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Post by jcoutu1 on Sept 5, 2014 8:12:29 GMT -6
TL;DR - I like pop, let's talk about it. I was never really into pop music, but a few years ago I started playing in a top 40 pop cover band. We weren't a big name and mainly played the local bar scene, but the music always got the place dancing and was a lot of fun to play. Because we were learning new songs every week, I listened to a LOT of pop music. It also gave me some freedom for creativity behind the drums because a lot of the music is sampled and drum machines and stuff. I incorporated an electronic kit into my acoustic setup, had my kick drum triggering either a standard kick sample or an 808 depending on the song, etc. Sorry to stray a bit, anyway, playing in that band really opened my ears to pop music and I learned to appreciate it. A lot of the production is really well done, vocal stacks and stuff are great, and the the delivery of the lyrics is huge. Anyway, Johnkenn mentioned this Meghan Trainor, "All About That Bass" song in another thread and I think it's pretty cool. It turns out that the production is pretty boss. Check out this acoustic version from your backyard vs. the produced version. Someone at the other end of the spectrum is Jessie J. Acoustic vs. produced. Here, both versions are solid. I figured a place to chat pop might be cool. Who knows, could be me talking to myself though. Haha. Feel free to share thoughts, stuff you like, don't like, videos, whatever, just all things pop. Let's see what happens. |
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Post by Johnkenn on Sept 5, 2014 11:47:23 GMT -6
There's just something about talented people that put you at ease when they sing...It's like we can sense confidence or something. This is what music is supposed to be - an enjoyable experience. I think the public has been exposed to SO MUCH/MANY American Idol type performances/performers that they can't figure what's good and what's not. I would say these two performers know who they are and what they do - 90% of the product that we hear from the factories isn't mature enough or even ready to be in public.
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Post by yotonic on Sept 5, 2014 17:10:01 GMT -6
Jessie is a phenomenal singer. And I greatly prefer the acoustic version. You can hear her voice in her natural register without the auto tune and chipmunk Madonna effect of pitching her voice up.
She could easily crush it in more of a Beth Hart or even Adele style, but she likes the pop /rap game.
The video for Bang Bang is your typical formulaic Michael Jackson rip off. Even the video is a stereotypical rehash of his " The Way You Make Me Feel".
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Post by yotonic on Sept 5, 2014 23:35:14 GMT -6
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Post by yotonic on Sept 6, 2014 21:35:50 GMT -6
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Post by jcoutu1 on Sept 8, 2014 8:36:57 GMT -6
Yep. Fantastic singer for sure. I don't understand why the video and audio quality would be so bad in 2013 though. Really poorly done in that regard. |
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Post by jcoutu1 on Sept 8, 2014 8:46:24 GMT -6
This is really awesome. Wow. Too bad he bailed on the EVH guitar solo in the demo. Would have loved to hear him sing that part. |
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Post by jcoutu1 on Sept 8, 2014 9:14:30 GMT -6
Here's another song that's charting pretty well. Well done tune. Vocals sound good. The counter point is cool. I like how the second verse comes in with the dancing bassline. I like the slow strings on the second per-chorus too. It counters the quick drums nicely.
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Post by yotonic on Sept 8, 2014 19:57:45 GMT -6
That has a real British sort of sound to it. You can hear that Brand New Heavies, deep house vibe throughout it. There has always been a stylistic difference between US and British pop. Someone like Ellie Goulding has crossed over to the US market really well especially with the recent resurgence of mainstream house music here as EDM. I love the drums on this track. You can hear the early influences of William Orbit, The Goodmen, and more recently Stimming & Hosh.
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Pop Thread
Sept 8, 2014 20:04:50 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by jcoutu1 on Sept 8, 2014 20:04:50 GMT -6
That has a real British sort of sound to it. You can hear that Brand New Heavies, deep house vibe throughout it. There has always been a stylistic difference between US and British pop. Someone like Ellie Goulding has crossed over to the US market really well especially with the recent resurgence of mainstream house music here as EDM. I love the drums on this track. You can hear the early influences of William Orbit, The Goodmen, and more recently Stimming & Hosh. You're right, it does have that British thing going on. The EG stuff has crossed well to. She's another good singer. I saw a performance of hers that was pretty cool a while back. I'll dig it up tomorrow. I'm not familiar with these early influences. I'll check them out tomorrow too. |
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Pop Thread
Sept 14, 2014 18:09:28 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by yotonic on Sept 14, 2014 18:09:28 GMT -6
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Post by sinasoid on Sept 19, 2014 16:33:45 GMT -6
Been listening a lot to this guy: And this girl: Both are interesting to me because they really have talent, but have opted for a major label pop sound. I find these two songs working in opposite ways: space vs. density, organic vs. electronic, minimal vs. maximized. It's interesting how two #1 artists can contrast so greatly, yet I can see them singing together in some other dimension. Scattered brain food  Don't know if any of this made any sense. |
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Post by yotonic on Sept 21, 2014 18:27:20 GMT -6
I haven't heard much from Ariana so I can't speak to her talent as her vocal is so "handled" by Max and Co. It's his typical thing so it's hard to hear the human side of her voice, let alone it's natural timbre etc. That Sam Smith kid has the goods clearly. Now it will be a question of whether or not he gets the right material offered to him. A lot of his initial stuff is all similar sounding, stripped down ballads. To hit it big he needs a wider breadth of material like Adele was able to get her hands on. Hopefully he steers clear of Ryan Tedder and all the cheese top 40 and crafts his own sound, again like Adele was able to do while using co writers.
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Post by jcoutu1 on Jul 7, 2015 9:52:48 GMT -6
Couple more recent pop tracks that I really dig.
J. Cole w/ TLC- Crooked Smile
Nasty bass line. Strong lyrics. Great background vocal stacks.
Here's the super heavy video too, but you lose audio in bits. Really a good watch though.
Paramore - Ain't It Fun
Well written pop/rock song. I really dig how out front the bassline is. Drumming is really solid. Catchy song.
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Post by M57 on Jul 7, 2015 10:32:30 GMT -6
Here's another song that's charting pretty well. Well done tune. Vocals sound good. The counter point is cool. I like how the second verse comes in with the dancing bassline. I like the slow strings on the second per-chorus too. It counters the quick drums nicely. I know this is an old post, but I'm checking it out for the first time after your recent update. I'm an acapella kinda guy myself - This performance impresses me a lot more. From an arranging standpoint, the reharms make it much more sophisticated than the original. |
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Post by swurveman on Jul 8, 2015 10:54:39 GMT -6
I am writing Pop songs daily as we speak and can say that I enjoy playing with synthesizers and playing with different drum beats. The one drawback is that you're writing for a younger audience, but I was a kid once and had lots to draw on when looking for topics/ideas for lyrics. I also enjoy Pop melody writing, and can't say there's a huge difference in Pop melodies today. For example, I think if Def Leppard were kids today their production may be different, but their vocal melodies would still sell.
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Post by yotonic on Jul 8, 2015 22:42:02 GMT -6
Gotta have synths for writing pop. More so for writing top line vocal melodies. Most of what you hear on the radio is not phrased or sung in a "natural manner". It's actually more like a synth voicing. Listen to Katie Perry or whomever and you will notice Max & Luke & Co. craft disciplined vocal melodies that don't move around a lot. Whole notes are held without a lot of runs or bends. The steps of the melody are very disciplined and timed and phrased to be super rhythmic, its so simple it's difficult. It reminds me of singing a "vocal part". Listen to some of these pop vocal leads acapella and you can hear what's going on and how almost "unnatural" it feels compared to a John Mayer song or something more traditional.
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Post by M57 on Jul 9, 2015 4:46:40 GMT -6
Gotta have synths for writing pop. More so for writing top line vocal melodies. Most of what you hear on the radio is not phrased or sung in a "natural manner". It's actually more like a synth voicing. Listen to Katie Perry or whomever and you will notice Max & Luke & Co. craft disciplined vocal melodies that don't move around a lot. Whole notes are held without a lot of runs or bends. The steps of the melody are very disciplined and timed and phrased to be super rhythmic, its so simple it's difficult. It reminds me of singing a "vocal part". Listen to some of these pop vocal leads acapella and you can hear what's going on and how almost "unnatural" it feels compared to a John Mayer song or something more traditional. Sometimes I make a distinction between singers with a 'sound' and those with 'technical ability'. The voice with chops can sing around a melody to the point where there is no melody, at least not in a classic sense. They tend to make it up on the fly and sing it differently every time. Think Jessie J. The voice with 'the' sound can change notes here and there and phrase differently, but the melody is usually intact. Think Mick Jaggar or Dave Grohl. It's when you have artists (usually they're song writers too) that have both that it's most impressive. Think Mayer. Stevie Wonder comes to mind as a pioneer in the category. |
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Post by swurveman on Jul 9, 2015 6:45:05 GMT -6
Gotta have synths for writing pop. More so for writing top line vocal melodies. Most of what you hear on the radio is not phrased or sung in a "natural manner". It's actually more like a synth voicing. Listen to Katie Perry or whomever and you will notice Max & Luke & Co. craft disciplined vocal melodies that don't move around a lot. Whole notes are held without a lot of runs or bends. The steps of the melody are very disciplined and timed and phrased to be super rhythmic, its so simple it's difficult. It reminds me of singing a "vocal part". Listen to some of these pop vocal leads acapella and you can hear what's going on and how almost "unnatural" it feels compared to a John Mayer song or something more traditional. Perhaps it's also the complexity of the chord changes. If you listen to early John Mayer those songs have lots of chord changes and chord dynamics that he plays off of. Conversely, there's a lot of chord repetition in Pop. I was listening to On Direction and they're playing three chords mostly. So, the ability to be really dynamic over that, where unlike early Mayer there are also big repeated chorus', is not likely imo. Of course Mayer is one of a kind, which is why he's going to have staying power over 99% of Pop acts. The simple chord progressions in Pop are also perhaps why the synth layering is so important again. If it was just guitars playing E-A-B through the entire song, even if it went from full note guitar strums to 1/4 not plucks to full note power chords, the audience would perceive it as being old. So, the synth is there to create a more complex atmosphere and make it sound more complex than the chord progressions are. Add in different beats from song to song in the album and you've packaged the same old thing in a new container. |
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Post by M57 on Jul 9, 2015 6:54:13 GMT -6
Perhaps it's also the complexity of the chord changes. If you listen to early John Mayer those songs have lots of chord changes and chord dynamics that he plays off of. Conversely, there's a lot of chord repetition in Pop. I was listening to On Direction and they're playing three chords mostly. So, the ability to be really dynamic over that, where unlike early Mayer there are also big repeated chorus', is not likely imo. Of course Mayer is one of a kind, which is why he's going to have staying power over 99% of Pop acts. The simple chord progressions in Pop are also perhaps why the synth layering is so important again. If it was just guitars playing E-A-B through the entire song, even if it went from full note guitar strums to 1/4 not plucks to full note power chords, the audience would perceive it as being old. So, the synth is there to create a more complex atmosphere and make it sound more complex than the chord progressions are. Add in different beats from song to song in the album and you've packaged the same old thing in a new container. Yeah, but simple 3 chord progressions have been around for a while (count the blues in there). Are you suggesting that we're running out of good melodies for I-IV-V progressions?  |
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Don't know if any of this made any sense.
