[Smugsie]

So the music on the radio is so repetitive, with the constant 4/4 music tempo and typical pop.
My playlist is filled with japanese poprock, rock, classical, and pretty much every genre. Most of them aren't heavily compressed during studio recordings.

Although when I listenned to Katy Perry's Teenage Dream where it starts with an electrical guitar. The entire track sounds very clean, compared to listening to this song through a boomy/bassy/recessed-mids car stereo.

Are all modern recordings like this? I wouldn't mind getting into modern day music if recordings were this clean..

However I have a problem, it's either decent lyrics or no lyrics. (thus my japanese music collection)

I think this thread is turning out to be more of a blog post than a thread.


So my questions are, what do you guys view modern day pop/poprock artists as, which ones do you enjoy listening to?

 

[pjcforpres2020]

I am not a big fan of most modern pop. It just lacks a certain originality/meaningfulness that is disappointing. That being said, there is some that is catchy enough that I will listen to it (aka, my wife likes it and I can put up with it). Not much that I will go out of my way to listen or procure on my own, though.
 
Katy Perry is an artist that I can listen to and not be driven to want to beat small penguins. She actually has a good voice and actually is singing, even her live performances she sings a lot during. Her lyrics aren't horrible and her music does tend to be really clean and well done.
 
I would have to say Pink, though, is my favorite modern 'Pop' artist. Very musical and respectful of the artistic process. She actually writes the majority of her lyrics and produces meaningful songs, even if their style might not suit everyone's tastes, I can't deny she does great work.
 
I am and always have been a lover of good music. I don't have any styles or genres I totally hate and despise assuming they are done well by good artist with real talent.
 
A few others I would suggest checking out, although they might not be true 'Pop':
 
-Fun. (Very talented, well written and organized arrangements)
-Foxy Shazam! (very Queen like sound, maybe not Pop, but none the less see them billed as Pop Rock)
-Justin Timberlake (modern king of Pop, and worthy of the title)
-Bruno Mars (dude is seriously talented and has a very unique style)

 

[Smugsie]

Aha! This is the post I was exactly looking for, thanks PJ =D

Edit:
I think Katy Perry was all I needed from the pop genre, I only like two of her songs.

But then again, after 10 years of collecting songs; I only have 143 songs in my playlist...

 

[endallchaos]

A few others I would suggest checking out, although they might not be true 'Pop':

-Fun. (Very talented, well written and organized arrangements)
-Foxy Shazam! (very Queen like sound, maybe not Pop, but none the less see them billed as Pop Rock)
-Justin Timberlake (modern king of Pop, and worthy of the title)
-Bruno Mars (dude is seriously talented and has a very unique style)
[/quote]

I agree, I personally think Justin Timberlake is a very talented artist. I know a lot of people hate him, because he's Pop, but I really like his music, specially his new stuff. :normal_smile :
Fun and Bruno Mars are pretty good, too. I also like 'Aloe Blacc', even though he's more R&B/Soul.

 

[Asr]

So my questions are, what do you guys view modern day pop/poprock artists as, which ones do you enjoy listening to?

 
My posts on Head-Fi don't reflect it, but I listen to and like the local "Top 40" FM radio stations a lot, probably more than I should.

I always like catchy beats and/or lyrics and I'll admit to liking songs like Katy Perry's "Roar", Imagine Dragons' "It's Time", and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines".
 
That said, I don't usually buy CDs by Top 40 artists and prefer listening to them only on the radio. I do like Katy Perry's music though and own one of her CDs (and just recently ordered her new one). Also like Bruno Mars and Sara Bareilles, and LMAO is always entertaining.
 
There are other artists whose music I don't like but I recognize their vocal talent and I think they'd be better-suited to other genres that aren't pop, that include: Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, & Adele. I think it'd be cool if all 4 of them stretched to another genre like blues (Eva Cassidy-style), soul, jazz, folk, or even some sort of trip-hop or otherwise electronic crossover.

 

[saxelrod92]

I have some friends who enjoy more mainstream sounding music I guess, stuff on the radio. They like a lot of indie hipster stuff thats become huge, which honestly I can put up with much more than just straight up pop or pop/rock music. The reason I'm not a fan though is simply because I get too used to the sound, as in its either too shallow lyrically, or too simple musically. I play drums and that kinda makes me pay attention to them in all recordings more than any other instrument, and if the drums (or any of the other instruments for that matter) can't hold my attention with either a solid groove, or amazing technicality that shows the skill and musicianship of the artists then the song usually just becomes very dull and boring to me.

I also have a little bias when it comes to the artist making the music, as in I do get slightly swayed depending on the personality of the person making the music. So since most pop and pop/rock played on the radio is made by huge stars and celebrities that don't all exactly have the greatest of personalities or deep thinking skills or I guess authentic heart and soul in the music, it makes me just feel turned off to what they make. But hey theres definitely some albums and bands I listen to that the people are not always the best, but they just make music that I cant help but love so I pick music over person making music.

As for sound quality, I noticed that actually a lot of mainstream music is recorded pretty well. as long as it is not purely done on a computer and has both live vocals and some live instruments recorded on it, the quality is generally very high with not so much compression. A good example although they might not really be mainstream radio music, would be Daft Punk's newest album. They are mainstream for the most part, and apparently on wikipedia it says they paid over one million dollars out of their own pockets to make that album. all that money went into the most expensive microphones, analog synths, high quality instruments and recording equipment. There is one song that has a spoken 2 minute or so intro, and they said that they recorded that on like 16-20 different microphones aged from ones in the 60's to ones in modern day, they just had them all in one room as the guy spoke. one of those mics cost nearly 20,000 dollars lol, and it recorded about 6 seconds of sound, all of which you could hardly tell is changing between mics.