So at 10:52 PM on December 4, 2010, I had an epiphany. I was listening to Letting Go (Dutty Love) (feat. Nicki Minaj) by Sean Kingston when I realized the last time I heard some new music was when I discovered VersaEmerge (a little before summer started). I can’t remember the last time I heard something different before that. Lately, I’ve been finding it hard to discover new stuff.
Artists are writing too much to “the formula.” At least 75% of my iTunes library was written using some kind of standard chord sequence. Last Tuesday, I tried to use Pandora to discover some more music that was similar to what I already have. I made a station based upon Lonely No More by Rob Thomas, and the first song was If I Never See Your Face Again by Maroon 5 (a song that I already have). I thought they sounded fairly similar. I then made one for Ridin’ Solo by Jason Derülo. The first three songs I already knew and sounded too similar (from what I can remember, Beautiful by Akon and Replay by Iyaz). Still not convinced? Next chance you get, pull up YouTube and take a listen to Letting Go (Dutty Love) (feat. Nicki Minaj) by Sean Kingston and Te Amo by Rihanna. It’s the same song, different key and different lyrics (I find it interesting that both songs were done by the Stargate producing team). I would like to mention to the artists that there are more chords that majors, minors, and 5ths. There’s also aug, dim, 4ths, maj7, min7, maj9, min9, sus, sus2, sus4, and add9, and all the inversions of those, just to name a few. I’m sure you can find something a little more interesting the standard Gmaj, Cmaj, Dmaj, Cmaj combo.
Another part of “the formula” is what artists sing about. Out of more than 2500 songs that I have, 105 have the word “love” in the title. And there’s definitely more than 5 times that, but without mentioning love in the title. Using Taylor Swift as an example, of her 12 official singles, only 1 was not about love, but even that one did bring up the subject. And I get it. People write songs about their feelings and experiences, but I’m sure you experience more than one feeling. (On a further note, ironically, Sara Bareilles wrote Love Song, a song about not writing a love song, because her record company asked her to write a “marketable love song.”
I find that the “popular” formats are being shoved down our throats. Of the top 200 songs currently in iTunes on December 5, 2010 (I counted Taylor Swift and P!nk as Pop artists), 104 (52%) are Pop/RnB, 41 (20.5%) are Rap, 30 (15%) are Rock, 22 (11%) are Country, and 2 (1%) are World. In the Philadelphia area, there is 1 country station, 3 rock stations, 4 hip-hop/rap/rnb/pop stations, and 1 pop/light rock station. The rest are like NPR, news, or oldie stations. How about listening to some world, people? Some of it is good stuff. There’s other genres like alternative, blues, and jazz.
