An Obituary The Death of Modern Western Pop Music

It is with deep regret that I would like to inform you all the untimely (but blatantly obvious) death of modern Western pop music.

Sadly, 'Pop' since it was fondly called was ailing for sometime, and no one seemed to notice when it finally bellied up.

'Pop music' was renowned for bringing us many great hits on the decades. Some of these 'hits' date as far back at the 1940s, and on the decades there were many memorable songs from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

You can even dare say that popular music from each age and from other areas of the world (Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic) have also stood the ultimate test of time, with the works of numerous composers being studied and performed to the very day.

But something strange happened from the dawn of the brand new millennium. Initially none took any notice, but by the finish of the next decade it was painfully clear.

There is no innovation and originality anymore. Actually most artists, no matter musical category all began to sound the same, as if each one of these musical groups were being manufactured from the same warehouse. It didn't matter in the event that you were pop, dance, electronica, hip-hop or rock 'n roll (although I doubt the latter two will truly make it onto a mainstream radio playlist), all music had the same flow, exactly the same chord progression (I, V, vi, IV), exactly the same breaks, dynamics, and almost all the singers sounded exactly like one another.

It was terribly formulaic. It had been too obvious not to notice, yet there were no cries for change.

Everyone appeared to be deaf from what was playing.

This writer believes the death was caused by three culprits, almost just like the three legs of an excellent chair. But like anything else after a few years with wear and tear, the legs of this musical chair began to rot, and there was no carpenter to repair the problem, therefore the legs became wobbly and the chair eventually collapsed.

The three legs were: Record Labels, Radio and the Artists themselves.

Record labels sprang up around the mid 1920s in an effort to record, produce, market and distribute the music that has been happening at the time. There were A&R departments (Artist&Repertoire) that searched for new talent and developed a roster of artists/groups that would 'sign' compared to that label and sell records to the buying public. But alas, the record execs became greedy and lazy through the years and also have all but stopped their A&R departments. The bottom line is, you as an artist, you gotta have it all, ready to go for a label to jump in on your bandwagon. And you gotta be sell-able. If you're not cute, sexy, young or be hip with whatever gimmick is the latest trend, you then won't sell. It's that easy and crude. A label is only a bank now, plus they want an excellent return on their investment. And the artist is the investment. The three main labels that are left now (as the others got swallowed up over time) couldn't care any less about real music than a bank cares about helping low-income earners get yourself a loan.

Next up: Radio.

In its' infancy, radio helped build a knowledge of a new, hip trendy music that was taking the world by storm. The initial radio news broadcast occurred August 31, 1920 and shortly after music performances begun to be aired. The new trendy music didn't have a name as yet, but all that was about to change.

America was sitting on a goldmine, and alongside British kids, musicians took to the blues and jazz, mixed it all up and gave it their own twist. Next thing you knew, Rock n Roll was created and the music of the late 1940s and 50s had spunk and VOLUME.

Rock n Roll brought music of the working man to very doorstep, it gave birth to numerous sub-genres - Heavy Metal, Indie, Alternative, Grunge, Shoe-Gaze and Pop music all owe their life to Rock n Roll. It's worthy to notice that all sub-genre bore their own children, so we are able to say that Rock n Roll had many children and grandchildren.

To have a consider the children that Rock n Roll will leave behind (thanks to Wikipedia, just head to Google).

But Jazz and Blues also had another offspring around the same time - R&B, a term sadly coined to differentiate music of African-American origin from Rock n Roll. Absurd and truly racist, but it is really a term that 'stuck'.

Thus, Jazz and Blues leave behind two kids - R&B and Rock 'N Roll. Both had their fair share of radio airplay in the early days. Both kids helped to create Pop what it had been.

But because the story goes, there arrived a thief - Payola.

Thanks to the labels, they ensured that the only real content on radio, was theirs. Soon mainstream radio was only paid advertising for a label. Unless you believe me, turn on any mainstream Top 40 station and leave it on for each day or two. The station will play a handful of songs at least about five times each day. So there's a couple songs on radio for airplay? Never mind you can find thousands of musicians/artists/bands worldwide, just a handful of songs get played on mainstream radio.

Which brings us to Artists: it appears that most artists nowadays all wish to be famous and rich (if that's even possible with the label and entertainment lawyers owning everything. And rather than writing anything of creative substance, most modern-day pop artists are out to create an instant hit. The term one-hit wonder can't apply to them as the terrible hits keep coming. They ought to re-name 'Artists' to 'Factory Clones' because in nearly every music genre there is a few that mostly sound/look exactly alike.

And then came along the worst part - the disease to end everything - Autotune (the device that made a terrible single a star)

Together, these three along with their man-made disease helped kill the pop music industry.

Sad that no-one saw it plainly coming, maybe something could've been done.

Nonetheless it is too late, and we now have are just the memories of when music used to mean something.

When we could remember a song from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s.

But can you remember any pop song from the new millennium?

I sure can't. And generally, I don't desire to, it's that terrible.

Rest in peace Pop, we'd fun for a little while.

Francesco Emmanuel is a classically-trained guitarist who's madly in-love with the guitar. He teaches guitar for a full time income, and when he's not composing music for film/TV, he's off touring with Canadian world-beat group Kobo Town.