INCOMING RANT...
Taylor Swift, to me, is the epitome of what denotes modern pop music suckage.
I remember seeing
her NPR Tiny Desk solo show thing, and my god when you strip away the hyper-production they really are barebones and cookie-cutter, not at all innovative or interesting variations on the same old I-VI-IV-V progression that's been a standard thing in music since the doo-wop era and before. At least golden oldies like
Earth Angel had stuff like searing/beautiful string, brass and vocal melodies arrangements to elevate them so it's an example of the four chord done right and well, whereas I find whatever she's singing about in whatever sequence of notes to be about as bland as you can get especially when coupled with boringly programmed drum machines.
As a bass playing friend of mine is fond of saying, it's "wallpaper music" - blends into the background because nothing about it grabs your attention. With the rise of what Gen Z call "vibe music" (ironic because the little I've listened to seems bereft of any kind of emotional resonance to me personally) is often formless ambient noodling. It's like people these days hate hooks, but I doubt it because that would be out of step with every other era of music where people love earworms that get hummed and sang aloud even when you're barely conscious of it.
Where the epitome thing comes into play is, people like her and Ed Sheehan would be C-tier also-rans in almost any other era. Put them next to Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan and they really, really suffer, but yet because in modern times there's so little sophistication in pop they're somehow huge? I also think it might tie into short attention spans/TikTok generation wanting recognisable background music that's not distracting from the video they're making but if so - and this point has been argued in YouTube video essays - then it's all part of the problem.
For me because I'm a mostly positive person it's inspired me to really try and get that into my writing so every song, regardless of what I'm going for, is doing several interesting things that aren't just cowboy chords and lyrical cliché, for example recently I've written a load of songs that use unusual chord voicings/extensions but in a way that doesn't draw attention to it because vocal melody and hooks are God as far as I'm concerned, as well as having some kind of message to the lyrics that if anyone bothers to listen can glean something from (put down your smartphone and get out in nature, don't be fooled by propaganda go and find the truth, if you make the kind of mistake the song talks about be honest enough to admit it, stuff like that - generally relatable stuff sure, so it can't get too specific, but it beats "I came to the club in a white BMW and left in a black BMW" vapid shite or whatever that lyric actually is that I'm deliberately paraphrasing).
I have to cover some of this in my wedding band to pay the bills, so believe me when I say I can play a lot of this kind of stuff that I'm ragging on, know how simplistic and empty they are, who they're ripping off, why the things they're ripping off are better than the diluted imitation I have to grin and bear through onstage because a song I actually like and consider to be incredibly well written like
Take On Me (awesome live version with real drums here) is still a couple of songs away.
END OF RANT
You want an awesome modern artist doing classicist, brilliant stuff that might well reduce you to tears, check out
Laufey on NPR instead, I mean, wow this is great and as much as I like and respect Lana Del Rey for doing stuff that's more interesting and quirky plus plugging away at it for, oooh, gotta be a few decades now, it's Laufey who really floored me. Shoutout for
WILLOW and her recent effort Symptom Of Life too, damn this thing has jazz chords and time signature changes combining to make something I wish more pop music was like. The good stuff is still out there, it just doesn't float to the top as much as I personally would like.
