Seamless Epic

I thought it would be fun to do one of these every so often. Just a little interesting five minute researchy thing. 

Trends in Pop Music

I’ve noticed over the past couple of months a couple of trends in some of the more recent pop songs. 

The first is the movement of club style pop songs toward dubstep style background tracks. I would imagine this is because of how popular dubstep is becoming, in particular with college students (trust me), especially due to artists like Skrillex and Deadmau5 leaving the world of the underground to stick their heads into the world of pop culture. Some examples/evidence:

Exhibit A: Hangover by Taio Cruz, ft. Flo Rida. Listen starting a 0:30 and you’ll hear a very distinct build up and drop to a dubstep-style break. 

Exhibit B: This one isn’t as compelling as the last exhibit, but Good Feeling by Flo Rida also features a build up and drop style, plus a very dubstep-esque instrumental towards the end of the song. Listen at 0:30 to hear the first example, and then again starting at 2:25 - 3:10 to hear the build up and drop to the instrumental.

There are other songs that feature some very dubsteppy elements (We Found Love by Rihanna and Calvin Harris, Just Can’t Get Enough by The Back Eyed Peas, to name a couple), and then there are songs like the Skrillex remix of Benny Benassi’s Cinema that have become part of the current pop repertoire. Dubstep, people. It’s here to stay. Tell your friends.

The second trend is friggin Adele. For some reason, her dulcet, non-autotuned, non-electronic ballads have boosted her to the top of the pop charts, and other artists are beginning to realize there’s money to be made there. Apparently, teenagers don’t just want poppy, booty shakin’ club anthems. They also want soulful, heart-wrenching tales of love and heartbreak. Who knew?! Anyways, here’s some examples of artists almost shamefully drawing from Adele’s distinctive style.

Exhibit A: Video Games by Lana Del Rey. What can I say? Lana Del Rey has a great voice, but she wouldn’t exist if Adele hadn’t hit it as big as she did. 

Exhibit B: Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. Again, another Adele copycat. Listen to the lyrics. They are basically just paraphrasing every minor key Adele ballad. A lso, quick not about the video, in the shots of her alone with the white background, she looks ridiculous. Doesn’t know what to do with her hands, etc, the head shakes… A little strange. 

So basically… Adele. She’s popular, so people are doing what she does. Doesn’t mean they have bad music, just lacking the originality of Adele’s music. Other examples are some songs by Sia (who I actually like, but her live versions leave a lot to be desired, especially her live version of Titanium… Love the song, but she can’t sing it so high live… Such a shame.), and some of the newer Demi Lovato, in particular Skyscraper, although her voice is still the more typical pop style.

That concludes the first Five Minute Research Project. It took me more like 15 minutes, but whatever. 

I own only the text of this article. I have no claim to any of the videos or music.