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.