American Music Awards: The sorry state of music today.
 

I'll try keep this short, but the American Music Awards seem to get worse every year.

Almost every single act and song was a direct carbon copy of another act or song.

The same rap music, hip hop, more rap, more hip hop.

The same unoriginal acts, same carbon copy songs and beats.

Just once I wish I could hear an original melody. Do you remember melodies? Not just singing notes to a beat, but actual songs.

It was nice seeing Sting again. At least they had ONE real singer songwriter on stage, before the mindless rap and hip hop started back up.

Selena Gomez wins Best Female Pop Rock?? POP ROCK? Can anybody name one rock song that this Disney throw back has sung?

Lady Ga Ga still has her chops, and Ariana is the new J Lo replacement, that's all fine, but where are the bands? The original acts?

21 Pilots has the balls to talk about how important "Live Music" is, and their 2 man band uses prerecorded music during their live "2 man band" act??!!! It's insane.

The entire industry seems to be stagnant waiting for something to happen socially to bring back real music and real bands. Possibly a big war, and China cutting us off from imports might stir up these young punks to put down their phones and pick up a dam guitar and learn how to ROCK.

Most all the performers were young rappers and hip hoppers, aiming their music at 12 year olds that are too young to get laid, but want to appear to be "cool."

There were no Jazz performances, no classical music, no musical numbers or anything else for that matter other than rap, hip hop, more rap, more hip hop, STING! (fantastic), followed by more rap and more shit hop. Did every real singer song writer over 35 not get invited to perform for fear of losing record sales for the slew of utter musical shit they are pumping down the throats of their 12 year old audience?

Oh, and Green Day? What can I say. Good once, but now he's lost his anger, and his mascara, and his band is looking like the Stones did a few years ago, aging and ready to retire.

That's all the AMA could scrape up? Sting, Green Day and a slew of the same mindless rappers and hip hoppers taking over what was once an iconic American music award ceremony? Where was the surprise performance by Stevie Wonder? Yo Yo Ma too busy to influence the viewers with his magical Chello? Pat Benatar couldn't make a surprise walk on? Van Halen too old for one more song? U2 want's to be alone? Fergie too busy? Elton? Elton? Fuck, I'd even entertain a song by the Spice Girls at this point. Where is everybody???

If you don't hip hop or rap, you're out.

Maybe Trump will be a blessing to the music industry. If he drags our country into a meaningless war, this younger generation will have something real to bitch about and good old American Rock n Roll will be reborn from the anger of today's youth. Otherwise, we are stuck year after year of the same repetitive beats, glam hip hop nonsense music with no originality or substance. Great if you just like to dance, live at home, and don't give a fuck about anything except your Facebook followers and how many chains you wear around your neck.... but bad if you have a mind, crave originality and crave songs that move you emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and not just want to make you dance and inflate your attitude while sitting at a red light.

Can somebody please teach these kids how to play an instrument and how to write songs with melodies??

Singing and talking over an electronic beat is not a song. It's just rap and dance music.

There is more to music than just rapping and dancing.

Selena Gomez is a singer? When did this happen? LOL

The AMAs are nothing more than a marketing gig. All the nominees and awards are voted on by the fans to those with the fans that are willing to sit for hours and vote over and over for them win. These acts are well-known because they are the ones the music industry is investing heavily in because they need catchy singles to make money.

Most pop music these days is manufactured. A producer works with three songwriters and a couple of other people who make a beat then they cut and paste some random lyrics and they have a singer sing them. Of course, it's more important that the singer looks good and be hot than actually be able to sing well.

Pop music in the modern era is no different the Pepsi or Oreos. It is a manufactured product designed to make you happy. The AMAs are essentially a 2 hour (or however long they last) commercial for those products.

There are plenty of good bands and acts out there making good music, but many of them are not as popular as someone like Selena Gomez because they don't have a massive corporation trying to sell them.

As an example. Selena Gomez's most recent album has 11 songs on it. There are 23 different credited songwriters and 17 different credited producers on it. Pretty crazy. Meanwhile, folk rock band The Head and the Heart wrote all the songs on their record and used 1 producer.

The AMA's are one long Audio Visual press kit with suckers and "paid to sits" for an audience. Don't watch it. You'll feel better.

I long ago tuned out.

You're officially old :thumbsup

Have no fear Justin Bieber is here

You're taking too much trouble ...

there is a lot of good music with real rock bands out there, its just not popular or on the radio.

:thumbsup :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Yes, but I'll take The Beatles, The Doors, Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Led Zep, Janice Joplin, Van Halen, U2, INXS, Journey, M. Jackson, Stevie Ray Von, Pink Floyd, Clapton, Prince, the list goes on.... I'll take them any day over the fucking rat shit crap that kids like today.

The only difference is really simple, the artists I listed write and play instruments to create their own music.

I don't know what the fuck these rappers and hip hop people do to write their shit other than talk over a beat. And don't get the wrong idea about rapping, IT'S NOT SINGING, IT'S TALKING. It's creative poetry, not music.

You don't need any special talent to 'talk' over a beat, other than memorizing words that rhyme. You know, like we did in the 3rd grade.

But, if you are a diabetic over weight black man, put on the shades, gold chains, and start talking over the beat and BAM! You can call yourself a rapper. Nice. Just talk about any shit you want to as long as it rhymes, you know, like in GRADE SCHOOL.

:1orglaugh I'm glad when I was young we had real artists. This generation doesn't know how bad they have it.

Dumbed down big part of society. That is evident seeing how easily media can manipulate them into anything.

I feel you on that. All of that. Today's popular music is lazy as fuck. Maybe it always has been. I was in the car running errands yesterday, and they had a football game on my usual station WFUV, which is the only station that plays music that's a little on the underground side. Since I didn't want to listen to the football game I tried some of the pop music stations, and its a real fucking wasteland. I can't believe people listen to that shit.

BUT...I think music is better than ever now, if you know where to look. I'm talking about the stuff you won't see on the charts or on regular radio play.

I caught a bit of it last night. I agree with most of the above. ^^

The Ariana Grande / Niki Minaj song was a good example of non-talent in action. Ariana has a wonderful voice, but after not very long it just sounds like she's singing the same note over and over. Niki Minaj has zero talent IMO. She's not even singing.

Interesting that at one point she started stroking her pussy live on television.

i blame the millenial whoop



and handclap of course

I was thinking the same thing about myself as I watched it.

First off... I have never even heard of 21 Pilots until last night.

And then I listened and watched their boring performance and was amazed at the crowd going crazy as if it were 1957 and it was Elvis onstage again. lol

After they were done I said: "I must be out of the loop completely...that just sucked, and people are going crazy for it"

Damn. I have officially morphed into my grandparents. :(

God damn kids these days. Their music is just noise!

pop music has pretty much always been for idiots. the most generic music churned out to appeal to the most amount of people.

i don't think im old for not liking it, as i didn't like most of what was the radio when i was young either aside from maybe when "grunge" rock was popular. and music before my time from the 50s/60s..rock was new and sell-able and the artists were actually allowed to make what they wanted for the most part.

i like a number of new/newer bands that are putting out new music this year. you won't hear it at music award shows or even on the radio but its out there and has a following.

nicky minaj is a digusting deformed tranny, her acting sexy looks digusting.

ariana grande has the looks of a 12 year old, her acting sexy looks sickening and disturbing. I said it before, it looks like she plundered her moms closet of sexy clothes. It looks so unnatural and pathetic.

The 'music' is horrible and fortunately not one song of these 2 circus freaks is in my memory.

Watch this video. It will explain WHY music sucks so bad these days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP0wuwJBdMI

This is why I ONLY listen to music recorded before 2000 (with a few rare exceptions).

I also think "the powers that be" do not want "music" as we old farts remember it anymore. Why have something like a song that could inspire people to, you know, protest all this SHIT that is happening everywhere? Only causes the population to get upset and, you know, stop BUYING. Nope, better to offer nothing but the same old shit year after year. Keeps the sheeple calm and their wallets open. Sad.

IMO it isn't so much that the powers that be don't want to release music that will inspire people to protest the shit music that is being released, it is that the business model has changed so it has become harder for the record companies to make money. When I was a kid it was all about the album. Labels signed acts, put out albums and helped the artists build up an audience by promoting their music. If the band hit and started selling a lot of albums the label profited by selling those albums. Now the industry is based on the single. If an artists hits instead of selling a buying the full album fans just buy a song or two that they like. Add in streaming services like Pandora and Spotify and Youtube and there are a lot of people who don't pay for any music. On top of that piracy and the ease of downloading full albums and you have an industry that can't afford to spend 2-5 years developing an act.

These days it is not uncommon for an act to get signed and release a single. if the single does well the act then gets to record a full album. If not, they get dumped before they even make an album.

Good comments.

Only thing I disagree with is the "you're getting old" comments.

I'm older, yes, but I still love rock n roll and great music.

Music is music, but it's today's lyrics that leave me flat.

It's as if they are all singing the same song... lots of "Me's... and I's.... in every line.

Remember this:

"The crystal ship, is being filled, a thousand girls, a thousand thrills..."

Now we get:

"I keep it fresher than the next bitch no need..for you to ever sweat the next bitch"

I thought the next generation was supposed to be smarter?

It's 2016, you don't need to be on the radio to get listens.

As for real rock bands. None can match what went on in the 60s and 70s. The one's today are mostly sad imitations.

The problem is no one wants to break new ground today. Bands were doing it constantly in 40-50 years ago.

To anyone who thinks there's no good rock n roll out there...just start exploring Spotify (or Youtube). I can find a new band to obsess over every day if I want to. There's hundreds of bands still making grungy, dirty rock with great lyrics and crushing riffs. You'll never hear them unless you find them yourself, because popular radio isn't going to expose you to their greatness.

it was "easy" to do back then because no one had done it yet. pretty much everything you can do with a guitar/drum/bass type band has been done in one way or another. you can call imitation if you want but the rolling stones and beatles were imitations of what they heard too.

these days effect pedals and delay are driving a lot of newer sounds

I totally agree. When iTunes first came out I did my best to raise holy hell about reducing the product down to $0.99. It undercut artist development, de-valued the entire product (music) and set in an era like we have today.

But the 'protests' I meant were people marching in the street to stop a war, an unfair economic policy or the reach of Big Government. Music was a soundtrack to those protests so of course it had to be stopped. It was in the corporate interest to do so.

But yes, the biz model changed indeed and now we have all these crappy singles.

I agree 100%, but I've been "officially old" music-wise at least for a long time now.

Welcome to the club.

True. There were times when music, especially some songs or artists were very connected to the social and political movements of the country. Like you say, it was the soundtrack of the times. Now, for the most part, it is just a distraction.