Anthony Fantano takes on PJW's "The Truth on Popular Culture"

[Doughboy]

pjws voice is seriously grating to me

[Ad Bot]

[Poliwhirl]

anybody saying "pop culture is just so unintelligent nowadays, i was born in le wrong generation" is an arrogant, pretentious prick and shouldn't be taken seriously. the only reason you would special interestize an inaccessible time period is because you want to be contrarian and "different." society has become more productive and intelligent than ever before, our standards are just raising faster than people can realistically meet.

[hodot]

ok i'm not making a point to prove either side here, but i'm vibing to this right now and i wanted to share.

anybody else listen to Childish Gambino's (an extremely popular artist, mind you) new album "Awaken, My Love!"? This dude makes rap albums his entire career, is on a DOPE ass show called Community, writes some of the best rhymes i've heard in my entire life, and then releases a totally unexpected, awesome album of music that fuses the sounds of today's electronic music with the classic rock sounds (60s and 70s) of yesteryear. I think this is one of a few examples one can find of artists dissenting from the status quo (who were previously part of it) and remaining on the top of the pile.

[Poliwhirl]

anybody saying "pop culture is just so unintelligent nowadays, i was born in le wrong generation" is an arrogant, pretentious prick and shouldn't be taken seriously. the only reason you would special interestize an inaccessible time period is because you want to be contrarian and "different." society has become more productive and intelligent than ever before, our standards are just raising faster than people can realistically meet.

honestly i know i just made this post but when i think about it i dont actually care about this subject that much, this PJW guy's voice / attitude just pissed me off so much that i think it awakened some form of primal fight or flight response

[Alternat¡ve]

ok i'm not making a point to prove either side here, but i'm vibing to this right now and i wanted to share.

anybody else listen to Childish Gambino's (an extremely popular artist, mind you) new album "Awaken, My Love!"? This dude makes rap albums his entire career, is on a DOPE ass show called Community, writes some of the best rhymes i've heard in my entire life, and then releases a totally unexpected, awesome album of music that fuses the sounds of today's electronic music with the classic rock sounds (60s and 70s) of yesteryear. I think this is one of a few examples one can find of artists dissenting from the status quo (who were previously part of it) and remaining on the top of the pile.

A great album from last year, I consider it right up there with Gucci Mane's "The Return of East Atlanta Santa"

[Mega-Bear]

in music, the lyrical and chordal diversity of songs has gone down significantly and the fullness of tracks has plummeted with the arrival of electronic noises; dominant strategy dictates that the easiest technique guaranteed to work will be used every single time, and that is clearly evident with the rise of autotune and the fact that at least half of the popular artists who use it do so not to be evocative or innovative but to instead hide the fact that they can't harmonize or even sing in key (*cough*kAnYe*cough*); yes there have been plenty of songs in the past that talk about butts and shaking them, but while they did so to be controversial/make a good song to dance to, artists like Fergie, Nicki Minaj, and Miley Cyrus do it purely out of unchecked vanity

Why did you say "in music" then discuss only pop? It's no secret mainstream pop is growing formulaic and unambitious. But there are many very exciting artists releasing interesting music these days, so I'm very confused why you would talk as if all music is declining. Also for the record the advent of synthetic timbres was a godsend.

ok i'm not making a point to prove either side here, but i'm vibing to this right now and i wanted to share.

anybody else listen to Childish Gambino's (an extremely popular artist, mind you) new album "Awaken, My Love!"? This dude makes rap albums his entire career, is on a DOPE ass show called Community, writes some of the best rhymes i've heard in my entire life, and then releases a totally unexpected, awesome album of music that fuses the sounds of today's electronic music with the classic rock sounds (60s and 70s) of yesteryear. I think this is one of a few examples one can find of artists dissenting from the status quo (who were previously part of it) and remaining on the top of the pile.

Good album but there's not an ounce of classic rock throwback on AML. It draws more from funk & soul, specifically George Clinton and Sly Stone.

[hodot]

Good album but there's not an ounce of classic rock throwback on AML. It draws more from funk & soul, specifically George Clinton and Sly Stone.

(and here we see the result of my lack of knowledge on music history) when I wrote that post I was most enthralled with the guitar stylings of Me and Your Mama after the intro, and to me it sounded like something off of a forgetin Creedence Clearwater vinyl or somethin lol. pardon me.

it's just rare for me to like an entire album (excepting the song California which is kinda trash) that isn't hip-hop.

[Nonnel]

periods of formulaic, bland music are always followed by musical revivals (early 60s, 90s, etc.)

[Mega-Bear]

periods of formulaic, bland music are always followed by musical revivals (early 60s, 90s, etc.)

Neither the 50s or 80s are characterized by formulaic music though, imo. The 50s has countless great blues and hard bop records. The 80s was an incredibly important time for electronic music. If you're referring exclusively to pop music, then a case could be made--but even then there were great pop records in the 50s and 80s. I think this discourse is really problematic because "music" is not a homogenous creature. There are many different styles coming from many different regions. I think most people itt are talking about western pop but have done little to clarify in that regard. Which has just left me a confused dummy!!

[Nonnel]

oh no no i'm not referring to the entire 50s or 80s. the late 50s, for example, after "the day the music died" and a ton of other things that led to the cooling of rock & roll, there were mostly sappy love songs. motown came in after that, and it was nothing but motown. happy beach boys songs came in and they were really shallow. the british invasion solved these problems. i wrote a paper about this.

[Mega-Bear]

Ahh I see you were in fact referring to pop music then. In that case you're right. If possible I would be interested in reading your paper, if you could PM me a link or something. : )

[Nonnel]

I'll see if I still have it!

[Tactical Nuke]

Why did you say "in music" then discuss only pop? It's no secret mainstream pop is growing formulaic and unambitious. But there are many very exciting artists releasing interesting music these days, so I'm very confused why you would talk as if all music is declining.

why haven't I heard of it then
you think that this exciting new music would be talked about but all I know is that is exciting
I don't know what genre it is, who made it, how much of it there is, and that's disregarding the fact that I may not like it

by all means if you want to show me some of this then go ahead
but the fact that I haven't heard of it until now is indicative that music has gone downhill, because when pop got bad back then you knew about all the alternatives

Also for the record the advent of synthetic timbres was a godsend.

that's debatable

I'm not saying synthesizers and electric keyboards are bad; they're amazing
I'm a fan of Genesis, and the next best thing to Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins is Tony Banks's other-worldly keyboard playing

but electronic instruments are like autotune in that they're very easy to abuse; any schoolboy could plug a tune into a computer and get it to play back over his shrill, robotic voice to cover up the fact that he's not able to sing or play an instrument

while it has majorly heightened music, it has also severely degraded it

happy beach boys songs came in and they were really shallow.

I'm a massive Beach Boys fan and where I could PA you and call you a handicap, I'll instead point you to their later stuff
they're like the Beatles in that way; it's still a little lubby-dubby but it's much deeper and way more interesting

I'd start with "Cool Cool Water", it's my dad's favorite song out of their repertoire, for good cause



also don't you try to deny that "God Only Knows" is the best love song ever written

[Nonnel]

I'll see if I still have it!

update: i don't :[

[Mega-Bear]

why haven't I heard of it then
you think that this exciting new music would be talked about but all I know is that is exciting
I don't know what genre it is, who made it, how much of it there is, and that's disregarding the fact that I may not like it

How much time do you actively spend discovering new music? It's not going to fall into your lap. And it is in fact being talked about. You really sound like you haven't put in any effort at all.

I don't get what you're saying about electronic instruments being easy to abuse either. What even is "abuse" of an instrument? People made similar arguments about electric guitars and hip swinging when rock and roll was on the come-up. "Anybody can plug in an electric guitar and strum the strings!" Yeah so? Where's the harm in someone playing with a guitar or vocoder? People used distortion to cover up poor playing the same way people now use a vocoder to mask poor singing. It's not getting praise.  Lol.

Also Nonnel clearly was talking about late-50s Beach Boys. They were admittedly very simplistic and lacking substance until Brian became the primary songwriter in the mid-60s. That's when the group took off to reach great heights.