Questioning the Quality of Popular Music

Album sales and Billboard top 100 lists don't seem to take into account the artistry behind the music, whether it be writing the lyrics themselves, composing the music with instruments or producing music with a purpose grander than breaking a sweat on the dance floor--Popular music has lost it's purpose!

--
This weeks Hot 100 on the Billboard Charts consists of Adele's Rolling in the Deep at number one, followed by the creative wits of Katy Perry with E.T. at number two; and then it all gets questionable to say the least, with Pitbull’s Give Me Everything at number three and a stream of auto-tuned, synthesized, instrument and good lyric lacking “club favorites” including my favorite, ever so talented (heavy on the sarcasm), Britney Spears with Till the World Ends.

The Hot 100 on the Billboard Charts ranks 3-7 week of June 4th, 2011
Bruno Mars being the only artist to play an instrument 

This top-ten list, amongst many others in the industry, genuinely makes me question the current state of our cultures musical interests and the ranking systems that conjure up such absurd top-ten lists. The popularity of music is a never-ending argument on what “good music” really is, but I think it’s time for us to really question the talent of the artists getting the bulk of the spotlight.

First, I’d like to note the headline-hogging characteristic of the show Glee, that has accumulated a myriad of fans, not to mention raking in the cash on iTunes. ABC News notes, "Glee's popularity has also sent it straight to the top of the music charts -- the three cast albums are dominating Apple's iTunes album sales." Granted the original artists see some of the proceeds and the show has had a career boosting impact on such artists as Hey Monday and Gwyneth Paltrow, yet the glory remains in the hands of actors that can sing but don’t actually write or compose any of the music. The show may be funny and some of the tracks may be worth a listen, but for them to outsell the original musicians take on their own song seems downright absurd.

       vs. 
               Candles by the cast of Glee                           Candles by Hey Monday  (Original version)

Glee vs. Hey Monday, you be the judge of the better version!

Secondly, I’d like to propose a battle of the rap stars. In 2011, who would you say has the biggest name in hip-hop music? If I were to answer that question, the first name that comes to mind is Drake. Granted, after taking a listen through his entire collection there are intermittent quality tracks; on the other hand, none of those tracks have made him any money. Again we are faced with the debate that popular music isn’t derived from the quality of the song—quality being good lyrics (preferably written by the artist) that serve some sort of thought provoking purpose…not just something that rings well through the streets of Vegas.

Drake photo: theurbandaily.com, Lupe Fiasco photo: beatboxingmayhem.com

Drake’s first solo album Thank Me Later debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold nearly 500,000 copies its first week; yet it received an average of 75 out of 100 by Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating from mainstream critics. A 75 rating declares a generally positive review and could be considered “not too shabby” when you look at Drake’s overwhelming sales numbers; However, Lupe Fiasco’s debut album Food & Liquor received an average of 83 by Metacritic, and was universally acclaimed for its “lyrical prowess,” according to Chris Nixon with The Union Tribune. Nixon goes on to note that Lupe Fiasco’s appeal is from his lyrical content, even dubbing Food & Liquor as a “modern prayer.” That being said, Food & Liquor only debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200, compared to Drake’s top spot, and sold a mere 81,000 copies.

Don’t get me wrong, I like to “get down” at the club just as much as the next, But record sales and top-ten lists seem to be forgetting to tally in the actual artistic talent of the musician. What happened to the times when artists like The Beatles hogged the Billboard Charts, not Britney and her fellow puppets of the music industry?

Tweet

An American Idol's Tale--Based on Hometown, Age and Gender That is

With American Idol’s season 10 finale just around the bend, we must wonder if the numbers add up in proclaiming the true talent in American vocalists.

--

Year after year controversy spans the headlines with the closing of each American Idol season. Are the competition winners actually the best of the bunch, or are their chances for "Idol" victory higher based on their hometown, age and gender?

According to Kevin Downey with MSNBC, American Idol has developed a Southern accent proven strong when Arkansas’ Kris Allen ousted the season favorite and California native Adam Lambert, in season 8. Downey notes, “Six of the eight “Idol” winners have been from the South, including Kelly Clarkson (Texas) and Carrie Underwood (Oklahoma).”

American Idol Statistics Infographic (www.infographicsshowcase.com)
Only Jordin Sparks (AZ) and Lee DeWyze (IL) aren't from the South

The most controversial departure in this year’s season 10 of American Idol has proven to be forth runner up James Durbin from Santa Cruz, California, that Reuters declared “as a sure bet for going all the way to the finals, [but] got the least number of votes despite universal praise from the judges during the week of inspirational songs.” Did Durbin’s departure weigh on the fact that we’ve seen 15 California native finalists but not a single victor to the “Idol” thrown?

Idol Infographic by College Life
Powered by www.classesandcareers.com 

Furthermore, Idol success seems to be greatly defined by the younger generation. According to College Life, one third of American Idol Finalists are in their early 20’s, with the youngest winner Jordin Sparks, who was 17 at the time, and the current finalists being Scotty McCreery who’s 17 from Garner, North Carolina and Lauren Alaina who’s 16 from Rossville, Georgia. Is it a coincidence that the season 10 finale is a head-to-head battle between a southern belle (Alaina) and a Southern gentleman (McCreery) who are also two of the youngest in this year’s competition?

According to the Los Angeles Times, the predominance of male success over the years has even moved Idol producers to reevaluate the voting system to accommodate the heavy female viewership that tends to vote more for male contestants. Randy Jackson, the only original judge still standing, stated “there’s a lot of young girls and young women voting…They really vote more for guys than girls,” even going on to predict two guys in the finale.  Although Jackson’s prediction wasn’t exactly spot on with Lauren Alaina in the final, she and fellow female contestant Haley Reinhart, were the only two girls left standing since early April with the departure of judge favorite Pia Toscano. Also the American Idol finale that raked in the most votes nation wide was the dual of the David’s—David Cook versus David Archuletta, that combined for a total of 97,500,000 votes according to College Life.

Idol Infograph by College Life
6 of 10 finalists shown are male

Overall, as an American Idol viewer, it’s safe to assume the winner will be a boy, aged late teens or early 20’s and most likely from the South. The odds seem to be in Scotty McCreey’s favor this coming Wednesday on Fox, but either way these stats may shed light on premature departures of names like Chris Daughtry (27), Adam Lambert (California) and Jennifer Hudson (female), who all turned out more successful than their fellow Idol contestants that took the crown.

Tweet

Writing is Such a Solitary Act - Ben Gibbard's return to Music

Front man Ben Gibbard's battle with alcoholism kept Death Cab for Cutie out of the studio, but they're back with a sober vocalist and a more positive album: Codes and Keys.
--

Three years ago was the last time we heard the artistry of Death Cab for Cutie with their second major label album and sixth LP release, Narrow Stairs. So where has the band been since the album that hit number one on the Billboard 200?

Photo: musicisentrophy 
Creative Commons License 

Lead singer and creative mastermind of Death Cab for Cutie, Ben Gibbard has since battled and kicked an alcoholism problem. According to an interview with SPIN magazine, Gibbard’s alcohol abuse was largely due to the writing process for Death Cab’s “darkest and most muscular in the band’s discography,” as reviewed by Pitchfork. Gibbard explains, “Writing is such a solitary act. You spend hours alone, only with your thoughts, and you torture yourself. It's a tendency of many writers to temper the self-destructive act of writing with other self-destructive acts. I certainly was one of those people for a long time." According to the interview with SPIN, a weekend in Big Sur, California brought Gibbard’s to the realization that he had fallen to deep in his alcoholism and said, “I have lost my ability to control this.”

Further explained in the Interview, since the weekend in Big Sur, Gibbard’s has picked himself out of the darkness, coining long distance running and his marriage to Zooey Deschanel as “a positive act [that] helps to balance the negative act of being a writer.”

According to the interview with SPIN, getting sober has shown through Gibbard’s more positive writing for Death Cab for Cutie's next album Codes and Keys to release May 31, 2011. Death Cab debuted the album to a home state crowd in Seattle, Washington. The Seattle Times reviewed the hastily arranged and sold out show as a solid two-hour set with few technical difficulties, “but no one cared, because Death Cab is back with new music to love.”

Codes and Keys, as reviewed by SPIN magazine, is jam packed with a newfound confidence and “eager-beaver optimism.” Gibbard’s describes it as the album about having finally escaped “a maze of a thousand rainy days,” and sings of his new bride, Zooey Deschanel as inspiring the lyrics “oh, how I feel alive.”

The Huffington Post gives a glimpse of Death Cab’s video for “Home Is A Fire” off of Codes and Keys, where Death Cab collaborated with street artist Shepard Fairly—“The outcome is a manifest to the natural link between art and music.”



Don't forget to grab a copy of Codes and Keys out May 31st, and check out Death Cab for Cutie this summer in a city near you.

Tweet

In Your Dreams

“It’s a girl” the doctor exclaimed, as his face lit up in joy…

“Finally my own little Stevie.”

Ok, so I ended up not being named Stevie Nicks as my dad intended, but it seems as though he saw the change she would make in this world before most, and wanted to instill that passion in his baby girl.

"In Your Dreams" is Stevie Nicks 7th Studio
Release & hit stores May 3rd
(photo: lonelyfriday.org)

Stevie Nicks, front woman of Fleetwood Mac and perennial solo songstress, is a week into her latest solo album release and is taking the world by storm. She has won over the heart of the difficult interviewer Oprah, not to mention her millions of listeners with “In Your Dreams,” an album that is sure to touch your soul.

This is one of her first ventures in collaborating on many levels with other well renowned artists and notes that “my eyes instantly opened and I understood why Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote together—because each had something the other didn’t have.” This is a lesson not to be taken lightly by the masses by encouraging collaboration and finding the good in our counterparts.

Nicks, now 62, remains vulnerable and nervous on her latest venture. This album is like an open journal entry and encompasses her entire self. She opens up about her struggles with drug addiction, eight years lost to poor doctor’s prescriptions, lost love and overall growth as an artist and a woman. And even though the 140 million record seller is popularly believed to be in no position to be nervous, she exclaims, “it is huge pressure, but I needed to make a record, I needed to write songs and be the artist that I have always told everybody I am…” In my humble opinions, that is a musician of great inspiration; one that creates an art form not driven by the money or fame, but to drive the passions of her listeners, tell her story and hope that it touches someone.

My parents may have compromised in naming me Lindsay (the female spelling) after Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, but from the moment he heard her sing, my daddy knew Stevie Nicks would make a difference—and if you ask me, she has just begun.

“In Your Dreams” hit stores May 3^rd and is only the beginning of a second leg for Nicks. What’s next for Stevie? “I have no idea, but I do know the music will continue.”

Tweet

Story Telling

This post is inspired by The Tide by The Spill Canvas. It came on my pandora station today and I was immediately taken back to my college dorms, where I heard this song for the first time... Where I fell in love. With a boy? no. With music. with The Spill Canvas. With the idea that a song can change your life.

So hit the play button and read on with a soothing soundtrack of an acoustic guitar and the voice of Nick Thomas.

I've said it before, and will probably say it again (after this time too), that music can really say the words we can't muster up the courage to speak out loud. It can feel the emotions racing through our veins and explain where those feelings come from in the first place.

I am not a believer in many things. As a matter of fact, I roam this world with very little belief in myself, let alone other people, a higher power, human nature, or even my car to get me from point A to point B. What I can honestly say is that I believe in music. Call it my religion, with every song as a different story to tell, sermon to follow or secret to reveal. All the feelings that encompass my tangled heart are expressed in the lyrics and melodies from other people that have felt the same way, or understand the fact that not every tortured soul can be explained in our own voice.

With that being said, this piece is to inspire you to find the song, the artist, or the album that had an impact on your life. You know, the type of song or artist that no matter how many years later, or how many times you’ve heard it, you remember the day—where you were, the smell in the air, the reason you heard the song in the first place.

There’s really nothing like a song or a band that can make you reminisce so vividly of a time and place that profoundly impacted your life. A time when you were free of worry or strife, when the music was more important than homework or bills—a time when you were happy!

I couldn’t possibly narrow my list into one specific song or artist, as I have had the kind of life that is soundtracked by so many different emotions. Like Blink 182’s Adam’s Song, is both one of the saddest and happiest tracks to this day based on the loss of a friend and a lasting memory of my dad (read the whole story). Or Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ is far from a karaoke ballad blaring from the stereo. It takes me to a Saturday afternoon in my late Uncle Michael’s room, dancin’ around with my ratty mess of hair and bare feet on a 70’s style shag carpet. I could go on-and-on about the stellar vocals of Stevie Nicks singing metaphorical bliss and shaping much of who I am today and Fix You by Coldplay justly being labeled the saddest song of my life [Josie from Blink 182 probably being the happiest], but I won't... Plus how could I pick just one when I have four tattoo's that are enriched with lyrics or inspiration of four different songs and three different artists, jam packed with meaning and life lessons, on my skin forever. I can't.

Either way, the greatness of this notion to find that perfect song lies within the ability to go on forever about the sounds of savior, as I like to describe music. The fact that I can sit here and write pages upon pages of countless memories backed by guitar solos, headbanging, and vocalists I can only dream to be like, proves the ability for music to shape a life…For the better!

So what's your story?

Tweet