Musical Mediocrity

I’ve been doing a lot of complaining about today’s music, and in doing so, I have addressed the quiet lack of passion in some of it, and the tween-specificity of another sector of it. What I will discuss here resonates with those aspects of the crappy music of today, but also addresses an issue of mediocrity.

Why on earth is Train so successful? That is not to say that I think they’re bad or that they don’t deserve their success. They are probably good people and they do have some good music and talent. However, they are not, in my opinion, as great as everyone seems to think they are. Their songs are either kind of nice until you get sick of them, like "Calling all Angels," or not so great and I was somehow sick of them instantly, like "Drops of Jupiter."

One of their more recent songs, “If It’s Love,” seems to be a list of clichés that are almost chanted and that sound very much like the list was thrown together nonsensically, amidst very catchy choruses and a handful of meaningful lyrics. I'm not suggesting that clichés never belong in songs. When used well, a cliché can provide deeper meaning than new phrasing could, such as Jay-Z's modified use of "If you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere" in "Empire State of Mind." Phrasing that sentiment without the use of the cliché wouldn't have the same potent meaning that it has. Train on the other hand, uses countless clichés in “If It’s Love” to create a meaningless list. Clichés should be used wisely and few and far between (see what I did there hahahaha).

Perhaps the catchy choruses are the key to Train’s success. Britney (Spears) had that song, "Womanizer," that seems to be nothing but a catchy chorus repeated incessantly, and people appeared to like that a lot. I didn't; I liked the chorus once or twice, and then could no longer tolerate it for the duration of the song. Therefore, Train's insertion of lists of clichés between catchy choruses in “If It’s Love” is definitely an improvement compared to Britney's abuse, I mean use of the catchy chorus, which makes the former tolerable and at times even enjoyable. However, by no means is it a great song, nor are they a great band; they are merely good.

UPDATE July 21, 2012

I heard a new Train song and I liked it!  It’s “50 Ways to Say Goodbye,” and while it is yet another list of things rattled off to a catchy tune, I actually like it!  I like the Phantom-of-the-Opera sound in the verses, and I like the Mariachi-band sound in the chorus.  I often enjoy merging genres, and this quasi-merger of show tune, pop, and Mariachi created a nice, strange sound that I find myself enjoying, and I’ve only heard it once so far.  Of course it helps that I rather enjoy the occasional funny song.  Well done, Train, you’ve risen above your mediocrity for this song, despite maintaining what appears to be a lazy approach to music creation.  Please note, as a person who is incapable of humming in tune, let alone creating music, I am not one to judge.  But I will anyway.

(Later that day…)

In a flash of glorious, wondrous, and grossly exaggerated epiphany-imbued brilliance, I suddenly understood where the band name Train must have come from!  It very obviously refers to their sometimes-used style of music writing.  The lists of things are but a train of thought!  Get it?  Train of thought…Train…Get it???  I know, I’m a genius.  Thank you for your kind applause.

I feel that I should defend Train.  I have never purchased their music except for “50 Ways to Say Goodbye” and I think I might have purchased “Calling All Angels” at some point.  Thus, I have never purchased nor heard their non-radio songs.  It is therefore very possible that what doesn’t make it onto the radio could be better-than-mediocre.  I have noticed that some non-radio and otherwise less popular songs of other artists are billions of times better than some of the most popular and radio-friendly songs.  For example, Kelly Clarkson’s “Addicted” is vastly better than her “Stronger,” though I do enjoy “Stronger” as well.  Therefore, there does exist the possibility that while Train and perhaps other mediocre bands and singers are great at appealing to popular tastes in mediocrity, they might in fact be great composers and songwriters with depth beyond their shallow puddles of popular music.  Perhaps the real question is: why do popular audiences prefer so much mediocrity?

Music through the Ages

I don't understand the extent of Taylor Swift's success. She seems like a nice girl, she's pretty and blonde, she's been writing her own music since she was a teenager, and she obviously has some talent. The problem is, I'm not under-exaggerating the latter quality. It's just some talent; her voice is only ok, her guitarring seems good, and her songwriting is decent. But there's so much monotony in her melodies, and there's so much of a formula that she seems to follow. I'm not even complaining about her excessive use of fairy tale-like plots. I will say that I think she might beimproving and growing as an artist with more experience that she is having as a person and as an artist, so perhaps she will eventually manifest or at least approach the level of talent people think she has now.

I'm also baffled by the Bieber and his enormous success. Perhaps the arrogant, not-so-talented Justin Bieber will find his way into a blog posting of his own. Nah, I think I covered everything about him. I will only add that I saw some clear evidence of the far less than brilliant nature of his talent in an interview he had with Access Hollywood Live, where he was asked about Christina Aguilera’s botching of the National Anthem. He explained that since he is Canadian, he doesn’t know the American anthem too well, which I think is understandable, given his youth, though if he is going to continue to be famous here in America, he might want to learn it. Anyhoo, he then proceeded to sing the Canadian anthem in both English and French, and well, he sounded extremely mediocre – so mediocre, in fact, that there is no way he would get through the first round of American Idol auditions with that singing. When great singers with enormous talent sing impromptuly (hahaha, that’s not a word, but that never stopped me before), such as Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, and Steven Tyler, beautiful and flawless singing comes out of them. Bieber’s lack of brilliance in his impromptu (I wish there was another word for that, I’m sick of it already) renditions elucidate the mediocrity of his talent. Also, that one song I keep hearing (“Baby”) sounds like something I could’ve written with my black hole of talent, and he doesn’t sound so great there either. (In that song’s defense, I’ve heard the chorus about three gazillion times, but I’ve only heard the actual song once or twice.)

I don't dislike all of today's music; rather I enjoy a lot of it from various genres. However, it seems that the things that seem to gain the most popularity are the things that I guess I'm just too old to get. Or maybe it’s just not my taste.

After speaking about this with my sister, I have learned that I am, in fact, old. She pointed out that the music industry markets the Taylor Swifts and Justin Biebers of the world specifically to the young’uns, just as they marketed Britney Spears and the like to the young’uns of the late ‘90s, and the Debbie Gibsons and Tiffanys and the like to my generation in our youth. It seems this breed of pop music artists are created specifically for the young demographic, such that each generation of tweens will always enjoy the music marketed to them. They love and obsess over the music when it’s fresh, and think fondly and nostalgically when they grow up and the teen idol has either grown with the times and become integrated in the more general pop music or has lost all popularity except with that one special cohort.

The originally tween idol music is so specifically directed at the youth that most older teens and adults simply hate it and can’t comprehend the popularity of such silly sounds. My sister was absolutely right about this, for as she spoke of the marketing only to the targeted demographic, I remembered that my mother who generally has good taste in music has always found Debbie Gibson to be squeaky, and while I hear what she means, I love her 80’s music and I always have. To confirm, I asked my mother what she thinks of Debbie Gibson and Tiffany, and she reacted with equal disgust towards each, exclaiming that she hates their music and always has.

This phenomenon is rather interesting, especially if you consider the reaction of later teens to the music directed at tweens. Based on my own experience, I think older teens might fall in the middle of this spectrum of emotion toward tween music. When Britney Spears first came into my consciousness, I liked her music; I didn’t hate it and I didn’t obsess over it. I still like her music, and yes, I still don’t love or hate it. I had a similar reaction to Christina, however, she musically matured better than Britney did, or perhaps her talents exceed those of Britney, because I grew to love Christina as she matured and the beauty of her voce shined through and rose above the teeny-pop. My mother once again confirms this, in that she hated Christina and Britney, still hates Britney, but now loves Christina.

Musical Clone Machine

]I've been listening to song samples on Amazon, and I find myself thinking that some of these albums are kind of nice, but I feel like I've already heard them by other, better artists.

For example, I heard samples of a Bullet for My Valentine CD, and it does that nice thing where they mix rock screaming with melodic elements, but Red, Skillet, Three Days Grace, and obviously Linkin Park who (in my opinion) perfected it, all do it better, so why should I buy this lesser though similar music?

I listened to samples of something else – I can't even remember what – and it sounds like yet another Blink-182, Sum 41, and/or Offspring crappy clone. Why can't they be more original?

I realize I'm supplying multiple examples of similar things that are good, so maybe it's just that some artists are able to stay within the line of being inspired by something to create something that's different enough so that you can still uniquely identify them, and others are leaping over that line and just making crappy copies of things. I think some of the "crappy" ones might actually be decent copies, but they're just not good enough; perhaps "mediocre" would be a more fair word.

Turn Down That Incessant Quiet Music!

I’m officially an old lady since I turned 30 almost a year ago, and I can therefore say that I don’t get the music these kids are listening to these days.

The not-so-good music these days that these kids today like seems to involve a folksy quality that I find boring. It doesn’t all suck entirely, but the hype surrounding how allegedly great some of these artists are is entirely unwarranted. A lot of this stuff that they love so much, like John Mayer, Jack Johnson, and a few years ago those Moldy Peaches from the movie I didn't see (Juno) and probably other stuff I can't think of right now, seems to lack the passion, the enthusiasm, the emotion, and the musickiness that I personally love in music. What do I mean by “musickiness”? I don’t know, that’s why I made up a word. It's a lot of dull, quiet, singing, perhaps with some potentially profound lyrics, which I only say because I vaguely remember hearing some lyrics that sounded pretty good in the midst of some painfully boring music. I have no problem with quiet, but I do have a problem with nearly monotonous or otherwise repetitive music. Perhaps I'm being too harsh.

I don’t hate music by any means; in fact, I love it and can’t live without it. Really, I think my brain would revolt if I didn’t feed it music through my ears, or “listening holes,” as we called them in my day. Please note, I have stolen that construction from Grandpa Simpson on The Simpsons (or maybe I was just inspired by him).

Some of the old lady music that I do enjoy includes Metallica, Beethoven, Evanescence, and Shinedown. I also like a lot of present day music, such as Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood, Three Days Grace, and Green Day (are any of those still present-day?). I also like that Christina Peri song ( “Jar of Hearts” ), and not just because she is the sister of a guy from Shinedown. It’s funny to hear about the guy who goes around collecting a jar o’ farts. Hahahahaha, but seriously, I do really like the line “You’re gonna catch a cold/From the ice inside your soul.” It’s simultaneously simple, profound, and cute. This song nicely demonstrates that quiet music and good lyrics can exist within the realm of good music that involves enthusiasm, emotion, and passion conveyed by a great voice, great song-writing, and tremendous talent.

UPDATE July 19, 2011

Well, it seems that Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee reads my blog and was influenced by it. I say this because that is the only plausible explanation for her stating that music of late has been lacking in terms of rock. Anyway, I’m glad my blog (or perhaps not my blog) has compelled her to bring more rock back to help fill the quiet void.

Mind Console

It’s interesting how something can pop into your head at the exact moment that you need it. This happened to me twice that I can think of, though I’m sure it happens more often than that. Both times, it was the most perfectly relevant line from two songs that popped into my head at just the right moment to provide comfort in difficult situations.
First, about one or two years ago, I and someone else were struggling with a difficult situation. At the most difficult and stressful time, Seether began to sing in my head, “We’ll rise above this.” It was just the chorus from "Rise Above This," just the one line, and it was all that I and the other person (whom I told of course) needed to hear. It helped reduce some of the stress, allowing us to, in fact, rise above the struggle.

Just the other day, I was filled with anxiety about something. Kelly Clarkson kindly snag in my brain, “I wish I could say to you, ‘It’s gonna be all right”” from “Save You.” Again, it was just the one line, and it was just what I needed to hear. I felt comforted, knowing that it would be all right, and the anxiety dissipated.

It seems the comfort the music and lyrics provide is far more profound when the music pops into your head subconsciously than it does when one consciously invokes the music. It is as if the brain knows what it needs and conjures it, but if one has to think of something comforting, then perhaps it isn’t what the brain truly needed. That is not to say that thinking of something soothing won’t comfort a person, but it is to say that there might be a stronger effect when it happens spontaneously or without conscious effort or thought. Perhaps it is the surprise of the perfect fit of the lyrics to the situation that happens without any effort, and perhaps the effect is the same as it would be if one happened to hear the song or the lyric on the radio at just the right moment. Perhaps it is simply the recognition that something perfect happened as if by coincidence, and therefore, as if by magic.

The brain is truly amazing. Along with all the other amazing things it does, it generates memories of consoling lyrics from songs that it knows, at the moment when it needs the comfort that the words provide. The brain is truly awesome, as well as like totally awesome.