Most of what we listen to on the radio today is pop music, as it would be. But that became a genre when it was seen as being child friendly, catchy, and favourable a large audience. The last few years have seen an influx of a certain genre rearing it’s, mostly ugly, head once more – the 90’s pop sound.
When Clean Bandit released their single ‘Rather Be’ with the vocal stylings of Jess Glynne, it was an instant hit, and so it should have been. With a clever use of retro dance tunes and a classical vibe in the background, it was a perfectly formed song. It was only when this continued and many bands copied a similar form of track that it started to become old news.
Is all music the same?
Nowadays we live in an era where most songs feature vocalists that sound half-conscious, mixed closely with a 90’s or even 80’s style of soppy, half-arsed tune that plays repeatedly in the background. It starts to feel as if we, the audience, are being duped into buying the same song every week when a new clone is created.
The worst part is that not only is there no inspiring individuality and creativeness, but there’s also no soul behind the work. Instead, it feels like we’ve been dragged back in time to hear replays of the worst parts of some quite inventive eras of music.
Jess Glynne isn’t the focal point of this aggression. She isn’t the reason for it and there’s nothing stood firmly against her. It is, however, a problem that is circulating around popular music and, to its credit, making a lot of money and becoming a welcomed trend.
It is a shame though to see that nothing fresh is being made and that nine times out of ten, what you will hear when turning on a radio is similar to what will be played after it’s finished. It’s strange, after a 15 year breather since the nineties era, to hear piano keys, constant beats, a faint but generic female singer, and lots going on in the melody. It’s as if all current music still believes the Spice Girls are going and are looking forward to Jurassic Park: The Lost World to be released in cinemas.
Sadly, other mentions of generic music in the public view include the recallable hip-hop sounds that have been favourable since the early nineties as well as faint, almost painful solo indie acts whose songs sound more like a satirical point made about itself than something someone would opt in to buy a full album of.
But all is not lost
Some bands continue to revolutionise what people subject their ears to, and it seems a lot of radio listeners are just happy to see anything new or at least anything that isn’t constantly played to them.
To see such a similar rhythm in how music is produced is a distressing sign of the times, but it is most likely only a sign of the times and nothing more. Maybe in a few years we will go back to trance and Faithless will become something more of a cult. There’s a chance things will go so far back in time that we will see even more Uptown Funk style tracks or songs like ‘Get Lucky’ where the bass guitar is turned up to accentuate 100% funk and we’re back in the 70’s.
It is an exciting time for music – not only are we looking forward but we’re also looking back. All that remains to say is that not everything that comes from experimenting is always completely easy on the ear.
What are your thoughts on the music industry of today? Let us know in the comments below!
