hehe. I'm loving the discussion on this one
Here's my opinion for what it's worth.
THis is in reply to the first song posted.
It's shit.
It's not well produced at all because it is OVER produced. It's plain, boring and been done a million times before. But even that is ok
if you manage to pull it off by being an amazing singer.
Someone said... not sure who now, "Why does music have to be obscure to be good, why can't music be predictable."
Well of course the answer is it can and is. The problem is that when you are a child you start off by reading "peter and Jane" books.
This is fine when you are a kid. Those books will keep your inerest and you'll enjoy them, but read them as an adult and it's very different.
Those simple story lines will not keep your attention anymore and you certainly wouldn't want to read a compendium of them.
I see the mostly garbage that's in the "pop" charts the same way. It's pretty much always "Peter and Jane" stuff. And as a more accomplished musician
that doesn't cut it for me anymore, I have grown up and moved on to more detailed books, so to speak.
The trouble is that it is an industry. And whenever there is a lot of money to be made out of something, it will get taken over by the business men.
They make sure that what mostly sits in the popular charts is what THEY think people want. The choice of hearing good accomplished musicians is taken away by an industry that
spoon feeds us like we are all imbeciles. This means that everybody gets used to hearing music that is very much the same and the business men have an easier job
of getting those songwriters without a soul to keep reproducing the same old shit.
Saying,"I wish I'd wrote it." to me is like standing next to someone who slaps "War and Peace" down on the table feeling proud that something of value and something
of beauty has been crafted and then you bang "Peter and Jane" down still feel you can compare yourself. There's nothing great about Peter and Jane. It's boring. Unless you are a child.
And let's face it, teenagers are mostly who the popular charts are aimed at, and all those people who never venture far from listening to nursary rhymes for adults.
The reason for this is that to teenagers all these songs and repeated simple chord patterns are new! They haven't heard them a million times before... So they can keep seeling the same old thing
to them. As an adult... Well if you haven't moved on then you obviously haven't invested enough time listening to other forms of music and haven't moved on from the kids stuff.
Someone said blues is simple... Yes it is. But it has feeling and that's the difference.
There are some good songs make it into the charts having said that, although as soon as a new trend starts, the business men and producers with clean it up and sterilise it
and turn it into a weaker shadow of what it began as.
If anyone is proud to write Peter and Jane, clean it up, over produce it, make it into something that has no soul whatsoever, then cool, but I'll not be listening to it.
As an artist, craftsman, I'm not happy putting things together from ikea... I want to be in the shed using a lathe to create something if not totally unique and original then at least
something heading in that direction.
This is why I asked could it NOT be ONLY popular music but maybe something that's not been in the charts but that has still sold albums or whatever.
Something different from blar blar black sheep.
There are certain parts of the melody that are ok but it's another nursary rhyme.
Sure I would like to make money out of my music but I draw the line at selling my soul and having it removed from what I write. Even the soulless songwriters who churn this stuff out
for "the market" probably think it's shit.
Don't forget that a different response would be had from none musician/songwriters. But when asking people who are talented themselves in the same field to review something like this
I think the reaction is how I would have exected it. Again I will compare it to asking serious book reviewers to review "Peter and Jane".
But I suppose if you are not bothered about being really creative in music and you don't wish to push yourself then it would be a good career. An empty one, but you'd probably make a lot of money.
Hope you succeed
