Day 16: 30 Day Writing Challenge

Today’s topic: my thoughts on mainstream music.

First off, let me state that I do not listen to a lot of current music. I don’t drive and spend little time in cars, so I rarely listen to the radio. I do not listen to the radio at home either, if I turn on music at home it is music I already know I like. I don’t spend a lot of time investing in learning about new music. With that being said, I do hear newer songs if I hear about them from someone else or an artist I like puts out something new.

When I did listen to the radio more I liked it. But a lot of times with mainstream music, they play the same songs over and over and over again. This is a major turn off to wanting to listen to it. A lot of popular songs are great, hence why they are popular to begin with, but I needn’t hear them every fifteen minutes.

My definition of mainstream music is music that is popular. Not necessarily pop music, but music that is popular in its individual genre.  Usually these are the songs that artist(s) have put out as singles off their album.

I like the mainstream stuff. But I usually find that the other tracks on an album are just as good if not better. For example, Sheryl Crow’s sophomore self titled album had five singles released off of it, “If It Makes You Happy”, “A Change Would Do You Good”, “Everyday Is A Winding Road”, “Hard To Make A Stand”, and “Home”. But I think the best tracks off of the album are “The Book”, “Ordinary Morning”, “Maybe Angels”, and “Love Is A Good Thing”. I think the whole album is great, but the songs released as singles, especially the two biggest hits “If It Makes You Happy” and “Everyday Is A Winding Road” were played so much by mainstream radio stations that I could have cared less to hear them for the longest time. Over playing a song makes you numb to it eventually.

On a slightly different meaning of the definition of mainstream, I often like bands that I discover that aren’t really popular. A few examples are Cake, Postmodern Jukebox, and Scissor Sisters. They all have a great fan base, and are amazing bands, but they aren’t getting a lot of airplay (at least not in this country, Scissor Sisters are actually quite popular in Europe).  I like to seek out new, or not heard of, bands/artists. I usually find them while looking for covers (which I’ve made it abundantly clear that I love, I’ve posted about them more than once) of songs I love.

I’m not opposed to the mainstream music, but due to “popularity” it tends to be over played and therefore, becomes less of a great song and just turns into mindless background music.

Tomorrow’s topic: my highs and lows of the past year.