POLL: What has been the lowest thing the pop music industry has sunk to?
 

My vote is for T.A.T.U. Say what you will about prefab bans like N'Sync and Spice Girls, but at least those were fairly clean cut groups who could sing the songs that were written for them.

But T.A.T.U. is the most fabricated piece of shit of all time. Two under age girls who have zero talent, singing along to completely pedestrian beats, and being forced to put on this "we're thinly veiling that we're lesbian" act that is completely fictional. Some 50 year old sleaze bag from Europe decides that pop music hasn't truly taken advantage of the depraved pedophile demographic, so let's trot out two 15 year olds and make them kiss on stage.

I fully support homosexuals, but using lesbianism as your marketing tool to sell shitty music is crass.

BTW, don't click OTHER and say "The current RIAA suing of filesharers". I want this to be specifically about POP music, not the entire recording industry.

I'd have to say all of the above.Milli Vanilli stands out just because they were given Grammy awards. The two greatest moments in Grammy history was giving Milli Vanilli an award and trying to pretend they award excellence in music when they are just as much a popularity driven awards show just like everyone else and Eddie Vedder accepting his award and saying "This doesn't mean nothing." Priceless. Pretty much summed up the musics stars for me for the last 2 decades at least.

taking 10 people to write a horrible song Jenny from the block. that song is just plain stupid and if it took 10 people to write that then that proves she isn't much of an artist.

The lowest thing they've done, just being the pop music industry.

Can you tell I'm not a fan of pop music? ;)

I picked T.A.T.U., but all the choices offered were very tempting, as I loathe pop music and everything it represents. It's all basically one flabbergastingly shocking publicity stunt after another, with poopstars (typo intended), changing their image on a whim to suit suits and whatever partyline is taking over at a given time.

Everytime I see a horde of hysterical teenagers howling for the group du jour at a venue, my faith in humanity takes a serious hit. Sure, they may grow out of it, but still.

I picked J-Lo needing 10 people to write Jenny from the block. I remember seeing it took 6 or 7 people to write Cher's 'Believe' and thinking to myself "6 'songwriters' got together, and this is the best they could do?, Bob Dylan could wipe a better song onto his ass all by himself, in far less time"

you didnt mention (G)B2K

It bothers me that there is so little new music being created these days. Most everying is a sample of something else at least to a degree. There is nothing wrong with being a pop music in general, its called popular music for a reason, but is seems to me that it lacks much of a creative aspect these days. Oh, And 50 cent is an absolute travesty...

someone needs to reboot the music industry

"Jenny From The Block" is only made worse by the fact that she's actually from the suburbs somewhere, and since becoming rich has actually gone completely insane (you've heard the stories; dogs in a £200/night kennel, unable to share a bathroom with boyfriend, etc). I guess the songwriter(s) could get jobs as information ministers.

PS. anyone else hate the current trend among pop-rap for rapping off the beat? It screws with my head, I thought the whole point of music was that you stuck to a beat, you didn't go completely out of time with the percussion. Rant over.

All of the above are indicative of the complete worthlessness of the established music business. However, suing people for sharing songs over the internet is rock bottom.

i hate prefabbed groups like N'suck and The Backdoor Boys. but the Spice Girls were hot, and i often dreamed of nailing them.... so they are forgiven.

I voted "Other" becasue there needed to be a "All of the Above"

Except TATU... they can keep doing the underage lesbian thing.

OAR

OAR?

#4 is NOT tre. madonna's video was NOT censored by the muisc industry. she pulled it from circulation herself.

Lowest point in the pop music industry.--Making millions of people actually believe Michael Jackson has one thread of talent.

Cliched as it is, I'd have to say Avril Lavigne. Who isn't an option, but what can you do. It's the way they so blatantly found a rare unexploited part of the population (wannabe rebel 8-16 year old girls, who possess plenty of purchase power) and jumped to take advantage of it irritates the hell out of me.

EDIT: Let's also not forget the lucrative "imitating Pearl Jam" market.

yep, OAR. It's Of A Revolution or something. They have little to do with the pop music industry I think. I think they mighta even made it the old fashioned way. But they really suck and they draw the shittiest perfume-smellin' crowd ever. I used to have to clean up after their shows. Mostly though, I was just trying to provoke a flame war with guccilvr.

gotcha

Hey Baby Hey Baby hey
the boys say the boys say

If she didn't do it, someone would have done it for her. It gets my vote.

I was gonna put 'other' but then I remembered that Hear'say, Girls Aloud and One True Voice actually make music and are classed as musicians. If you want absolute doodoo, go to them and their tv-manufactured counterparts...

Gotta admit though, Liberty X have done good for themselves. They can sing, their beatz are decent and they aren't going blindly down the decrepit dimly lit council borough road of pop.

(Shaolin Fourlay Monk): May you rot in hell!!!

:p

Man, I should kiss you or something!

Fifty is a perfect examle of the powers of promotion. Here's a guy who can't rhyme, frequently collabo's with dead rappers and is produced by someone else, and yet he is selling like those proverbial hot cakes. The novelty is the fact that he's been shot nine times. It's supposed to be a miracle he's alive. Tell me, does seven shots in the leg, one in the jaw and one in the chest (not heart) automatically mean you should die on the spot, with no chance of survival? Nope, but that's what so many people believe. It's just a novelty that's helping him to sell.

Fifty Cent is a popstar proper. It's just that he does 'rap'.

:mad:

ps sorry bout the triple post, but I haven't really read through the whole thing yet...

50 cent sucks- It's just proof that these days you don't need talent to make it. It's all about gimmicks. He played at a local college recently- showed up 1 1/2 hours late and only was on stage for 40 minutes. I hope his fans go to his 40 minute shows and then boycott him. In my personal opinion, the only talent that most rappers have is that they can rhyme to a beat. Most of them have the music (the hard part) laid out for them and alot of them steal riffs from popular songs to do it.

I should have put the "popification" of No Doubt and Jewel as a poll option. Good call!

This is why I take pride in the fact that I produce my own beats, I write my own lyrics and I don't write total shite. Ok, so I have a little fun on a track sometimes, but you won't hear me gun talking and gimmicking. I've made it a rule that I'm not gonna do that gun talk shit, unless it's in a metaphorical context...anyway wtf am i doin, im goin off topic here!

it STILL isn't true. the msicindustry did not cansor madonna's video. the idea that someone would have done it for her does not mean that the msic indstry censored her. there wasn't technically anything censored either.

Derwood: its the truth they took it too far with that one.

Pop-punk.

Pop-punk bands having the nerve to label themselves "punk" completely alienated and destryoed the original punk scene. There are very few REAL punk bands left, and even they are a rather far cry from the original punk scene. Sum 41, New Found Glory, Mest, Avril, Good Charlotte, Blink-182 and the like are NOT punk. It's the labeling of bands like that AS punk that can be blamed for the impossibility of a REAL punk resurgence ever happening. These shitty pop bands thinking that they were all that completely ruined a great genre. No one who thinks that they're a punk even knows what punk is about anymore. The "hardcore" punks aren't punks, they're just angry kids. There's the mall punks, who are all just a bunch of idiots. There's the "anarchist" punks who think that they're SO damn punk just because some punk band way back when promoted anarchy. They don't listen to the real punk bands because they like them; they listen to them to be cool. Everyone who wants to be the cool kid in the school now can, and all they have to do is dress up like a "punk" or a "gangsta," regardless of what they actually know about the music. No one gets it anymore. The real thing that punk was about is entirely overlooked these days, and I believe that the Dead Kennedys summed it up best:

"Punk means thinking for yourself"

With all the shit out there right now, good fucking luck trying to restore that mentality. It's a damn shame that bands like that had to come in and ruin the entire image of the genre. A damn shame. The same is true for rap... ask one of your average dumbass wigger kiddies to name a great rapper, and who do they say? 50 Cent. Eminem. Sean Paul. These artists are OK at times, but they are _not_real_rappers_

Bet you 50 bucks that if you go up to 10 wannabe "gangstas" and ask them who Chuck D is, maybe one of them gets it right. Maybe.

Terrible.

Herm the thing about jewel, i dont like her music BUT i have listend to the lyrics of her latest track and the song is about selling out, Hence the BLingish video. she relises that she is a product thats ALOT more than most Artist

The mucic industry has done someting worse than the above in the poll. They created.....(shudder)...."Avril Lavigne"

I voted other. I'd say it's the RIAA trying to pass music off as a business instead of an art.

You mentioned "punk" 21 times in there KW!!!

My idea of true rappers are people like Outtaville, JokerSta, Scalpel, BlakTwang and others. I personally think that UK rappers put more thought and soul into what they're doin, and alot of rappers in the UK are at least semi-coscientious. You can relate to what they say, the slang is hilarious, the beats have a unique flava: it's all round enjoyment, without being bait and stupid. True, my FAVOURITE Rappa is Redman, because his rhyming schemes, lyrical style and the beats he flows over appeal to my preferences and personal style, but in terms of lyrical content he's pre-tty shallow. So I listen to him for enjoyment. People like Nas and BlakTwang now, I listen to for the mental.

Anyways I'm being herded out of theILT room, so, in a rushed manner, I wish you all goodnight.

Good night!

:)

You'd never hear the Clash or the Buzzcocks writing a pop song! No sir!
Anyway, I voted for J-Lo. Not because it took ten people to write the song, but because the song even exists in the first place. sk

I agree there should be an "All of the above"

I voted for prefabricated pop groups but I would have voted for the music industry cowtowing for MTV. MTV has ruined mainstream music and the record industry deserves alot of blame for playing their game.

I agree with spectre.

Everyone here seems to forget (or is too young to realize) that pre-fab pop IS NOT NEW!! Every generation has had their share of it.

A majority of the "Major artists" never wrote their own material. That includes the greats: Elvis, Sinatra, 90% of the Motown artists and groups well into the 70's, 80's and 90's.

It just seems that todays stuff seems to be worse.

I voted for Milli Vanilli, because up to that point, the singer was allowed to perform the song, regarless of who wrote it. In this case someone wrote the songs, someone else sang them and then Rob & Fabrice were brought in to "perform" the songs for video and concerts.

It was all about image and not about material. That's when things took a turn for the worse, because the only thing the music industry "learned" from it was to hire better looking people to sing the songs in the first place.

I voted other, April, 50c, MnM, and the whole fake punk thing (kw, you nailed it.) are what really get me, tho I would have voted 'all of the above'

censorship is the lowest.
even if it is Madonna.

ok i just posted in that mega rant thread, anyways, in summation i agree that its the pop industry in itself. In that they have reduced music to a quantifiable product, from such a beautiful qualitative art. Such a transformtaion is inexplicable.
Music is an art not a product.

see the definitions:

art:
Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.

The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.



product
Something produced by human or mechanical effort or by a natural process.


edit: added definitions

one last time, she pulled her own video. madonna withdrew her OWN video, deciding not to show it. that says to you censorship somehow, when it is her own decision to NOT show the video. whatever. :rolleyes:

WHY did she pull it? Under some sort of pressure, whether direct or indirect. It may not be censorship in the form of one person telling another to stop doing something, but it is self-censorship of one buckling under a certain political climate.

I voted for Prefab crap. I was forced to listen to some of this dreck on a recent trip (It was Nsuck, i believe). I am amazed at the sickeningly sweet vomit the music industry is foisting on people, particularly young ones.

i am pretty sure the girls from T.A.T.U are 18 and they can keep doing their fake lesbian thing all they want.

I voted for Jenny on the Block.

First off, on the Madonna thing : Watched an interview about an hour ago on MuchMusic. Apparantly when she started making the video, US was in the get hyped up phase of the war. By the time production and editing of the video was finished, CNN had gotten around to covering the ground war. In other words, it was concieved when war was still a ways off and her goal was to help stave off the popular drive for war. However, when the video was completed, she felt that it would be mocking the troops that were actually doing the slaught^H^H^H^H^H fighting. It's not like it's gone for good, it will be back in a few months.

Anyhow on to the polls and since we're talking about the state of pop music... :

1. Prefab bands have been around since the dawn of pop music (1880's or so) so that's pretty integral to pop music.
2. Songwriting teams have nearly always done better than the single artist, whether that be brill building guys writing for their hundreds of doo wop one hit wonders, the J-Lo team, or Lennon-McCartney. Teams are good for pop. (though that is one piss poor song, but we'll just chalk that up to taste...)
3. C&C music factory, pop has been about image since Sinatra at least, so you had to see that one coming. It also sucks, but that's what you have to do to make it in pop music
4. Madonna thing : Covered above, but what we dont' know scares me.
5. Milli Vanilli lypsynching - Say what you want about those two guys, the songs were huge. Someone wrote them and knew they'd be big, but needed the image. So they hired the image. This is pop business at it's finest. I just wish that they gave the grammy to the real singer/writer instead of just stripping it from the pretty boys.
6. TATU. That's just funny. I wish Britney would take a lesson on sexuality from them (though not dancing/singing lessons I think we know who has more talent there...)
7. Other - RIAA is eeeeeeeeevil! :)

So the lowest level the pop music industry has sunk to? My vote goes to..... Other: Pro tools. (WTF you say?) Having learned from Milli Vanilli, they got high tech. Various tools will let you change the pitch of your voice so your recording can be in tune. You keep all of the interesting aspects of 'your' voice, but it magically hits all the right notes. This is bad because not only are songwriting and musical talent no longer important for our pop heroes, we're at a point where singing is no longer important. Lip Synch for live shows, sing in the studio, but diddle with the vocal track until you are perfectly in tune. All you really need is a distinctive voice and good looks. And no amount of practice or talent will give you that, that's a genetic crapshoot.

Hope that made sense, it is a bit after 3am now but I saw something on pop music and got all excited :)

My vote went for othereand that other is supposed Rock Bands that have a DJ and rap instead of sing...

It's all about classical music from the Rennissance periods and music from Squaresoft RPG's! w00t!!!

I can't stand the fact that pop artists don't write the majority (if any) of their material.
It's all written for them.

Lowest the music business has sunk?

How about CD's that cost about $1-3 to produce being sold for $15-20 each?

HEY YOU MUSIC INDUSTRY STOOGES!!!

WHY DO YOU THINK MUSIC PIRACY IS SO FUCKING POPULAR, YOU GREEDY KNUCKLE DRAGGERS!!!

You mean that whole underage lesbian thing was fake? Those lying bitches, I gotta go break my CDs... damn this peeves me...

My vote would have to be "forming the Sex Pistols".

They are all HEINOUS crimes!

American Idol has got to be the worst thing pop has ever done.