Just a few people write all the pop songs

[Undertoad]

A handful of Scandinavian guys wrote all the pop songs of the last decade. One guy wrote all this stuff. I'm not against it but I was kind of surprised I've covered one of them (fifth one in):

[lumberjim]

This makes me sad

[xoxoxoBruce]

Does it really matter who wrote it, or even who performs it really. Yeah I know the song will sound different from different artists, but if you hear a song and like it, do you say, I like it but I'd like it better if somebody else wrote it?

We all know it's the music BUSINESS, not the other way around

[lumberjim]

It's just that it makes it very apparent that there is formula that works on the masses. It says that we are not individuals, but a herd.
Insignificant.

[xoxoxoBruce]

OK, I see that, but it's not like they're all the same. You can't interchange lyrics and end up with the same thing. The "business", of course, dictates what each genre contains, and which genres get marketed, and to some extent sell. But they can't make you like it or buy it.

Isn't poetry mostly written to a formula? Lyrics either resonate with you or they don't. Of course the music can give you a woody played by musicians who can play emotions, rather than notes, which is more important to me than lyrics, but that's just me.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

It's just that it makes it very apparent that there is formula that works on the masses. It says that we they are not individuals, but a herd.
Insignificant.

We can choose.

[lumberjim]

well, yeah.. maybe sad is the wrong word. Disappointed in the populous, perhaps? For repeatedly liking what they pound out over the airwaves. I remember Ute posting something about WHY we like music, and that much of it is simply repeated exposure. Familiarity. These songs all have the same kind of finish to them... the same shiny wax job. bleh.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Before you decide if you like a song or not, are you going to do a search to find out who really created it? Sure we're sheep to some extent, we pick songs to buy from what's available, but there's a lot to pick from.

I asked Google how many new albums a year? This article said...

About 75,000 albums were released in 2010, according to Nielsen, down 22% from 96,000 in 2009. Yeah, that's a big drop - especially when you consider that it includes both digital and physical formats. In fact, the number of new releases peaked in 2008 at 106,000. With 75,000 new releases in 2010, we're back to where we stood in 2006 (76,000 new releases that year).

Not only were fewer albums released, but the weakest sellers took up a smaller share of new release sales. The 60,000 titles that sold from 1 to 100 units represented 0.7% of all sales from titles released in 2010. In 2009, 0.9% of sales came from the 80,000 titles that sold from 1 to 100 units. So there were quite a few new albums that sold fewer than ten units. Put another way, the 60,000 new releases that sold 100 or fewer units averaged just 13.3 units per title.

It's easy to see why the music "business" is trying to back winners once they've figured out how.

There's also the peer pressure thing, like gotta like have and like be able to like know the like words like yaknow.

Adele’s new album “25″ has sold 3.38 million copies in its first week, smashing single-week sales records, according to Nielsen Music. As reported by Billboard, “25″ is the first album to sell more than 3 million copies in one week in Nielsen’s history, which has been tracking first week purchases since 1991. The previous record was held by ‘NSYNC whose 2000 album “No Strings Attached” sold 2.4 million copies in its first week. “25″ has also become the best-selling album of the year, flying past the 1.8 million copies sold of Taylor Swift’s “1989.” Adele did not allow streaming services like Spotify to make “25″ available. Her previous album, “21″ has sold 11.24 million copies in the United States.

Granted, Adele has a nice voice, but you'll never convince me sales like that are not at least partially peer pressure generated.

On another note, while perambulating the net last night, the TV was on as usual, and a Pink concert came on. It turned out to be a hell of a show. I was amazed at the range of her music, most of which didn't fit any formula, although the few songs that brought her into the spotlight may have been.
"Gateway songs", is that a thing?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Granted, Adele has a nice voice, but you'll never convince me sales like that are not at least partially peer pressure generated.

My peer pressured me into buying it for her as a Christmas present. So count me in as part of that statistic.

Oh, and every time I hear Pink, I am impressed by her. She's the real deal. Never bought anything by her though.

[xoxoxoBruce]

A buddy has written some songs and had various musician friends come over and record their tracks which he puts together digitally. One of the friends plays in a band with Pink's father, who was very impressed with one of the songs and said he wanted to show it to Pink. Nothing came of it, at least yet, but this thread made me wonder if someone in the "business" rejected it out of hand?

[lumberjim]

[xoxoxoBruce]

Thanks Jim, that was so cool.

[Clodfobble]

Part of Adele's "first week" record has to be attributable to the ubiquity of internet music use. Yeah, sure, the hip kids were buying mp3s 10+ years ago, but now everyone's mom knows how. You're already online, you see the ad, or the Facebook post by your friend about how great the album is, click-click-bought. You can't compare initial sales to a generation that still had to find time to get their ass down to the store to buy an album. I mean it's still a huge album, sure, but it will be interesting to see if the sales numbers hold steady, or if it's just that her normal, solidly large fanbase all got front-loaded instantly rather than spread out over the first month.

I'm surprised that there aren't more losing-money-but-respectable albums out there. I mean, selling less than 1,000 albums, okay. But 60K albums selling an average of 13.3 each! I mean, what insane pipe dream made them pay to print those albums for themselves? That's like you can't even get your friends & family to buy one out of pity.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I mean, what insane pipe dream made them pay to print those albums for themselves? That's like you can't even get your friends & family to buy one out of pity.

The funny thing is, I hold that up as an example, but it has 86 million views of the official video.

[Undertoad]

Who buys albums? iTunes is songs-oriented. Are these numbers reflecting hipster vinyl purchases?