The Degradation of Music?

So among the many topics I thought of today, this one stood out the most. As I was cutting greens, (yet again) I had a mini argument with myself on this topic. (By the way, I won the argument). So I thought I would pose the question immediately: has music degraded over the years?

The reason I bring this up is because with all the new songs and artists coming out, there is a striking similarity in their music. Not the lyrics per say, but more of the way the songs are presented. So within the answer to my question, I have constructed a list of important things to do to become a one hit wonder.

1. Have a catchy, easy pronounceable title. For example, Justine Bieber's "Baby". This is the most important step in the marketing of your song. To help you conceptualize this, I will name my song "Bananas for Love".

2. Get a repetitive, annoying background beat. This will allow the listener to get the beat stuck in their head, even though the beat is somewhat irritating. This will bring the listener into the song and force them to pay attention.

3. Repeat the title in the chorus. This is the most important step. It ensures that your listener will "learn" the title, even if they did not hear it or know it before. This repetition will unconsciously give the reader an assumption of what the title of the song is and makes it so if they search those trigger words, they will easily find your song. To continue my example, the chorus to "Bananas for Love" would go something like this:

I'm going bananas for love, darling
I'll give you bananas for love, baby.
Have some bananas for love, honey.
Bananas for love!

4. Fill in the rest of your song with lyrics that center around love or some such stuff. Make sure that they are not as catchy as the chorus, but speak to the listener so that the listener can relate. An example of lyrics for our song would be:

Have you ever eaten a banana?
The ones that you love.
Well I give those bananas to you,
In hopes that you may return some love to me.

Note the usage of the world love and bananas and the feelings that the giving of the "love" to a nameless girl invoke. I am sure most of you guys (and lesbians) have felt some of the feelings before, correct?

So there you have it. A beautiful song that would hit top ten in a week. And it is about bananas. Sad, is it not?

So the crux of the issue is this: music has become a repetition of the title of the song, and of a relate-able theme. Take "Bad Romance", "Baby", and "Tik Tok" as examples. All repeat the title and all take about some theme to do with teens and young adults. (Don't believe about Justine Bieber's "Baby. Well she says "baby", 55 times during the song. 55 times.)

But ultimately, has this caused the degradation of music? No. Music has almost always been like this. Think about "Rock Lobster" and "Whip It". They were all repetitious. However, I believe that those songs were not all about love, alcohol, and partying. So ultimately, probably better songs.

And if rappers say anything about how they have brought about a new, popular genre, well I have two words for you: Justine Bieber. Yeah, you got beat by a 16-year old girl.

And to all those people that listen to World and Alternative music, I commend you. Most of that is pretty good stuff. Personally, I prefer it most of the time.

-AFR