"The Truth About Popular Music"

Music shapes our feelings, lives, and culture. It helps us cope, remember, think, and become more intelligent. But what happens when the quality of music goes down significantly? Will it have a negative impact on our lives and culture? Paul Joseph Watson - a popular Youtube personality, writer, editor, and radio host - made an eye opening video about current day pop music that I think you should know about.

In Watson's video titled, "The Truth About Popular Music," he critiques the lyrical content, producers, and culture surrounding today's pop music. He opens up talking about how it is "Dumber, duller, and more homogenized than ever before." But this is not opinion, this is fact. One study in particular focused on the lyrical content of pop music. From 2006-2016, the study focused on songs that were number 1 on the billboard charts for 3 or more weeks. In 2006, lyrics read at a third grade level, and 10 years later they were down a whole grade level in intelligence. But lyrics are not the only diminishing aspect of music, as another study found that the "diversity of transitions between note combinations - roughly speaking chords plus melodies - has consistently diminished in the last 50 years."

Billy Corgan, best known in The Smashing Pumpkins, said in an interview that "There is so much shameless adaptation of other people's style that it's almost impossible to tell one person apart from another. Individuallity has been erased and wiped away." Corgan was absolutely right, here. In fact, pop artists all have their songs written and produced by the same people. Here's an example:

In Watson's video, he compares pop music to fast food. He said it's quick, easy, and producers stick to the same formula. Nowadays, producers use computer algorithms to determine which tracks will be commercially successful. They care about the money, not the quality, and we take it in by the masses. Producers are contributing to the dumbing-down of our culture. Here's how it was put in the video:

Remember when bands like Pink Floyd used to write songs about complex themes of "authoritarian power and the individual"? Remember bands like Queen? Here's how Queen compares to popular artists of today:

Artists used to have to be actually talented to get a record deal. Now, "artists" like Nicki Minaj reach number one on the billboard using their butt as the main attraction. Dave Grohl - past drummer of Nirvana and current frontman of the Foo Fighters - said the following: