Ugh... Mainstream...

[Outshined]

Out of curiousity (or perhaps stupidity)  I decided to watch MTV/VH1 today to see what the most recent music videos were like.  With a few exceptions, it seems as if all modern music has deleted any semblance of songwriting creativity at all.  I mean, for the vast majority of songs I heard, there was one chorus that was just repeated over and over for the entirety of the song.  The verse has been deleted altogether... the whole song is just the chorus.  Does the average person really find this kind of music interesting?  It just astonishes me that this passes for music.

[Oerdin]

I never really got this Indie obsession about hating the main stream and the belief that only no name bands are any good.  Personally, all I care about is if I enjoy a band's music.  Granted much of what passes for music in the main stream has been homogenized to the point of being bland but then again there are also an awful lot of shitty underground bands as well.

[Jamoky]

I enjoy a ton of mainsteam music.  granted, most of it is "indie-mainstream" (whatever the fuck that means) I.E: modest mouse, the killers, weezer, interpol, death cab for cutie, et cetera... but  I really fail to see the connection between what a band is getting paid and what a band sounds like, aside from proper recording equiptment.  I have no idea what your talking about with the "no verse songs" thing, but then again I haven't watched MTV in a long long time.

[Thal]

I think quite a few people like that kind of music since those artist seem to sell enough enough cd's to climb album charts in several countrys. I myself like quite a few mainstream bands but far from all of them.

And very few that gets played on MTV more then 2 times a day.

[flowers for charlie]

the verse may not be disappearing, but it is definitely being cheapened.  

they ('they' can be whoever you want, here) know that nowadays the chorus is really all people pay attention to, so they put whatever mediocre crap they have left at the end of the day into the verses, in favor of maybe a catchy guitar riff or a sample of an aerosmith song in the chorus.

i dunno

[ExplodingBunnies]

I got disgusted after that rap song used the intro to Crazy Train as the beat.  Yeesh.

And remember, folks... "Crazy Train is the best song ever."

[Mercurial]

heh... that rap song with Crazy Train is hilarious.  Not good, neccessarily, but the first time I noticed Ozzy in there, I lost it.

Actually, I really believe that mainstream alt-rock radio is on the rebound.  I used to love the local modern rock station from roughly 96-99 when it was a nice mix of grunge, electronica, Beck/soul coughing quirkiness, and punk/ska.  And then Rap-metal and that boring, sludgy Creed-spinoff stuff came along and drove me away.  But I dared listen again recently, and I've discovered a few decent bands like the Killers, Traffic, and the Music and with the recent trend in indie breakouts (modest mouse, interpol, and franz ferdinand), I'm pretty encouraged.

[Tago Mago]

I don't really listen to any newish mainstream music, but I wouldn't say it has a monopoly on songwriting ineptitude. There's very little indie music which I find genuinely satisfying either. I guess my taste is just too well developed.

[El Opium]

Sofar as I'm concerned its always been this way. Maybe for a brief period when MTV actually played more than a few music videos indie had a chance but only a small one. At least a few "Indie acceptable" bands have got through this year.

[tommydski]

i'm always torn....a well made video is every bit as valid as a good song sometimes. spike jonze and micheal gondry come to mind....but overall music television can eat shit and die.

[tempermental pixie]

Well made videos? Where!? All I ever see on the music channels anymore is girls (and often guys as well) dressed in nothing more than their bra and underwear, reminicent of my schools past hallowe'en dance (terrifying seeing 13 year old girls trying to show off what they don't have. Almost carved my eyes out with a spoon). That aside...

I wouldn't say that mainstream music is bad, per say, its just lost some of its value as actual music. I find that I don't really listen to the radio or watch music channels unless I'm a)in the car or b) really bored. I've found it to just be a waste. But I am enamoured with bands like The Killers and Modest Mouse. But really, most of my musical interest right now lays with bands several years before I was born, like Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin. Yeah. That's good stuff.

[jhum101]

I remember like a few weeks ago, I was watching TV with a few friends. We were watching MTV at one point, and that Juvenile song "Slow Motion" came on. We changed the channel, and while flipping around, the same song was playing on another channel (VH1). And I'm pretty sure, while changing channels, I saw the same song on at least like 3 more times in the span of the same hour, on various chnannels. Then, one of my friends informed me that Juvenile used a ghost writer for that song, meaning someone else wrote it, and was paid off for it, without receiving credit for it. This is the crap that angers me about the mainstream, artists like Juvenile who lost their integrity sometime between the years of 17 and 23. I mean not only does the MTV world like these BS musicians, it eats them up. That's my rant