
hip-hop acts like 2Pac, Notorious BIG, and Puff Daddy, which turned into pop
acts like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, which turned into the Latin
and Swing revivals of Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias and the Brian Setzer
Orchestra and Mighty Mighty Bosstones, And that's just getting to 2000. But even
during those eras, other acts in different styles charted--Mariah Carey was
probably the biggest act of the 1990s, and rose to success during "the
grunge era." Female singer/songwriters were big in the late 1990s during
the "Lilith Fair" years, when hip-hop was the main musical style.”
True
enough, I’m sure the lovers of of Big Band
and the swing music of the 40s were aghast when the likes of Elvis and
Jerry Lee Lewis took over the music scene in the 50s, and the do-wop fans of
the 50s & 60s truly thought the music had truly died when the music of the
late 60s becme politically charged. Even the Beatles had joined the fray by
vacating their She Loves You, ya,ya,ya; I Want to Hold your hand sound for
Revolution and come Together.
Those
political music fans must have been pulling out their hair when the sounds of
bubblegum and disco dominated the seventies. And each decade since has had
their own dominant sound, yet some of their favorite genres are still available
today [swing of the 40s: Big Basd Voodoo Daddy, Bryan Setzer Orchestra].
The
Way I see it, it was just a few years ago (2015) when we were reveling in the pop
dance floor fillers like Shake It Off, Uptown Funk, Honey I’m Good and Shut Up
and Dance. Maybe we’re only another year away from another gold rush of pop
music.
Until next time,
Michael
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