I hate every single modern song and I can’t put my finger on why!

to be fair, SAW produced some absolutely brilliant pop songs

Stock, Aitken and Waterman? I remember them! The sheer MEDIOCRITY of their songs, which were often big hits.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1FY3FTLsyr/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Things I notice about the majority of the songs at the moment; the lyrics have very little content. There have always been some songs like that, but very few seem to have anything thoughtful or even poetic or clever. There is nothing like the kind of lyrical content you'd get from a band like The Police, for example. There doesn't seem to be much structure, or change, they are just kind of flat, and samey within the songs. There is no momentum, you don't feel you get anywhere. No build up of tension with a resolution.

This is such a good point. I read a piece on this and how a lot of songs now are just about love and relationships, he/she/you/me/I, falling in love or breaking up. Yes songs have always been about this but about storytelling too.

I can’t stand Hozier, but not sure whether it’s because the man’s an utter knob towards women (the ones with opinions) on social media, or because his music comes under the category I’ve invented called ‘Whiney men songs’.

Theres an awful lot of that type around. My teenagers seem to love 90s music at the moment. It makes me feel momentarily cool.😎

I like nearly all the songs you list.
i like max mcnown too

You’re turning into your dad. It happens to us all eventually.

All five of the songs you list are particularly annoying, OP!

This 💯 % !

I saw a video the other day that pointed out that there are very few bands on the top pop charts, and most that are there are older bands. The kind of thing you are describing where a bunch of people get together and there is a musical synergy seems almost non-existent. Instead a company gets and artist, pairs them with a professional songwriter, producer, and session musicians, and they create a product.

What I find interesting about this is they seem to produce quite a lot of shit, and very little that is really good, compared to the old method. So why do it that way?

Yeah, I think this is really a thing now, OP. It's weird.

I listened to a top 10 pop songs on Spotify list the other day. The majority were awful. The few that were less awful reminded me of better songs. None of them will be remembered in 20 years.

By way of contrast, if you look at the top 10 charts for any month from 1965 to 1975, you typically find a few, or more than a few, that are still being played today. Many have several classic, iconic songs.

Things I notice about the majority of the songs at the moment; the lyrics have very little content. There have always been some songs like that, but very few seem to have anything thoughtful or even poetic or clever. There is nothing like the kind of lyrical content you'd get from a band like The Police, for example. There doesn't seem to be much structure, or change, they are just kind of flat, and samey within the songs. There is no momentum, you don't feel you get anywhere. No build up of tension with a resolution. A lot have weird, mannered voices and atrocious diction that you couldn't hope to decipher.

And there is a real lack of people playing actual instruments with any facility. SO much of it is clearly electronic. But then there are a few popular bands my kids listen to where they seem to play instruments, but honestly - they are not very good. It's mostly quite basic.

Apart from the overproduction and the autotune and the lack of creativity and the melodies with the complexity of a nursery rhyme, it's just all so fucking EARNEST.

A - it is all auto tuned
B - even the old stuff is remastered and auto tuned. So sounds wrong.

Get your old cds or vinyl out and have a listen. It sounds proper.

yes - back in the day, the young bands lived at home or with mates, and they didn’t go to college or university. They’d either be on the dole or did low paid jobs for a few months at a time. Most big bands and artists from that era were gigging from an early age but living on very little money. Lots of youngsters still play musical instruments but being in a band is no longer a rite of passage.

Rick Beato is on it.

How can you not like the new Pulp single???

Because they don't all have 'nanana' in the lyrics these days like the music from your teens did

Try Indie and 6music type fare.

Yes they were . 😆

In terms of mainstream pop, you don't seem to get many stories these days of working class groups of friends who wrote songs in their mums' kitchens and rehearsed in their dads' garages and played their first gigs in dodgy pubs. Everything seems so top-down and managerial now; a production line.

The singing sounds kinda weird these days. The belting is off the scale. It’s a particular style. Possibly enhanced by tech (which I don’t understand - I trained in opera/classical…)

CMAT, Mitski, Self Esteem, to name a few amazing artists, and the new Pulp album is superb. Maybe take a look at meta critic, choose some albums and listen to them from beginning to end

I like Sam Fender.

Sam fender is real

Can you not remember your grandparents thinking what the young listen to isn't music? I'm 50 and mine did. It was all noise to them.