The Problem With Modern Pop Music

Modern pop music is inevitably inescapable. It is quite literally everywhere: on the radio, on television, and on social media. It seems to be the main focus in today’s society. Now that technology is more accessible than ever, people have access to anything at their fingertips, especially music platforms. For the mere fact that someone can make a mediocre rap song in FL Studio (which is a computer recording program) and put it on Soundcloud, for the whole world to hear, does not mean that they should. Decreases in originality, experimentation, and quality in modern pop music have caused the music industry to decline massively. Music is just not how it used to be compared to the music from the 1980’s era with the New Wave movement. Listeners in the current day are too blinded by what is happening now rather than looking back at earlier decades to see that New Wave music is superior to modern pop music.

A major quality that musicians lack these days is originality. Record labels and music industry CEO’s seem to care solely about profits rather than making an actual good song that contains original characteristics, but instead we are given cookie-cutter songs that all sound the same. This throws the essential element of being a good artist right in the trash. As much as I love going to the mall, I absolutely despise the music being played in the stores, which usually consists of the same pop stars with their cookie-cutter melodies consisting of trap beats, auto tuned voices, and ear-piercing vocal runs. I always wonder if the same song has been playing for the past twenty minutes or if they all just sound the same. There is absolutely no diversity in today’s music at all simply because the record labels force feed this to the general consumer, who is easily brainwashed into being taught what to like and will end up wanting to listen to rather than expanding their horizons. Back in the New Wave era, experimentation was considered cutting-edge. No two bands sounded alike. Musicians tried new ways to record and found new ways to make unique beats and melodies. Back then, in order to get a number one song on the charts, you had to take risks. Some of the risks involved making an original track which consists of experimental instruments, avant-garde lyrics, and themes which is lacking in today’s era. With the use of computer programs in the modern-day era of music, experimentation ceases to exist amongst today's artists. This causes the songs to all sound the same. Artists are not taking risks and trying something new which is the key goal to success to be a true artist, or at least it used to be.  

Originality and experimentation are the two things that go hand in hand and work together to make a great song which is something I rarely hear these days when the radio is on. The beats all sound the same, the vocals sound the same, and there is not much distinction in the melodies. Some things the artists could do to at least switch it up is too add more instruments rather than the typical guitar, bass, drums, and synthesizer, and possibly use different time signatures. Since a lot of pop music is produced with electronic instruments and computers, they could at the very least change the keyboards up by using more unique sounds with more dimension. Back in the 80’s, musicians often made their own sounds with the infinite amount of ways you can alter the sounds of the synth, creating unique and original sounds. For example, in Depeche Mode’s album, Construction Time Again, the band experimented with obscure objects for samples such as toy instruments and metal pipes. They would record the sounds these objects made and would use them in their songs to create a truly unique album from start to finish. “Martin would turn up with some toy or some other weird instrument and we just started recording it, sampling it, doing [stuff] with it.” (Blanning, Miller). Another thing that is very popular in today’s era of pop music is rap and trap beats, which is so overused that I do not know how the average listener is not sick of it by now. I understand that the vast majority of listeners take a liking to these things about the songs, but the general population is too surrounded and brainwashed by the radio and pop culture to know anything other than these common themes. Everyone is too kept inside their comfort zone. I feel that a lot of modern pop stars and record labels are too scared to experiment because they want to stay at the top to get a lot of money and changing things up could possibly make them lose a fraction of their audience and paycheck. Instead of focusing on what record labels want, musicians should focus on what they want which is why I think that the music industry now is so artificial.

Lastly, the overall quality of modern pop music is deteriorating as each year passes. This was proven through an experiment by a group of researchers who accumulated about 500,000 songs spanning over six decades and measured specific characteristics of each song and how these characteristics changed over the years and they came back with some surprising results. “What the researchers uncovered was that these tonal qualities have become more homogenized as time goes by, meaning that today's music contains less musical information and is less distinguishable. In short, all music is starting to sound the same” (“Science Just Proved Pop Music Is Actually Getting Worse so Parents Everywhere Can Say ‘Told You...”). The music being produced nowadays just sounds so artificial especially with autotune becoming the norm, often being used in the production of every song. There are countless videos online exposing a lot of so-called artists who cannot sing very well, and you are often left disappointed because everything you thought you knew was a lie. Also, many pop stars in today’s era do not even write or compose their own songs. They have other people write for them. Rhianna could be one example out of many others; she has hit number one on the charts multiple times and listeners can often relate to the lyrics she sings, but what many people do not know is that they were written by other people and not herself. Many other pop singers that you often hear about on the daily such as Kesha, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, and Adele do not write their own lyrics, they purchase them from songwriters, which is honestly quite depressing. New Wave artists always wrote all their songs themselves because they were not fake artists; many preferring to not be on the radio at all if they did not have a choice in what they sounded like. New Wave artists actually had talent to write their own songs including lyrics and instrumentals, unlike the many pop and rap stars who become famous over-night in our era.  

New Wave is better than today’s era modern pop for numerous reasons and is way better in the areas that deal with originality, creativity, and quality. New Wave is and always will be real and raw compared to today’s modern pop that is artificial and fabricated. It is and has been scientifically proven that music, especially music associated with today’s pop culture, is declining in quality with each passing decade. Pretty soon in a not so distant future, most music is going to sound the same because record labels and pop singers are too afraid and/ or lack creativity to step out of their comfort zone.

Works Cited

(“Science Just Proved Pop Music Is Actually Getting Worse so Parents Everywhere Can Say ‘Told You...” Playback.fm, playback.fm/blog/science-proved-music-getting-worse.)

Blanning, Lisa. “‘It's Almost Too Personal’: Daniel Miller Contemplates the Depeche Mode Catalogue – Telekom Electronic Beats.” Telekom Electronic Beats, 15 June 2018, www.electronicbeats.net/daniel-miller-depeche-mode-catalogue/.

History

Picture a familiar scenario where you’re in the car and the radio is on. It mainly only exists to you as background noise, listening to what feels like practically nothing circulating one after the other and you soon begin to ignore it. Suddenly, you snap out of a trance the second you hear a familiar beat. It’s the same popular chord progression that you’ve spent years growing up to. It seems as if it follows you wherever you go- the mall, grocery stores, events, everywhere. Your parents seem to catch on as well and in a way, they give off some second-hand nostalgia as you remember ‘oh yeah, this song was big in the 80’s’. It may not become any more than just a thought in the back of your head as it becomes of little importance when the song fades away and the next one replaces it. What doesn’t come to mind is the importance of its time period, you never really stop to think that there is much more behind this one-hit-wonder and that it probably belongs to a genre called New Wave, but not many people know what it's all about.  

New Wave started as a more commercialized version of punk. Punk in the mid-70's gained a terrible and violent reputation with political views expressed by the Sex Pistols, scaring nations such as the U.S. and U.K. with ideas of anarchy and rebellion as they were immediately shunned away from mainstream media. New Wave also shared a rebellious attitude at the time but approached it with a more radio-friendly sound that could be shared on a more accessible platform. After the fall of the punk movement in the late 70’s, music sprouting from that area went in one of two directions: Post-Punk and New Wave. Post-Punk bands like Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees experimented more with a darker alternative sound, while New Wave went on the opposite side of the spectrum and looked back to 60’s pop and fashion for influence.  

The New Wave philosophy is that literally anyone can start a band. When you listen to New Wave music it sounds like the 80’s, but back then, it sounded like the future. People in the New Wave scene were always looking to the future, being modern was a main priority. Synthesizers became more accessible to teenagers at this time since they were much cheaper than other instruments such as drums and guitars, so keyboards and drum machines were often a better choice. Bands such as Depeche Mode and The Human League strictly used electronic instruments while other bands like Squeeze and New Order Used both. A lot of bands that started in the late 70’s started with acoustic instruments then evolved their sound by adding synthesizers just like the Talking Heads. Fashion was also a very big element in the New Wave scene, many fashion-conscious bands such as Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet emerged along with the New Romantics in the early 80’s, dramatically exaggerating their styles. Adam and the Ants is also a prime example of how theatrical fashion got.

This era was a time for experimenting- with the arrival of MTV, music videos became very popular and so did the need for being different. Many avant-garde bands such as Kraftwerk emerged, with their robotic image and strange music videos setting the foundation for electronic music across the world. Another very popular show that featured new bands was a British television show called Top of the Pops that featured the most popular songs on the charts with televised performances. If you were on Top of the Pops, it was considered that you had “made it” in the music industry. The New Wave scene was mainly based in England since a majority of the bands came from there, but it did gain some recognition in America and other countries as well. British media such as Smash Hits magazines were a big thing back then as well, offering interviews and content of everyone’s favorite bands so many large fanbases formed, following us into our time.

Much like myself, many people have never been able to experience the 1980’s but that doesn’t stop the newer generation from becoming curious and eventually obsessed with the era. Vintage and retro things have been becoming quite trendy within the last few years and many teenagers have been becoming interested in what their parent’s teenaged years were like. The 80’s will always be iconic and will always be remembered whether you were lucky enough to live through it or not.

Japan, my third favorite band-- started off as glam rock but smoothly transitioned into the new wave trend in the early 80's

Joy Division Vs. New Order

The 70’s and 80’s are two very divergent topics when it comes to music but no matter what it is, things build onto each other like building blocks, much like how the 70’s set down the foundation for mainstream music for the 80’s with the introduction of synthesizers. Electronic instruments became more and more relevant with each passing year of the dying era of rock n’ roll, as the term “punk is dead” came into place and a bridge between two eras was built once New Wave came into the equation. This brought the death of bands as well as the birth of many new ones, such as Joy Division did to New Order. With the unfortunate death of a lead singer, three remaining band members were left abandoned with two choices: to give up, or to carry on. Thus, New Order was born. Although the two were composed of the same members, era can have a big impact on the way music is made as well as how the styles changed.

In the industrial city of Manchester, two young men by the names Benard Sumner and Peter hook became overwhelmed with inspiration after attending a Sex Pistols concert in 1977, deciding that they should make a band of their own. With many friends and members coming and going, the official line up of Joy Division consisted of Benard Sumner on guitar, Peter Hook on bass, Stephen Morris on drums, and the magnificent ticking time bomb and star of the show on vocals, Ian Curtis. Ian Curtis was a distraught individual that carried a lot of baggage. He struggled with depression and epilepsy, often suffering from seizures both on and off stage, as well as the burden of a failing marriage between him and his wife Debora Curtis. On the evening of May 18, 1980, Ian Curtis was found dead by self-inflicted hanging in his kitchen. Before this incident, the band all agreed that they would break up if any of the members left, so Joy Division soon ceased to exist. After this tragedy, New Order was born. Sumner became the official vocalist with Morris and Hook keeping their roles of drums and bass, as well as a new addition to the band, Gillian Guilbert, who held the roles of playing guitar and keyboards. New Order became very successful and is still a surviving band to this day.

Era is probably the main factor that makes the two so different from each other. Although New Order used them more, Joy Division started using synthesizers near ‘78 to ‘79 much like the rest of the world when synthesizers became more popular near the late 70’s. Synthesizers started to become the next big thing once they started being manufactured in a smaller and more compact size, which made them cheaper and more affordable, especially to teenagers and young adults. Since Joy Division did not use them very much, New Order’s sound became a lot more electronic. In addition to New Order, many other bands also started replacing acoustic drums with electric drum machines to get a tighter sound. Another reason drum machines became used more often is because not many people knew how to play or lacked the amount of members to have someone play on a real drum kit, so this problem was easily solved with a press of a button. This caused New Order’s sound to become much higher in quality than Joy Division, which in comparison was much more lo-fi when producing in the studio.

Genre also shifted from more alternative post-punk to upbeat synth pop as the 80’s came around, making styles go through dramatic changes as we strayed further and further from the punk movement. Joy Division is usually seen as more gothic, some believing that they are the ones who set down the foundation for the goth music scene, but “goth” is the last thing that comes to mind when you think of New Order, so what changed? Perhaps Ian Curtis was the main influence on their sound with all the emotional burdens that he carried throughout his career. The remaining members were devastated but not much of this tragedy effected their music very much. The two bands both wrote moody sounding songs but there are more themes of romance when it comes to New Order, much like a lot of other New Wave bands. They have written many pop sounding love songs such as their hit track “Bizarre Love Triangle”. Meanwhile, Joy Division’s lyrics were more abstract and described scenes. Their most popular track, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, stands as an anti-love song, the song referring to his failing marriage with his wife, leaving us feeling cold and melancholy while New Order does the opposite.  

Joy Division and New Order became the bride between two worlds, transitioning music from rock to pop with many new and exciting changes such as the death of punk and the introduction of synthesizers. Environment can have a huge effect on music, whether it be the people you associate with or the era you happen to be existing in, many things can change. Change is not always bad, many wonderful things can come out of bad situations, such as the unfortunate and tragic suicide of Ian Curtis and the success of New Order. However, Joy Division was never completely forgotten after their short-lived career and ended up becoming one of the most iconic post-punk bands of all time.  

Duran Duran, my second favorite band -- very popular and influential with the new romantic movement. Every teen girl's heart-throb in the 80's.

What Is New Wave?

Teens now-a-days will slap on a New Order shirt and walk around for that “vintage aesthetic” but won’t have a clue who’s playing when ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ comes on in the mall. They probably don’t even know that the song is called Bizarre Love Triangle. To them, it may just be yet another 80’s song that their parents probably danced to back in the day and not think much of it. Instead, they should stop and ask “well, how did I get here?” just like David Byrne did in ‘Once in a Lifetime’. You may be surprised to know that “80’s music” is not a genre and that a good majority of the hits that come on the radio are actually classified as New Wave. It might sound vague, but there is a lot more that goes into it than just hitting number one on the record charts.  

The dictionary term for New Wave can be classified as a new movement or trend that breaks traditional values, which is exactly what it did. Starting as a movement stemming from punk in the late 70’s, New Wave combined both rock and pop which formed a revolutionary sound for decades to come. However, being considered as New Wave does strictly refer to that era, considering that was the new thing to do back then. Punk was too harsh for the radio and was often censored from mainstream media. This caused a new generation of a more radio-friendly type of music to form that was influenced by punk, which eventually turned into a full-blown movement and would soon become known as the New Wave.  

New Wave can be considered as a spectrum from rock to electronic, some bands using more electronic instruments than others and some sounding more alternative and a lot of bands standing in between, but the most prominent feature in almost every New Wave band is the incorporation of the synthesizer. The main value to most New Wave bands is the quality of sounding futuristic, this was able to be achieved with the endless amounts of sounds you can create with a synthesizer. Another thing many bands valued was the importance of individuality and creativity. Many strange and avant-garde ideas came out of this, with bands like DEVO and Visage trying new ways to dress and do makeup. This also came in while composing new songs, newer and unusual instruments became more popular such as the oboe and melodica in Depeche Mode’s ‘Everything Counts’, mixing both traditional instruments with synth-pop to get a unique sound. They also switched up the way they created their melodies and percussion by going out and banging on metal pipes and throwing rocks onto pieces of metal then recording it to get one-of-a-kind samples for their songs.  

Although many New Wave bands produced many iconic hits of the 80’s, not every popular band from the 80’s are New Wave. Madonna and Michael Jackson are not considered New Wave because they were simply not part of the movement and mainly focuses on straight pop. There is also not much uniqueness when it comes to straight up pop from that era, mainly consisting of simple beats and melodies rather than expanding their horizons much like New Wave did. Experimentation is a key word when it comes to New Wave.

New Wave can be a difficult concept to understand since it does not follow specific guidelines, but it is not completely an abstract concept. With many elements such as era, instruments, and fashion becoming prominent features in the genre, it can give us a good idea on what New Wave is all about.

My favorite band, Depeche Mode -- one of the most iconic new wave/ synth pop bands

About

This blog is focused on late 70’s and early 80’s New Wave music for those who are music lovers and are interested in learning more about the history and the many different bands that emerged from this time, as well as people who are already familiar with the genre and want to learn more about the topic.

There are many bands that emerged from this time period that have lived on to be the foundation of influence for many other bands past their time. After the punk movement in the late 70’s, many bands formed that took on a more gothic approach, as well as being introduced to the power of technology which is when synthesizers became very popular. The combination of alternative and electronic pop music sprouted a “new wave” of bands that were influenced by punk and disco music to create this rock-pop hybrid.  

The 80’s is an iconic time period and almost everyone can express some sort of liking for it, but there are some people who go above and beyond with their interest, so I invite anyone who is looking into learning and getting into new wave music, or people who are already familiar and would like to discuss the topic further.

The purpose for this blog is to investigate the history of new wave and the many major bands that sprouted from it. Many major bands will be covered such as Duran Duran, Gary Numan, Talking Heads, and many others. I would also like to cover many iconic albums and discuss why they have such an influence (such as Gary Numan’s Pleasure Principal), maybe set up a few playlists, and just unveil the history of the bands.

The 80's have been a major part of my life ever since I could remember. being a teenager at the time, my mother grew up around it so as she got older, she would always put it on so I ended up growing up around it as well. Eventually, I built onto my knowledge to the point where it was past hers, really being fascinated by the time in general. For me, it isn't just a hobby but a lifestyle- I try to incorporate many things in my life to be surrounded by the era, but music is a major part of it. I collect records, cassettes, vintage magazines that feature the "big thing" at the time, so I really try to submerge myself in it all. I can’t actually go back in time and live it like I try to now, but this blog will definitely spark some nostalgia within you, so welcome!