SUMMATIVE: Pop Music - Deception or Creativity?
Let me disclose to you a familiar scenario: I’m riding in the car. I disrupt the silence with the press of a button. I turn the dial to a radio station I recognize and set the volume so the music melds with the whooshing background car noises, because I don’t think I would be able to bear hearing techno-beat-dropping-dance-pop songs at full volume without brain cells draining out of my ears.
I’ve always wondered; why don’t I like what I’m hearing on the radio? Am I the only one who doesn’t like “Cake by The Ocean” by DNCE? It has a catchy beat, sure. Why do I roll my eyes whenever I hear “I Can’t Feel My Face” by The Weeknd? Is “Sorry” by Justin Bieber simply overplayed?
Here’s my theory: There is a secret scientific formula that defines the music taste of the masses, and we’re all money-surrendering victims, whether we choose to accept it or not. Does a song with a predictable format betray the listeners with easily-produced monotony, or is it an art form in itself? Where is the line between deception and creativity?
Aspects of pop music including auto-tune, lyrical content, familiarity, patterning, and celebrity status determine the commercial success of a hit. I wish music could be revived as a form of artistic expression, rather than a mere feature of the money-sucking machine the music industry has become.
Auto-tune is a mechanism that corrects a singer’s pitch in studio recordings to avoid re-recording a segment of a song repeatedly. To me, listening to a pop music radio station is like playing a game of “Spot-the-auto-tune.” Cher’s “Believe” single was the first song to ever use auto-tune correction. Since its release, the music industry has undergone drastic changes. Auto-tune is applied in excess on almost every hit pop song, whether it is used to restore a missed piano note, or to correct the pitch of an entire song.[1]
Before inventing auto-tune, Andy Hildebrand, who was a research scientist in the oil industry, developed a software to process seismic reflections to estimate and assess the properties of the underground. His invention was a vital tool for finding oil, but he later realized that the same technology could be used to correct pitch. In 2004, Hildebrand said “The singer’s first take is often their best, it’s full of vitality and emotion […] (after a few takes) the singer’s worried about pitch and has to focus on the intonation, and the vitality and emotion are gone from their performance.” Hildebrand believes that auto-tune allows singers to revise their first take, which holds the most emotion.[2] In my opinion, it is pointless to fix a singer’s voice with auto-tune because, contrary to Hildebrand’s intentions, it actually strips away their authentic emotion during the first take. The true feelings they’re trying to preserve are disguised by an emotionless, artificial tool.
Do you know Taylor Swift? Katy Perry? How about Britney Spears? I recognize those names. How about Max Martin? Chances are, you don’t know Max Martin like you know the dazzling, picture-perfect daily life of Ariana Grande. Truth is, Max Martin is the secret mastermind behind the lyrics of songs by each of the artists mentioned above. Max Martin, real name Karl Martin Sandberg, has written 21 No. 1 Billboard hits, which is five fewer than John Lennon and eleven short of Paul McCartney. While Lennon and McCartney are considered world-renowned geniuses, few have heard of Max Martin and his outstanding contribution to the music industry.[3] Martin is responsible for hits such as “Problem” by Ariana Grande, “Raise Your Glass” by P!nk, “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift, and “In The Night” by The Weeknd, to name a few from his extensive list of pop masterpieces.[4]
While there is a multitude of celebrities floating around in the pop-culture-sphere, there are only about three main lyricists who generate the hits. Why is the world dismayed when Justin Bieber prohibits selfies with his fans?[5] Why is it so important to know Blake Shelton’s marital status? The music industry is undeniably centred on celebrities’ names, faces, and actions, rather than the quality and message of the music, or who even wrote the song.
In fact, the lyrical content of most pop songs are plainly inappropriate and shouldn’t be publically exploited on the radio or music streaming websites for the youth to absorb. Modern day pop songs are usually limited topics such as sex, parties, drugs/alcohol, and relationships/breakups. I haven’t heard a single Taylor Swift song that isn’t about a breakup, hookup, or some sort of personal attack against her pride. Sure, Taylor Swift, maybe your haters and exes would be better off dancing to your “sick beat”, but that might be easier to believe if you created the beat yourself.[6]
Believe it or not, there is a formula that determines a hit. Humans are wired to search for familiarity in music, so producing a pop song that sounds exactly like last week’s No. 1 single will earn a song mass credibility. Because familiar sounds are comfortable to listeners, the “big three” labels, (Warner, Universal and Sony), are able to predict, spit out and commercialize new hits at a rapid rate.[7]
Scientists at the University of Bristol have developed a software that can supposedly predict the popularity potential of a song. The program assesses 23 separate qualities of the song, including loudness, danceability, and harmonic simplicity. The software uses information from the Top 40 charts from the past 50 years. Scientists say that it estimates hits with approximately 60% accuracy. I believe that humans are perpetuating the mundane nature of sequential pop hits in this century by becoming zombies of the radio and other media, and now there is software for proof.[8]
We are all slaves of the pop industry, attuned to same-sounding synthesizers and meaningless lyrics. Auto-tune strips away the authenticity of a singer’s voice and fails to fulfill its purpose of retaining emotion. There are few writers who make the hits, and none of them are the celebrities you know and love, but rather, a few select lyricists. Even created in this format, most lyrics of pop songs are heartless and unintelligent. Pop hits are similarly constructed with formulas and patterns, and we are oblivious to the reality of their predictability as we mindlessly dance along. The music industry is an ever-growing, unstoppable power, and humans are blindly marching to the beat drops.
[1] http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-history-of-auto-tune-178567
[2] http://www.businessinsider.com/auto-tune-developed-by-oil-engineer-2014-7
[3] http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/blank-space-what-kind-of-genius-is-max-martin
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Songs_written_by_Max_Martin
[5] http://www.celebrity-gossip.net/justin-bieber
[6] http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/taylorswift/shakeitoff.html
[7] https://mic.com/articles/104764/the-music-industry-is-less-of-a-democracy-than-ever#.YSd25ivYT
[8] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-16218284