An example of what's wrong with today's music and the industry as a whole

[Bono]

Jennifer Lopez feat. Iggy Azalea just released a song called Booty. It's nothing more than a shitty repetitive beat for 4 minutes that comes with a video that has gotten almost 20 million views in 2 days. A video that consists of J-Lo and Iggy dancing around half naked like total skanks with lyrics like:

"Big, big booty

What you got a big booty

Big, big booty

What you got a big booty

Big, big booty

What you got a big booty

Big, big booty

What you

(Ain't that a freak)

Big, big booty

What you got a big booty

(My baby, you're gorgeous

I mean you're fine, you're sexy

But most of all you are just absolutely booty-full)

-- Now Robert Plant released an album last week and the first single Rainbow is a haunting emotional song that comes with an artistic and creative video with lyrics like this:

"Pocket full of hearts

A world that's filled with love

A love that carries all before

The passion and the flood

I lie beneath the rainbow

Now your tears have gone

And I will sing my song for you

And I will carry on"

-- This video has less than 1 million views in 11 days...... Tell me what's wrong with this picture?

Every single day facebook, news, social media is littered with articles and people commenting about how women should be respected and we should empower them, yet this crap(J-Lo and Iggy) is what appeals to the masses including WOMEN themselves. It's absolute shit targeted at the lowest common denominator. So much for empowering women eh J-Lo?

Then there's the music aspect of it. This is such a disgrace and an insult to all the women out there who are true artists and musicians, who's music will never be given the attention it deserves. The industry wonders why music sales have plummeted. They'll blame it on technology and how people can stream music or download it for free yet nobody ever stops to consider maybe, just maybe the reason music sales suck in the last decade is because meaningless trash like "Booty" is what's shoved down the masses throats.

Watch the videos below. It's absolutely disgusting what passes as popular music these days.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Bono

[Facekicker]

Agree 100%

[wasted]

The music is more than a political tool. Sometimes you just need a big booty.

I don't think there's much wrong with the music industry it's pretty diverse and open.

I just think a postmodern culture produces less soulful music. Art isn't confined to only artists. Booty fanatics get a voice too.

So I think it's less the shallowness at one end of the spectrum and more business problems in terms cash flow to smaller artists. Maybe the culture is dumbed down to big booty level. But it's not like Mogwai don't put out records. People are just shallow whores.

[Bono]

The massive difference is in decades past the artists with substance and with meaning rode along side the artists who are void of any substance and meaning. The true artists were promoted and respected by the industry and the music consumers weren't having the intelligence insulted on a daily basis. That isn't the case anymore. People will always say "good music still exists you just gotta look for it and stop looking to top 40 for good music". That's the exact point. In the past, Top 40 was littered with genuine artists who meant something and had something of value to say and I'm not simply talking just as a political tool.

If you don't think there's something wrong with the industry you're not paying attention.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Bono

[Rovim]

Nothing is wrong with music today. You have more things to choose from, so it is a lot of work to find what you like, but it's out there imo. More fructured, less ambitious, so not as brilliant, and people have just more shit to occupy their time with. Musicians too. And hard to make a living and make people care about your art.

Shallow, untalented people need to express themselves too, or make a buck. You can just ignore that shit and pay attention to what you like. Kinda like people you can't stand and people you can relate to.

[Bono]

Nothing is wrong with music today. You have more things to choose from, so it is a lot of work to find what you like, but it's out there imo. More fructured, less ambitious, so not as brilliant, and people have just more shit to occupy their time with. Musicians too. And hard to make a living and make people care about your art.

Shallow, untalented people need to express themselves too, or make a buck. You can just ignore that shit and pay attention to what you like. Kinda like people you can't stand and people you can relate to.

My previous post touched on exactly what you just said. THAT is the problem with the industry today. Obviously good music is out there, we all know that but why is it harder to find? It shouldn't be that way. It's not promoted, it's not cherished, it's not respected by the masses or the industry the way it once was. Instead people flock to shit like "Booty". Shit like "Booty" is why radio sucks so badly anymore. My point isn't about there being a lack of quality music, my point is why have the industry and the masses seemingly turned their backs on quality music?

Edited September 20, 2014 by Bono

[Rovim]

Nothing is wrong with music today. You have more things to choose from, so it is a lot of work to find what you like, but it's out there imo. More fructured, less ambitious, so not as brilliant, and people have just more shit to occupy their time with. Musicians too. And hard to make a living and make people care about your art.

Shallow, untalented people need to express themselves too, or make a buck. You can just ignore that shit and pay attention to what you like. Kinda like people you can't stand and people you can relate to.

My previous post touched on exactly what you just said. THAT is the problem with the industry today. Obviously good music is out we all know that but why is it harder to find? It shouldn't be that way. It's not promoted, it's not cherished, it's not respected by the masses or the industry the way it once was. Instead people flock to shit like "Booty".

I don't read most of your posts tbh, so you could be right. I didn't even read your reply to my post. Just the first sentence.

[Bono]

Nothing is wrong with music today. You have more things to choose from, so it is a lot of work to find what you like, but it's out there imo. More fructured, less ambitious, so not as brilliant, and people have just more shit to occupy their time with. Musicians too. And hard to make a living and make people care about your art.

Shallow, untalented people need to express themselves too, or make a buck. You can just ignore that shit and pay attention to what you like. Kinda like people you can't stand and people you can relate to.

My previous post touched on exactly what you just said. THAT is the problem with the industry today. Obviously good music is out we all know that but why is it harder to find? It shouldn't be that way. It's not promoted, it's not cherished, it's not respected by the masses or the industry the way it once was. Instead people flock to shit like "Booty".

I don't read most of your posts tbh, so you could be right. I didn't even read your reply to my post. Just the first sentence.

You just embodied everything that is wrong with people these days. Don't join a discussion if you have no intention of participating.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Bono

[Rovim]

Nothing is wrong with music today. You have more things to choose from, so it is a lot of work to find what you like, but it's out there imo. More fructured, less ambitious, so not as brilliant, and people have just more shit to occupy their time with. Musicians too. And hard to make a living and make people care about your art.

Shallow, untalented people need to express themselves too, or make a buck. You can just ignore that shit and pay attention to what you like. Kinda like people you can't stand and people you can relate to.

My previous post touched on exactly what you just said. THAT is the problem with the industry today. Obviously good music is out we all know that but why is it harder to find? It shouldn't be that way. It's not promoted, it's not cherished, it's not respected by the masses or the industry the way it once was. Instead people flock to shit like "Booty".

I don't read most of your posts tbh, so you could be right. I didn't even read your reply to my post. Just the first sentence.

You just encapsulated everything that is wrong with people these days. Don't join a discussion if you have no intention of participating.

Nah, I have intention. I try to work around your posts. It's possible. I get what I can from replies and the title of the thread.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Rovim

[Lio]

It's YouTube. It's another audience. I don't think Robert Plant's audience watches many YT videos. I feel like shitty music has always gotten more attention than music I'd consider 'better'. You say there used to be more genuine artists in the top 40, but as far as I can remember, we never listened to the top 40 because most music was shit anyway. So I don't think it really changed that much in that regard.

[Len Cnut]

To be honest Bono, you've made a distinction here without actually making a distinction. You haven't explained why you feel that one is of value and the other isn't. I'm presuming you consider the song about booty to be vaccuous and without profound intent but at the same time, ones a song thats for people dancing in the club, it's not really the place for profundity, is it? Then you cite Robert Plants more poetic thing. But, I mean, OK, you got one club dance song that does it's job really well i.e. making peoples arses shake...and then you've got some lyrics by Robert Plant that reach for some kinda poetic quality but then, in the field of poetry, how well does Plants lyrics even stand up? I mean it's hardly Wordsworth, is it?

Popular music was not created as a platform for poetry, it's club music, it's sock hop ball music, it's 'Saturday night and i just got paid' music. The fact that a few good women and men expanded on that and managed to integrate poetic aspects into it is admirable but it is not it's primary function and, also, to my mind, not something that rock n roll has ever done well.

Put simply, the best rock poets out there, your Dylans, your Lennons, your Morrisons, your Cohens...their work does not stand up well against those of the titans of the field of poetry...or even the slightly above average ones.

I mean, without being cruel or harsh, you read those lyrics by Plant and see something...i dunno, something good, something of high quality...i don't, i just see crap poetry basically, just like most rock lyrics come across when taken just written down, in and of themselves. Honestly, i don't see anything of value in the Plant lyrics than in the booty song, i really don't, other than effort.

And y'know, music that is made to make you move, there's something profoundly existentialist about it, it functions in the moment, it's affirmative, it's expressive...I'm not saying that the booty lyrics are some kind high end poetry but then they're not intended to be and in not intending to be, conceptually, there's something beautiful about that. The feeling you get in a club, where people are dancing, just lost in the hypnotic qualities of the rhythms, the poetic aspect of what dance music is lies in what it does, what it creates among a mass of people, that feeling it evokes, I mean was Jackson Pollock any less an artist because what he was doing was kinda left field and breaking away from tradition?

Profundity is an active component of life, it's everywhere, it all boils down to you and where you are at today, thats what makes a song speak to you, not whether or not is aspires to be Shakespeare. I'm always of the opinion that if i don't get something it's because there is something lacking in me, i am short of whatever that component is that makes me understand 'x' whereas the people who do dig it are not. I feel like I'd get round to understanding and appreciating every field of creative endeavour out there, on a long enough time line.

As far as there being something wrong with the industry I agree...and that something is the notion that you can industrialise artistic endeavour, it simply doesn't work that way...as evidenced by the way it always lapses into commercialisation and kowtowing, if art is your primary interest beyond making your arse shake, you're really looking in the wrong place for it.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Lennie Godber

[estrangedtwat]

I can't fathom why anyone would ever listen to the radio in this day and age where you can carry every song ever made on a device that fits in your pocket.

I don't know what music is "popular" today and I never will cause I don't give a shit. I listen to what I like and that's enough for me. If other people wanna listen to drivel, I let them.

I have never heard this booty song that is so upsetting, and I never will. Nor did I listen to the Robert Plant song. I didn't find the lyrics you posted particularly good either...kinda like a high school kid's poem after getting dumped the first time.

[Rovim]

I can't fathom why anyone would ever listen to the radio

I hate listening to the radio. Not enough control. Or too much control others have on what you're gonna hear next. I think most people do it cause "surprise me motherfucker!" they want to think less about what they feel like hearing now, but I like the process of choosing what song anyway so fuck radio for me. I realize it didn't have anything to do with the rest of your post but tough titty.

[wasted]

It used to be the drugs complimented the music. Then the music complimented the drugs. Now music is a soundtrack to people's antidepressants.

Edited September 20, 2014 by wasted

[Rovim]

It used to be the drugs complimented the music. Then the music complimented the drugs. Now music is a soundtrack to people's antidepressants.

I like soundtracks. And antidepressants.

[wasted]

I used to listen to the radio because I couldn't steal music.

[Strange Broue]

So much for empowering women eh J-Lo?

I'm not a feminist by any means, but capitalism get the world here, bro

As long as the world wants this crap, it will be popping up from time to time

Whores will be whores for the industry

This is business

i personally never watch this crap

[GivenToFly]

Music aside, I don't understand the visual approach. For successful women in music it's all sexuality, be it in videos, on stage or in the media. Watch pretty much any bit of video or any photoshoot involving Rihanna, Shakira, Beyonce, Katy Perry etc. i.e. the most successful women singers of the last few years and it's pretty much striptease. And i don't see the point.

1. I get that sex sells. If a sexual image is necessary to get noticed I maybe understand why new singers do it, but why do established singers do this? I have trouble believing that Beyonce doesn't have enough power in the music industry to do whatever she wants so why still go for sexualization?

2. At the same time I don't understand WHY sex sells. Why still in this day and age? Isn't anyone else fed up with sexualization of everything? Is there still any point? Is seeing a half naked singer undulating on screen suppose to entice me when I can go on the internet and get my pick of any of millions of completely naked women stripping, masturbating or having sex?

[Lithium]

Those darn kids! I miss the days of Jim Reeves and Chet Atkins.

[Len Cnut]

Music aside, I don't understand the visual approach. For successful women in music it's all sexuality, be it in videos, on stage or in the media. Watch pretty much any bit of video or any photoshoot involving Rihanna, Shakira, Beyonce, Katy Perry etc. i.e. the most successful women singers of the last few years and it's pretty much striptease. And i don't see the point.

1. I get that sex sells. If a sexual image is necessary to get noticed I maybe understand why new singers do it, but why do established singers do this? I have trouble believing that Beyonce doesn't have enough power in the music industry to do whatever she wants so why still go for sexualization?

2. At the same time I don't understand WHY sex sells. Why still in this day and age? Isn't anyone else fed up with sexualization of everything? Is there still any point? Is seeing a half naked singer undulating on screen suppose to entice me when I can go on the internet and get my pick of any of millions of completely naked women stripping, masturbating or having sex?

Sex isnt a fad fella, its the one constant of human history, its a compulsion, its never gonna go out of fashion.

Why cant whatever it is you're looking for exist alongside it?

Edited September 20, 2014 by Lennie Godber

[DR DOOM]

Those darn kids! I miss the days of Jim Reeves and Chet Atkins.

Give me Jim Reeves and Chet Atkins any day of the week mate.

[wasted]

I'm not sure if guys are buying J-lo albums though. At the Alecia Keys show there were tons of lady's identifying with her. Do guys buy Britney records? I bought Blackout but its a total classic.

[Lithium]

I courted my late wife, Gladys, to this song back in '35.

Of course, no one could afford to go on dates at the time, so we stayed at home and listened to it on my gramophone. That was before Elvis came along and ruined everything.

[Len Cnut]

I courted my late wife, Gladys, to this song back in '35.

Of course, no one could afford to go on dates at the time, so we stayed at home and listened to it on my gramophone. That was before Elvis came along and ruined everything.

[magisme]

Music is fine. It's easier to find good music now than it's ever been.