Re: [WOTP] The difficulty of writing really dreadful pop songs.

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 03:30:47 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc
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"Stephen Cooke" <email-address-deleted> wrote in message
news:email-address-deleted.
..
>
>
> On Wed, 16 Jul 2003, Joe Blevins wrote:
>
> > Recently, ROLLING STONE published an article speculating that Avril
> > Lavigne's "self-penned" pop hits might actually be the work of
professional
> > songcrafters.
>
> To be fair, to write something that's simple and catchy and effective
> *can* be difficult.
<snip>
...Yeah, but somehow the hit factories of decades past (think: Motown, the
Brill Building) were turning out much more artistically satisfying material
than the slick uber-producers of today. A song can be simple, catchy, and
effective without being soulless and disposable. There's such a numbing
sameness to virtually everything on the radio. (Unfortunately, this applies
to rock as well as pop. At least Marilyn Manson is doing his own thing and
distinguishing himself from the Staind/Creed/Linkin Park ghetto.)
I guess what I object to is the fact that ROLLING STONE and other music
publications have been straining themselves to overpraise some really
formulaic pop recently. Embarrassing superlatives are being heaped upon
Justin, Xtina, Britney, Avril, and the rest. Words like "genius,"
"classic," and "brilliant" have lost all meaning when they're abused in this
manner. Why didn't the Patridge Family, Tony Orlando, or the Bay City
Rollers get the same kind of critical hosannas back in the 1970s? After
all, their songs were simple, catchy, and effective, too -- and more
distinctive than the TRL pop of today, I'd say.
Rock and pop have ALWAYS been about short, simple, catchy songs. But now,
Top 40 music is SO *cyincally* calculated, overproduced, niche-marketed, and
formula-driven that it has ceased to be spontaneous or even HUMAN. And this
swill is being praised to the skies by desperate rock critics frantically
searching for "greatness" where it doesn't exist.
--Joe--