Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The New (Interchangable) Faces Of Pop Music
When I was a kid I used to love Top 40 radio. I followed the charts and listened to the radio all the time. SO I still keep an eye on what is out there. I know a whole lot less of what is on the charts these days when I look them over. Part of that is lack of interest and part of it is that it's all starting to sound the same to me. The one thing you can always count on when listening to pop music is that when one kind of artist becomes successful, a bevy of sound-alike artists will come out of the woodwork and beat that style of music to death to such a degree that people get sick of it and want something new. It's the cyclical way it's been since the beginning and I'm sure always will be. Case-in-point now are solo male singers with R&B vocals and dance beats. Guys like Akon, Ne-Yo and Sean Kingston have carried the torch for a little while now but suddenly the cycle seems to have accelerated at an even faster pace than ever before. These four guys pictured above account for seven of the most played songs at Top 40 radio right now. Do you know who is who? I know I couldn't have told you what at least two of them even looked like until I looked their pictures up. And if you made me listen to their songs, I know I wouldn't be able to tell any of them apart. They are catchy, to be sure, but they are faceless, completely unoriginal songs that you could put all on one album and most people would just assume it's one singer.
I'd like to say the American public deserves more credit. That they hunger for unique, interesting music. But these songs aren't just getting the crap played out of them by the Clear Channel cluster... they are getting downloaded like crazy too. So if you are a fan of generic, R&B male vocals and dance beats, enjoy it while it lasts! I'll be kinda surprised if Jay Sean, Jason Derulo, Iyaz and Taio Cruz (I had to look up how to spell that last one, lol) will be dominating the charts the way they are now in a year or two.
