Modern pop music insults the field

September 9, 2010 by Keith Nathan 

Computerization of modern music distorts the art

Recycle, record, auto-tune, rinse, repeat. This is the seemingly unstoppable formula for mass producing chart-topping pop songs until the sun burns out.

Simply apply this formula, insert your favorite pop artist, call the product some variation of “Love Dance Bang featuring Woogidy Shoop Dog,” and presto — you have a record-breaking, ear-pounding sensation ready for remixed reproduction at all your favorite clubs.

These club-tastic jams have invaded our radio stations, relegating the power ballads and classic rock of yore to the fringe stations that you can occasionally pick up by shifting into neutral, blasting the heater and applying the emergency brake simultaneously with the windshield wipers.

Bach and Beethoven are surely rolling in their graves as we slowly transform humanity’s great art into a self-replicating virus.

“Virus” is surely the most appropriate word for the vapid beats that pervade our radios, televisions and stages. In the biological world, viruses are parasites that can only reproduce by utilizing the machinery of a true living organism, transforming that machinery into copies of the virus.

In the music world, the “true living organisms” are songs created by musicians using real instruments, vocals, talent and hard work to compose and create melodies and harmonies.

The passionless counterparts often utilize some of the machinery from music such as a chord structure or a melody, and then they repackage, digitize and remix it into four minutes of synthesized garbage.

Something wonderful is lost during this process. The magic, the soul, the emotion or whatever you want to call it is distilled and stripped away.

I am referring to the human element of music. Think of a professional jazz saxophonist like Lee Konitz. He stands on a stage ready to give a performance because he has spent countless hours practicing and honing his skills on that particular instrument.

The muscles in his mouth and fingers can so effortlessly project his thoughts into sound that the instrument is practically an extension of his body.

Every detail and nuance that he injects into his performance is unique to his personal style of playing, developed over decades and influenced by other great musicians.

These elements are completely missing in modern pop music. There is little practicing necessary when the sound is computer gen-erated and the vocals can be auto-tuned to any note.

Any hope for nuance or detail is lost when the music is crammed through computers and synthesizers.
Artistic leeway goes out the window as the cyber instruments are subjugated by the endless pounding of the synthesized bass.

Even the lyrics seem devoid of life. They are usually completely nonsensical and/or variations of “I’m a baller,” “Girl get with me tonight,” or “Dance, dance, dance your face off.”

We are drawn to the endless droning of this pop music because it is simple and rhythmic. Unlike classical or jazz music, there is no thought required to appreciate its primitive form.

In the more recent American generations (to include my own), we are hardwired to accept massive amounts of mind-numbing media.

The club-tabulous tunes we encounter almost unendingly are the perfect medium to deliver frantic Youtube videos and unchecked reality shows.

Certainly this music is appropriate and almost necessary at a club or a party. Nobody can get down to Paul Desmond’s “Take Five” jazz piece. But it is mind-boggling that this music is so ubiquitous. It’s on the radio, the television and the Internet.

It’s on at the gym and the club.

It’s blasting from cars, in stores and I’ll wager most of us have a whole bunch of it on our iPods.
Pop music certainly maintains an important role in entertainment.

It is when we substitute this music for all others that it is detrimental to the development of our minds and our society.
Music has been used to enhance and enrich our lives for centuries — in ceremonies, worship, celebrations and rituals.
It lays the foundations for other great art forms such as ballet and film. Can you imagine Star Wars without the sweeping John Wil-liams score in the background?

It would be a shame to witness timeless music lost to an endless sea of computerized sound.
Consider this the next time you turn on the radio.