Modern pop music places less importance on melody?

Comments

• barbeler Posts: 23,827

  Forum Member

  ✭✭✭

  30/06/14 - 10:49 #2

  I don't think computers do melody very well.

  0
• Pointy Posts: 1,762

  Forum Member

  ✭✭✭

  30/06/14 - 11:33 #3

  Ray_Smith wrote: »

  Since the introduction of online download charts there seem to be less songs hitting the top 40 with strong, catchy or memorable melodies.
  
  For example, from this week's top 40 chart I'd say these two songs are the only ones with strong, memorable melodies:
  
  At number 17: Pharrell Williams - Happy
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM
  
  At number 28: Michael Jackson Feat Justin Timberlake - Love Never Felt So Good
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG08ukJPtR8
  
  (I think the solo version - MJ on his own - is superior)
  
  
  These two songs could have been released in the 80s/90s and not felt out of place.
  
  Compare these two songs to the new number 1:
  
  Oliver Heldens Feat Becky Hall - Gecko (Overdrive) (Extended Mix)
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcZMCMI24gs
  
  I don't think this song has a memorable melody. It will be forgotten about in a few weeks time and I doubt most pop fans will remember it that fondly. It's just a bland dance track with an unmemorable melody. I accept this is all subjective but I do feel there are less memorable pop songs in the top 40 these days. I'd say it's about a 20 percent ratio of memorable pop songs whereas back in the 60s/70s/80s/90s it was higher or felt like it was higher.

  
  They will be memorable for the youth of today, no matter how awful they are to you or me. Hopefully there will be a better music scene in a couple of years or so.

  0
• TheTruth1983 Posts: 13,462

  Forum Member

  ✭✭

  30/06/14 - 12:58 #4

  It has been said many times before so what's one more? The problem is not music, it is mainstream music media. There is any amount of music out there with catchy and memorable melodies but mainstream media insist on playing from the same playlist. Honestly, when switching between music channels, I cannot tell the difference between them.

  0
• Neil_N Posts: 6,026

  Forum Member

  ✭

  30/06/14 - 13:14 #5

  Music today is aimed at a) Impressionable teens b) people who like to get pissed in nightclubs and c) Heat and Closer magazine readers.
  
  We are in a drone age and apart from a shining lights (Adele, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran) the industry is in an unhealthy state.

  0
• mgvsmith Posts: 16,457

  Forum Member

  ✭✭

  30/06/14 - 13:15 #6

  TheTruth1983 wrote: »

  It has been said many times before so what's one more? The problem is not music, it is mainstream music media. There is any amount of music out there with catchy and memorable melodies but mainstream media insist on playing from the same playlist. Honestly, when switching between music channels, I cannot tell the difference between them.

  
  I was listening to some of these bands from Glastonbury over the weekend, thinking how nicely constructed some of the music was but how unmemorable. It all kind of merged into nothingness at times. You could argue there is too much technology involved at times.
  
  There were exceptions, Metallica and Dolly Parton for example.

  0
• barbeler Posts: 23,827

  Forum Member

  ✭✭✭

  30/06/14 - 16:00 #7

  Neil_N wrote: »

  We are in a drone age and apart from a shining lights (Adele, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran) the industry is in an unhealthy state.

  Oxymoron alert!

  0
• Zack06 Posts: 28,304

  Forum Member

  ✭✭✭

  30/06/14 - 16:13 #8

  There are plenty out there. Dr. Luke and Max Martin are masters at this. The chorus of this song is extremely catchy and has very strong melodies. A lot of pop songs being released are focusing on melodies now.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF8efZmoGZE

  0
• callmediva Posts: 1,862

  Forum Member

  ✭✭✭

  30/06/14 - 17:27 #9

  As always, there's plenty of song-writing talent and some great melodies being produced, you just have to look a little bit harder for it these days.
  
  Try going along to your local open mic night, you'd be surprised at the talent of some people.
  Fair enough, you'll be scared by the guts of some people who get up to perform, but keep looking and you'll find a diamond.
  
  That's the trouble with the internet, when labels had all the power, at least there was a form of quality control. That's gone now that anyone can post any old rubbish on youtube.

  0
• Eric_Blob Posts: 7,756

  Forum Member

  ✭

  30/06/14 - 17:56 #10

  I think Gecko has a good melody. A lot of songs in the top 40 which people are saying don't have a melody do have one, it's just in the beat rather than in the vocals.
  
  Also, I don't think it'll be forgotten in a few weeks. I was hearing it in clubs a few months back, so it's already been popular for a while. I'm not saying it's going to be a modern-day classic, but I doubt it'll be completely forgotten in a few weeks. Maybe pure-pop fans will forget it, but a lot of other people won't.

  0
• mushymanrob Posts: 17,992

  Forum Member

  ✭✭

  30/06/14 - 18:59 #11

  modern music appears to place more emphisis on it having a dance beat then a melody.
  
  many great songs from the 60's had strong melodies but were not easily tailored for dance.

  1
• Pob-Bundy Posts: 1,321

  Forum Member

  ✭✭✭

  30/06/14 - 19:09 #12

  It's hard not to fall into grumpy old git territory that's for sure. I watched The 1975 at Glastonbury on TV and couldn't believe that I was watching a real band and not a comedy sketch. The music is ok it's the lyrics and look on the musicians faces that had me cringing.
  
  "You say, we'll go where nobody knows, with guns hidden under our petticoats"
  
  Petticoats???

  0
• misslibertine Posts: 14,306

  Forum Member

  ✭✭

  30/06/14 - 21:12 #13

  Pob-Bundy wrote: »

  It's hard not to fall into grumpy old git territory that's for sure. I watched The 1975 at Glastonbury on TV and couldn't believe that I was watching a real band and not a comedy sketch. The music is ok it's the lyrics and look on the musicians faces that had me cringing.
  
  "You say, we'll go where nobody knows, with guns hidden under our petticoats"
  
  Petticoats???

  
  Same. I can't get past that kid's voice I know I'm probably taking my life in my hands admitting it on DS, but I actually Googled them to check if he was deaf .

  0
• ItsNick Posts: 3,711

  Forum Member

  ✭✭✭

  30/06/14 - 21:45 #14

  100% agree OP.
  
  A vast majority of songs from the 60s-80s had songs with very strong catchy melodies.
  That's why they're so memorable now. It wasn't only pop songs, you'd here it in TV theme tunes. When was the last time you heard a MODERN theme tune as good as the original Grange Hill theme or The Sweeney.
  I started going off music in the early 90s and I was only in my late teens then. It was then that I started discovering all this music from the 70s and very early 80s that I wasn't quite old enough to remember. I remember thinking that it sounded so much better than the crap today.
  The trouble with music from the 90s onwards is that it all seemed to have this same sounding dance beat behind it and the music seemed to just go in one ear and out the other.
  Songs with strong melodies are the songs that will always be remembered.

  0