Hey, you.
Thanks for stopping in to see me, I really do appreciate.
The purpose of this blog is essentially scientific- I have a
great many questions about how the world works and society’s reactions to these
workings. These questions lead me to hypothesize, research, and, most recently,
blog about my findings.
My hope is that you will find this information useful, help
me refine my understanding by commenting with your own experience and research,
and suggest new research topics for me to investigate and blog.
My first order of business is pop music.
Not unlike other genres of music, pop music utilizes
ghostwriters in order to “enhance” the quality of music that is written. The
difference, though, between pop and essentially all other musics is the sheer
quantity of outside help that performing artists employ to crank out an album.
Originally, I hypothesized that pop music had decreased
somewhat in quality because as a society we were expecting artists (singers) to
write their own material, rather than let the performers perform and the
composers compose, a phenomenon in
expectation that really hadn't occurred in the whole history of music until
about 50 years ago.
After doing some research, though, I discovered that just
the opposite was true- there are too many cooks in the pop music kitchen, not too few.
Here’s a list of some pop artists with their albums in
chronological order and number of total accredited writers. Notice some trends:
Album Writers
Carly Rae Jepson
Tug of
War (2008) 2
Kiss
(2012) 24
Katy Perry
Katy
Hudson (2005) 5
One of
the Boys (2008) 14
Teenage
Dream (2010) 17
Justin Bieber
My World
(2009) 32
My World
2.0 (2010) 31
Believe
(2012) 45
Jessie J
Who You
Are (2011) 24
Bruno Mars
Doowops
& Hooligans (2010) 24
Ke$ha
Animal (2010) 18
Warrior
(2012) 21
Rihanna
Songs of
the Sun (2005) 23
A Girl
Like Me (2006) 23
Good
Girl Gone Bad (2007) 29
Rated R
(2009) 23
Loud
(2010) 35
Talk
That Talk (2011) 30
Unapologetic
(2012) 39
And as much as it pains me to say…
Maroon 5
Songs
About Jane 4
It Won’t
Be Soon Before Long (2007) 4
Hands
All Over (2010) 7
Overexposed
(2012) 18
Pretty clearly, all of these artists fall in to one of two
categories-
1.
Those that begin by writing their own music (without commercial success), then
are taken over by record companies, given writers and are thenceforth met with
great success.
2.
Those that were discovered by the record labels and have always received outside
help writing.
Edit: Justin Timberlake would be an exception, but sadly he has left the music industry to go "act."
Edit: Justin Timberlake would be an exception, but sadly he has left the music industry to go "act."
In most cases, the performing artist is listed as the
principal “writer” but we will likely never know how much the Biebs actually
contributed before his 44 other helpers took over. The trouble with the pop
industry is in the title- pop, or popular music. It becomes more about how to
sell an entire genre of music rather than using it for anything remotely
expressive. Hence, the stale, formulaic lyrics, the repetitious harmonic
progressions, and the ever-present “sex sells” overtone.
“But it’s got such a good beat”
Yep, it sure does.
“It just gets stuck in my head.”
Of course it does. It’s been craftily engineered to get the
masses to enjoy it by people who make a living selling what claims to be art.
In contrast, here are some of the artists who have recently moved me, along with their accredited
writers.
Album Writers
Ben Folds Five
Ben
Folds Five (1995) 3
Whatever
and Ever Amen (1997) 3
The
Unauthorized Biography… (1999) 5
The
Sound of the Life of the Mind (2012) 3
Weezer
First 6 albums written solely by Rivers Cuomo
and other members of the band
Ratitude
(2009) 9
Hurley
(2010) 10
Death to
False Metal 3
(band members)
Gotye
Boardface
(2003) 1
Like
Drawing Blood (2006) 1
Making
Mirrors (2011) 1
Sara Bareilles
Careful
Confessions (2004) 2
Little
Voice (2007) 2
Kaleidoscope
Heart (2010) 2
The Black Keys
Attack
and Release (2008) 3
Brothers
(2010) 5
El
Camino (2011) 3
Julieta Venegas
Aquí (1997) 1
Bueninvento (2000) 2
Si (2003 ) 3
Limón y Sal (2006) 7
Otra
Cosa (2010) 3
Fun.
Aim and
Ignite (2009) 4
(band members)
Some
Nights 6
I understand that this isn't really a fair comparison since
I’m pitting a lot of alternative rock and indie music against pop music, but isn't it possible that the entire pop genre has become so diluted with ghost writers
that artists who self-write simply choose a different genre or are not accepted by pop record labels? I listed these latter artists because they made me love music in at least one instance, usually
during an entire album and the fact of the matter is, that rarely, if ever,
happens for me while listening to pop. What made the difference was when the writer told a story or expressed an emotion that resonated within me because I had felt
or experienced it as well. This resonating seldom occurs when as many as
fifteen writers try to convey their thoughts at once in a single song.
Please understand, I
am not espousing the idea that all
artists write their own material. Frank Sinatra never did, nor did most of
his Jazz comrades, all of whom I greatly respect. However, to me music is about
expressing an idea or experience, and when the monetary value of a song is placed above the artistry, quality will inevitably decline.
