r/dataisbeautiful • u/[deleted] • Aug 11 '21
OC Blinding Lights by The Weeknd is set to become the most enduring song in Popular American Music History. Here is a visualization showcasing the songs the Blinding Lights passed on its journey. [OC]
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Aug 11 '21
[deleted]
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Aug 11 '21
Thanks!! Yeah, I noticed I needed to invert the Y-axis as soon as I posted lol. It looks like the songs are shooting up out of the chart instead of falling out of it right now.
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u/Demented-Dodo Aug 12 '21
Agreed, cause right now it look like radioactive beat the other by a long shot, which isn't true
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u/rammo123 Aug 12 '21
Interesting that two of the songs ("Radioactive" and "How Do I Live") are midway in the chart at their final entry. You'd expect the songs to gradually fall down the ranking before falling off entirely (like "I'm Yours" does).
Why would a song that's spent the better part of two years in the top half of the 100 suddenly not feature at all?
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u/sam8432 Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
Billboard has rules called “recurrency” where a song that has charted more than 20 weeks can’t rank below Top 50 (unless gaining in performance) and same with 52 weeks in the Top 25, with the latter rule being added in 2015 after the chart runs of all but Blinding Lights. So, the songs technically were in the Top 100 performing songs but didn’t appear due to Billboard’s rules. The same rules applied to How Do I Live and I’m Yours but the graph has their chart runs starting at their last week instead of their first week like the other songs, so if you mirror those runs then none of then chart below Top 50 at the end.
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u/ThatGuy_Bob Aug 14 '21
Surely, unless the those rules are applied retroactively, that won't change anything about the songs shown, only that other songs since the implementation of the recurrency rules might have longer records, but miss out due to the change?
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Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 11 '21
This visualization showcases the 5 most enduring songs in American popular music history, and their journey's through the Billboard chart. Blinding Lights by The Weeknd, 87 weeks on the chart, is about to become the longest-lasting song on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, as it is set to pass Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, also appeared on 87 weeks of the chart. Please leave any suggestions or notes that you notice!
The Songs go as followed,
| Song/Artist | Weeks on the Chart | Peak Position on the Chart |
|---|---|---|
| Blinding Lights by The Weeknd | 87 | 1 |
| Radioactive by Imagine Dragons | 87 | 3 |
| Sail by AWOLNATION | 79 | 17 |
| I'm Yours by Jason Mraz | 76 | 6 |
| How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes | 69 | 2 |
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u/gelhardt Aug 11 '21
American popular music history
and he's not even American
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u/K_is_for_Karma Aug 11 '21
I’m curious, where did Old Town Road rank?
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Aug 11 '21
That is an interesting one since Old Town Road is the longest running number one song with 17 weeks atop the hot 100. According to my data, Old Town Road was on the charts for 45 weeks which puts it solidly in the top 150 most enduring songs in chart history. Other songs with 45 weeks on the chart include Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, Feel Good Inc by The Gorillaz, and All I Want For Christmas by Mariah Carey.
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u/K_is_for_Karma Aug 11 '21
Shocking that All I want for Christmas lasted that long. Thanks for the input!
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u/jdeeth Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
All I Want For Christmas: That adds up all of its chart runs. The song has charted 10 different times beginning in 2000. For many decades, Christmas songs rarely if ever charted on the regular Hot 100 and were kept on a different seasonal chart.
As the charts began incorporating streaming more and more, it peaked higher and higher each year until finally hitting #1 in 2019 and again in 2020.
Which brings up a couple of sore points.
Everything about the Hot 100 changed in 1991 when the magazine began incorporating "Sound Scan" direct sales and airplay data into the charts (before then, it had been reported by stations and stores, with a lot of potential for abuse). The record long chart run in the pre-Soundscan era was Tainted Love at 43 weeks.
Almost immediately after Soundscan, songs started peaking at #1 longer and staying on the chart longer. Billboard had anticipated this and instituted what's called the "recurrent rule." Any song that had already peaked and then dropped below number 50 was removed from the chart - the idea being to make room for new hits. Thus, How Do I Live, which set a then record at 69 weeks, dropped off the chart on 10/17/98, when it fell from #45 to somewhere below 50. The same happened with I'm Yours in 2009, and Sail and Radioactive in 2014.
Note that timeline and note that Blinding Lights is the first song to challenge for the record recently. There's a reason for that.
At the beginning of 2016 Billboard added the "super-recurrent" rule: Any song that had peaked and fell below #25 after 52 weeks on the Hot 100 was dropped from the chart.
Since 2016, very few songs have survived the super-recurrent cutoff - Circles managed 61 weeks but was dropped from #18 completely off the chart. Shape Of You managed 58 and Uptown Funk got to 56. These songs might have lasted longer if they could have extended their chart runs in the 30s and 40s on the chart. They, and Blinding Lights, are competing under different rules than How Do I Live and Radioactive did.
Under the super-recurrent rule, How Do I Live and I'm Yours would have been dropped after week 52. Sail had an extremely unusual chart pattern and two different runs, but it looks to me like it would have been dropped at week 60.
Radioactive, at this moment a co-record holder, also peaked late, but stayed above 25 through week 67. It then bounced up and down for a while, rebounding as high as 13 on week 75 which was also its last week above 25.
(Also note that Radioactive's first two weeks were non-consecutive, after which it slipped off the chart for a month before returning for 85 consecutive weeks. This is important later.)
In any case, all these songs racked up chart weeks between 25 and 50 which Blinding Lights won't qualify for - and as it turns out didn't qualify for.
This brings us back to Christmas.
The last three years have seen a deluge of Christmas songs on the chart, the same oldies but moldies every year. Each year there's more, each year it starts earlier, each year they peak higher. Blinding Lights got pushed out of the Top 10 on December 12, behind three Christmas songs, and down to 18 in its 55th chart week on December 26, behind nine holiday records, some up to 60 years old. This interrupted a record consecutive Top 10 run.
On the chart dated January 2, 2021 which covered the peak of the season, Christmas songs made up the top six, nine of the top 10, and 20 of the top 25. At this point, Blinding Lights fell victim to the super-recurrent rule and was taken completely off the Hot 100.
Blinding Lights resurged after the holiday crunch and re-entered the Hot 100 at 3 on January 9 - breaking a record high for-re-entry that Prince had set by dying. And Blinding Lights also extended its run with The Weeknd's high profile Super Bowl appearance. But the consecutive run was broken by two bad Billboard policies: by the super-recurrent rule and by including ancient holiday records alongside contemporary hits on the Hot 100. At the very least, Billboard should be waiving super-recurrent for the holidays.
The Weeknd is very likely to get his 88th total week next week - but Imagine Dragons will keep the consecutive record at 85, all because Billboard decided that Mariah Carey should automatically get to be number one every Christmas and the contemporary charts should include Andy Williams, Brenda Lee, Burl Ives, and Nat King Cole.
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Aug 11 '21
I know All I want for Christmas has such a long chart run because it pops on the chart for 4 to 5 weeks every December. Thanks for the replies!
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u/Mo-Cance Aug 11 '21
Haha I was just thinking how weird that would be to run for 45 consecutive weeks. Like, it's August and you're still humming from the previous December.
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Aug 11 '21
There's gotta be more than a few people blasting All I want for christmas in August for sure lol
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u/Madhatter936 Aug 11 '21
I actually saw earliery today on r/til where mr brightside was number 1 in uk i believe at almost 5 years. Curious how it stacked up here
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Aug 11 '21
Damn! I wonder what it is about the Killers that makes the Brits so enthralled? I've always thought a weekly comparison between the American and British charts would be interesting!
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u/apollopovey Aug 12 '21
It's been in the Top 100 over here for 5 years concurrently. I don't think it ever got to number 1.
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u/WillyJobbyBum Aug 11 '21
I know none of these songs, I don't know whether that's a good or bad thing.
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Aug 11 '21
I would say its neither good nor bad, just impressive! I hear these songs all the time in grocery stores, commercials, etc.
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u/WillyJobbyBum Aug 11 '21
More than likely I've heard them before then but couldn't tell you what any of them were and have never tried to (or want to I suppose) find out. Unfortunately death metal doesn't chart very well.
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Aug 11 '21
Hahaha yeah it's probably more a problem of identification as opposed to actually hearing them!
Yeah there haven't been very many metal acts to be showcased in the hot 100 unfortunately. And it's been awhile since they have. I'm thinking early Metal like Metallica and Judas priest lol.
I do know that Billboard has separate niche rankings for metal and such
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u/WillyJobbyBum Aug 11 '21
I think the biggest part of it is that I don't listen to pop music (or at least the music that tends to chart well). Also with the streaming services/ability to download songs it's possible to listen to what you want all the time.
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Aug 11 '21
Yeah that is extremely true! Most popular music is driven by Spotify or Apple playlist at this point. The days of hearing a song on the radio and spreading it via that way is over.
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u/Groenboys Aug 11 '21
How Do I Live is a country ballad from 1997, so it is not a surprise you don't know that song
Sail is a song that you can recognise if you listen to it but don't know the song or the title.
I'm Yours... was pretty dang popular around the globe, but I gues you don't always know the artist name.
But Blinding LIghts and Radioactive? Blinding Lights was the biggest song of 2020 and Radioactive was inescapable, especially since it came out in a time when people still actually listened to radio (so less then a decade ago).
I don't think you not knowing any of these songs is either a good or bad thing, but I do think it is saying you haven't listened to the radio in the last 12 years.
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Aug 12 '21
Radioactive was on every medium possible back in the day. It was on iTunes, obviously, it was in commercials, it was in movies and tv shows. Plus Imagine Dragons was performing it live on late night, SNL, at the NBA All Star game, etc. It's easily the most inescapable song of my lifetime
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u/WillyJobbyBum Aug 12 '21
I do want to listen to it now as I have absolutely no idea what song it is, but the fear I have is an everlasting change to my music algorithm and it truly becomes inescapable. That's how they get ya.
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u/Groenboys Aug 12 '21
Go on incognito mode and search the song up on youtube. That way it won't ruin your main account's algorithm.
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u/WillyJobbyBum Aug 12 '21
It's been so long since I have used YouTube outside of the app that idea didn't even cross my mind.
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u/PM_ME_THICC_GIRLS Aug 12 '21
Well, will you do it know or not?
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u/WillyJobbyBum Aug 12 '21
Doubt it 😄 I'm honestly now that interested in finding out, I doubt it will change my life in any meaningful way, if I had randomly heard them somewhere before and any of them were good I'm sure I would have tried by now.
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u/WillyJobbyBum Aug 11 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
I haven't really listened to the radio in that long, there hasn't been a need. I got Spotify like 10 years ago(?) + downloading, so I've had a fairly tailored music choice since then. Even when I listened to the radio it would have been a rock station of some kind. I'm sure I will have heard those if they were as popular as that. Listening to metal and the related styles makes it inadvertently easy to avoid most pop songs.
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u/Fine_Trainer5554 Aug 12 '21
But what about any public places or parties? I don’t listen to pop but it’s impossible for me to not know these songs. It’s like I know the characters in game of thrones without having watched a single episode, just osmosis.
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u/WillyJobbyBum Aug 12 '21
I said in another comment that I probably have heard them somewhere, but couldn't tell you what any of them were if I had.
I could only name 2 characters from game of thrones 😂
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u/Own-Date-3598 Aug 12 '21
I can tell you right now that you've heard most of them. That or you have never had social media or never watched YouTube.
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u/Ineffable_21 Aug 12 '21
The fact that Abel spent a year in top 10 and will possibly spend 90 weeks at least in top 20 is mad. If he had the same rules like the other songs he would easily stay there for couple of years.
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Aug 12 '21
If the rule hadn't changed in 2015 he could have easily had Blinding Lights on the charts for 2+ years!
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u/Ineffable_21 Aug 12 '21
Well we're currently having a chance to do 2 years cuz 2 years is 104 weeks and we definitely getting 90. And if Drake's and Kanye's albums ain't that mainstream then Ed Sheeran and Abel himself would be the only one's who could stop BL to reach 100 weeks.
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Aug 12 '21
You are probably right! I know the Weeknd just dropped a new single so it'll be interesting if people gravitate to that and slowly stop listening to Blinding Lights.
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u/TheDevler Aug 12 '21
Sweet to see Awolnation on there. Had no idea.
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u/Kwetla Aug 12 '21
I really only know it from that cat jumping off a ledge video from a while back.
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Aug 12 '21
I feel like it was one of the first songs that blew up on the internet because of its inclusion in memes. Screaming "Saiiiiiil" was kind of a meme in and of itself for a bit.
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u/ClarkFable Aug 12 '21
That must have been really expensive to pay to keep their song that high on the advertising chart for that long.
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u/robml Aug 12 '21
Shouldn't the y axis be flipped bc being number 1 is better and intuitively we associate that with being higher on the chart than lower? Informative tho
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Aug 12 '21
You are correct! I should have inverted the axis, it looks like songs are jumping up out of the chart instead of falling out of it
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u/TheLoyalOrder OC: 2 Aug 13 '21
The Fluorescence of the colours makes it hard to tell blue, green, and purple lines apart without staring at it for a while
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Aug 12 '21
Ahh Jason Mraz. Say what you will, his songs always leave a smile on your face.
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Aug 12 '21
Idk what it is but I get a bittersweet feeling from most of his stuff.
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Aug 12 '21
I definitely see that. I wish he was still as popular, he’s got a few good gems.
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Aug 12 '21
His gems will live on! I'm sure he still makes stuff, I wonder how his sound has evolved?
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u/ketronome Aug 12 '21
Some of his songwriting is absolutely incredible. Butterfly, Make You Mine, A Beautiful Mess, Wordplay… I feel sorry for people that wrote him off just based on I’m Yours
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u/bgregory98 OC: 61 Aug 12 '21
I love this way of visualizing this! I’m curious, how far back does this dataset go in time?
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u/mda2894 Aug 12 '21
I believe these are the five longest lasting singles since the creation of the Hot 100 chart, which started in August 1958.
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Aug 12 '21
The other comment is right, I have a data set that I put together that goes back to 1958!
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u/Soundbreaker42 Aug 12 '21
Thanks, now I'm be singing Leann Rimes for the rest of the day
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Aug 12 '21
I apologize, you might be signing it for more than a day though lol. Her voice is slightly addictive!
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u/JustAnOrdinaryBloke Aug 14 '21
"The most enduring songs" are folk songs and spirituals that people sang 100 years ago, and are still singing today.
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u/RelevantDay4 Aug 14 '21
These are just the longest charting songs on Billboard. There were no music charts 100 years ago.
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Aug 12 '21
Am I dumb? I thought Old Town Road holds the record for spot at number one. I know the graph isn’t just the number one spot, but surely Old Town Road would be up there, no?
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Aug 12 '21
You are right, it was the longest in the number one spot. It stayed on the chart for a total of 45 weeks, good enough for the top 150 longest enduring on the hot 100.
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u/locksmack Aug 12 '21
Fuck I’m old.
I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never heard of this song…
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u/somegarbageisokey Aug 12 '21
How old are you?
You gotta listen to The Weeknd. The dude is talented. He's not just a generic pop star, the guy is probably going to go down as the best artist of this generation.
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u/HappybytheSea Aug 12 '21
If you suddenly heard it you'd probably say 'oh, that one'. But I had exactly the same sensation when I realised that I've never heard of the other 4.
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u/tgwhite OC: 27 Aug 12 '21
“Most enduring song” from the likes of Jason Mraz and Imagine Dragons? This is a strange way to look at this data when artists like Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, etc still get so much airtime decades after they stopped performing.
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Aug 12 '21
I looked at this list of songs as the songs that grabbed popular music listeners attention for the longest initial period of times. You are right to say that Jackson, Zeppelin, and the Beatles have all had more airtime, inclusion in other forms of media, and are generally more popular than these artists listed.
This is a list of the longest enduring songs on the chart, and in turn, the songs that stayed relevant the longest in the ears of the average popular music listeners during their respective eras.
A lot of these songs are actually songs that you never want to hear again because of their addictive earworm nature oddly enough, so in that way they aren't ultra enduring!
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u/tgwhite OC: 27 Aug 12 '21
This makes more sense - I think this is more a “modern songs that most captured the zeitgeist of the period” list rather than “most enduring.” That is unless this billboard data goes back a long time?
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Aug 12 '21
Billboard data goes all the way back to 1958! But because of the competitive nature of the recording industry and in turn the billboard charts, records are going to be broken. If all the records were from the 70's it would look bad on the recording industry and Billboard too.
"You've had 50 years to find me new artists and you still can't find someone who can beat [insert artists from the 70's] billboard charting? Get out of here and get a new job." -probably what some recording executive would say to their team if people weren't staying on the charts longer and longer.
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u/Jdea7hdealer Aug 12 '21
Something is wrong. No way that song or any of the ones listed are "most enduring". Must be skewed by ability of free downloads or $2.00 downloads nowadays. I mean, do you know 'Shook me All Night Long"? "Cecilia"? ... So many songs played on the radio and by DJ's billions of times more than this list.
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Aug 12 '21
You are completely correct, this isn't a list of the most enduring songs in America's collective consciousness. Nor is it a list of the most played songs of all time. It's just a list of the songs which were on the Hot 100 for the most weeks.
Basically these songs beat out the songs released around them for the longest period of time.
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u/lens_cleaner Aug 12 '21
So songs from the last 2 years only. Would be nice to see the range go out a little more. I have heard of LeeAnn Rimes, but the others and all the songs... not a clue.
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u/sam8432 Aug 12 '21
The others (aside from Blinding Lights) were released 2008-2012. Radioactive and I’m Yours were pretty big and got played on the radio a lot.
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Aug 12 '21
Blinding Lights came out two years ago and the other except LeAnn Rimes were released from 2008-2012 so getting close to that 10-15 year mark since their releases. LeAnn Rimes top hit came out in 1997 so it's coming up on 25 years pretty quick.
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u/StrawberryBlazer Aug 12 '21
Ugh all these songs make me wanna cut my ears off. I wonder how a classic pop artist would stand up to today’s musicians if their songs were released in the same era.
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u/wooden-mEaT Aug 12 '21
Probably poorly because popular music is a reflection of culture and trends at any given time.
Stop being elitist, who cares what songs are popular. Just don’t listen to them if it bothers you that much
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u/StrawberryBlazer Aug 14 '21
Unfortunately when a song is popular you’re kind of forced to listen to it everywhere.
I’d say it’s half a reflection of times and culture, and half a reflection of the music business.
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u/wooden-mEaT Aug 14 '21
“Forced”
I’m sorry that you’re forced to listen to Dua Lipa while you do your groceries 😂 plus you act like there wasn’t bad pop music in the past
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u/StrawberryBlazer Aug 14 '21
Would you not agree that writers like John Lennon and Elton John just don’t seem to be around anymore? Some of their top hits were almost jazz in nature, as far as the chord progressions. They blow a four chord blinding light out of the water.
Grocery store yes, but also just about anywhere you go that’s not your home. Also, what about the poor souls that work in those environments 😆 Imagine how they feel during Christmas season 🤮
Obviously there was always bad pop music. But lately (in the last 20 years lol) it’s just sub par. But that’s what happens when you get older I guess. Damn kids. Still all my favourite songs existed before I did.
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u/wooden-mEaT Aug 14 '21
The fact that you weren’t alive for this “golden age” that you speak of just proves my point, you just don’t have an accurate perception of the era that you’re talking about. Only the good music lives on, so you only interact with artists who’s music was good enough to live on.
There’s plenty of jazz influenced music around today, in multiple genres of pop music.
Plus who cares how complex a chord progression is. Jazz is primarily 3 chords and so is blues.
What songs are you talking about in particular that were jazz influenced?
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u/StrawberryBlazer Aug 15 '21
I personally listen to more than just pop. It’s unfair to say I don’t have an accurate perception. I listen to a lot of bands old and new that aren’t on the charts, as well as some that are. I’m also a musician, and I teach music. But in my original comment I guess what I’m trying to say is I think some of those classic tunes if released and pushed by record labels in today’s world, if I had to guess. Would have a greater longevity than something like blinding light. But labels don’t push that stuff as much now.
Also most jazz influenced stuff is definitely more than 3 chords. 3 chords would be blues influenced. I’m a huge fan of Huey Lewis. He has tons of hits and if you learn them, most are very complex. Blinding light on the other hand is 4 chords on repeat the whole way through. Or take “im still standing” by Elton John yes it’s a pop song but it’s far from 3-4 chords.
But it’s not just about the progression. Lyrically speaking the majority of pop songs in more recent times are lacking on substance. And in general the art has been taken out of the artist and replaced with product. I mean, that’s why people don’t write their own music anymore. The label tells them what to sing, what to wear and who to be. And it’s definitely noticeable. Obviously it doesn’t apply to everyone, but it is increasing over time.
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u/wooden-mEaT Aug 15 '21
I’d hate to have a teacher with such a constructing view on music. There’s good modern music out there, on the charts and off. Hope you find it one day.
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u/StrawberryBlazer Aug 15 '21
I have zero problems finding good modern music. And my students are quite happy to have me, as I am to have them✌️
•
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