I was driving around the other day, and realized something:  I never listen to "Top 40" radio anymore.  And have not done so in around 15 years.

Mostly it is because I really can't stand any of the songs I hear on it anymore.  Which is strange, because growing up, both my parents, and all of my grandparents would listen to the current pop music.  I remember taking long car rides in the 1960's and 1970's, and even through the early 1980's, and they all listened to the current music.  Be it The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys, to Barry Manilow and Hall & Oates.

Is it me, or has pop been loosing it's cross-generational attraction?  20 years ago, I could have named almost every song on the pop charts.  I knew all the artists, and would listen to it for hours.  But today, most of it repulses me.  And I am not the only one, because my dad, my cousin, and my wife all feel the same way.

Yup, it's dead. It's not breathing anymore. Lol.

But unlike you I thought pop music was decent until 1999 when the teen pop explosion and rap dominance started to happen.

So for me, the past 10 years sucked!

We really need a new savior in music like Elvis or Michael Jackson. Honestly though, the music industry needs a wake up call from someone from above?!  ;D ;D

Even movies and television is going bad. I think the reason why is because we're entering a new era in Hollywood and we don't know where to go next.

Here's my perception: 1) The golden age of pop music (50's-90's) has ended and there's nothing we can do about it. Or 2) We're going through a long, long slump of creativity that's going to last for many decades until there's a huge paradigm shift behind the scenes like there was in 1996, when the Telecommunications act was signed by Bill Clinton.

The Telecommunications act of 1996 says that big companies can buy radio stations and play whatever they command the stations to play. This affects the concept of creativity, marketing, image, and manufacturing of music. Welcome to the New World Order people!  :-\\

The Telecommunications act of 1996 says that big companies can buy radio stations and play whatever they command the stations to play. This affects the concept of creativity, marketing, image, and manufacturing of music. Welcome to the New World Order people!  :-\\

Partially what you mention is true, the growth of mega communication companies like Clear Channel, and a widespread corporate-ization of most of radio stations and the industry has just about ruined any possibility of real creativity or variety from pop music.

Pre-programed playlists by radio and flow chart music/band development programs by the labels are in place to ensure the industry gets a return on their investment. Music is nothing more than a product now, harvested, promoted, and presented as such. The industry makes sure they have as much control as possible over the finished product. As you would expect, this approach only guarantees the continual generation of bland, unoriginal, junk that is "pop" music today.

In this atmosphere it almost impossible for anything new different or fresh to get a chance to be heard and get on radio/airplay. Which is unfortunate as, to my understanding, pop music is a variety of popular music, not just the same old thing thats just warmed up stuff that we've heard before or has no real originality.

Whats worse we seem to as a society help foster this closed circle of music growth with shows like American Idol and such. :P

Even so, I think we're looking at the problem the wrong way, there is plenty of great new music out there, its just not being played on the radio.
The internet, streaming radio, and podcasts actually give us more variety and selections to hear music than ever before.

One of OUR, us, as the listening publics biggest issues that I've recognized, is that now, we, have to go find that music, whereas before it was pretty much fed to us via some limited channels on the radio. In the past passive listening with the result of getting great music was the expected standard.
But now, when we're not getting that same good outcome, we can't complain and still be passive, either put in some effort to find what you like, explore some new venues to see whats out there, or move on.
Its not as if there isn't something better, its just that we have been so comfortable with it just being there on the radio, that we are either are too lazy or scared to go find it.

And thats whats so odd, we now have all the opportunity and choices in music, more than EVER before. We have the ability to MAKE our own pop music, something you'd think we be ecstatic about having that much choice and power, but are we really taking advantage of whats available?

At least thats my take on it, I'm an old guy and I find this to be a common mindset of those my age. I don't think younger people or teens see this as an issue, they're more easily adaptable to other formats for music and entertainment, and in a very enlightened view, don't feel entitled to have radio, just one format, bring them all that they want to hear...

There are still pop songs, but it's not like the old days when you could turn on the radio and hear nothing but

Yup, it's dead. It's not breathing anymore. Lol.

But unlike you I thought pop music was decent until 1999 when the teen pop explosion and rap dominance started to happen.

Here's my perception: 1) The golden age of pop music (50's-90's) has ended and there's nothing we can do about it. Or 2) We're going through a long, long slump of creativity that's going to last for many decades until there's a huge paradigm shift behind the scenes like there was in 1996, when the Telecommunications act was signed by Bill Clinton.


You are right about the revival between 1999 and 2001.  I was thinking the same thing myself earlier today.

At that time, we had a bunch of "Traditional Pop" groups appear.  Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth, Creed, even people like Lou Bega, which changed up the mix.  But it quickly died out, and we were stuck with what we have now.


The Telecommunications act of 1996 says that big companies can buy radio stations and play whatever they command the stations to play. This affects the concept of creativity, marketing, image, and manufacturing of music. Welcome to the New World Order people!  :-\\


I do not think it is that as much.  Personally, I place a lot more of the blame on the P2P music shareing that is going on.

The record companies have seen a large reduction of income because of this.  And this is causing them to dig in, and simply sell what has been shown in recent years to sell.  They are less likely to take a chance on new artists and styles.

And while the act does affect radio stations, this does not explain other sources, like MTV, VH1, internet radio, and college radio stations.  They play the same crap the conventional radio stations do.  So while that may influence radio, it does not explain the stagnation in the other areas.


There are still pop songs, but it's not like the old days when you could turn on the radio and hear nothing but


Where?  I certainly can't find them.  The closest I come to listening to conventional radio now is the occasional time I flip to the Country station.

But in another week or so I am going back to Qatar, where I will be stuck listening to the garbage "top 40" station from AFN - Europe.  :-\\

I was driving around the other day, and realized something:  I never listen to "Top 40" radio anymore.  And have not done so in around 15 years.


It took 22 years from adult contemporary BBC DJ Mark Ellen's "Any minute now, pop will eat itself" being sampled...

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/pwei-this-is-the-day.jpg

...but it finally happened.

I've had this conversation at work -- we've got some guys who are into satellite radio, and the only reason is because it gives 'em live sports broadcasts.  Anybody who actually listens to music has given up on radio altogether and just uses their MP3 player.

Another funny snippet of conversation, from a road trip.

Co-worker: "Great CD! What's it called?"
Me: "The 80s."
Co-worker: "No, which songs?"
Me: "All of them."

An 8-GB or higher MP3 player on shuffle play is like a radio station, minus the commercials, and minus the DJs talking over the music, plus the request line is open 24/7, and the DJ plays everything you ask.  Using tags to sort between genres, you can even change stations.  For a hundred bucks, you can carry every radio station in the universe in your pocket. 

Clear Channel never really stood a chance.  They won the battle and lost the war.

Where?  I certainly can't find them.  The closest I come to listening to conventional radio now is the occasional time I flip to the Country station.


That's just it.  There are pop songs in today's music, you just have to weed through the crap to find them.  I gave up on doing that years ago cause it was too difficult a task

There are still genres of pop. I'll probably get a groan here, but I get my 00s pop from people like Brandy and David Archuleta. However the feelgood happy pop of the 80s has definitely lost it's way.

I was driving around the other day, and realized something:  I never listen to "Top 40" radio anymore.  And have not done so in around 15 years.

Mostly it is because I really can't stand any of the songs I hear on it anymore.  Which is strange, because growing up, both my parents, and all of my grandparents would listen to the current pop music.  I remember taking long car rides in the 1960's and 1970's, and even through the early 1980's, and they all listened to the current music.  Be it The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys, to Barry Manilow and Hall & Oates.

Is it me, or has pop been loosing it's cross-generational attraction?  20 years ago, I could have named almost every song on the pop charts.  I knew all the artists, and would listen to it for hours.  But today, most of it repulses me.  And I am not the only one, because my dad, my cousin, and my wife all feel the same way.


Yes! :) I've thought the same thing for a long time (and have posted about it before). Sure, music was always kinda targeted at teens and young adults the most, but there seemed to be alot of casual childhood and older adult fans too. I remember alot of older people in the 80s (including my parents and others) who dug the pop music. Same with the 90s, which was really diverse.

I think a number of things probably contribute to that gradually changing today (since like 2002 probably). I agree that a higher percentage of people downloading, along with Clear Channel cutting alot of the variety of songs off radio stations are parts of it. There's still songs I like now, but it's not nearly as much, since hip hop dominates so much music, either directly or not.

Is pop music dead? Well the golden days of everybody being a fan of music is over I think. Even in mid 2005 there was still people following the music scene. I mean 2006+ music scene doesn;t have that must interest even tough are a few select songs that I like from 2006-early 2007.

I noticed a post above complaining about teen-pop well I agree teen-pop of 1999-2000/2001  may lack depth musically but the music industry was making alot of money off of it I mean Britney Spears, N' Sync, and The Backstreet Boys would sell 1 million albums in their first week of release of a CD. Even in 2003 new artists like Evanesnce and 50 Cent went 6 times platinum with their debut records. Kanye West sold 3 million of his debut CD in 2003. Even in 2005 50 Cents next CD went 5 times platinum. Green Day's and Mariah Carey's comeback albums sold 5-6 times platinum and 4 times platinum respectively. Kanye;s 2005 album went 3 times platinum as well. The Killer's album "Hot Fuss" went 3 times platinum.

Go foward to late 2005 the debut of dreaded ringtone rap with "DL 4" "Dem Franchise Boys" I think ringtone rap artists might have killed the CD format with their Ringtone Rap hits. Now the Target of artists is too have a hot single I mean look at a rap artist like "Flo Rida" I mean he's hot on the charts right now but his album sales aren;t all that. 

The telecommunications act of 1996:

I don;t know if it had that much of an effect on the music scene as much as I thought it did I mean the American people were living large from 1999-2007 and the Glam Rap and teen-pop trends just reflected the happy times that we were living in for those 8-9 years.

I actually think and I was thinking about this the other day how rock music lost its rebellion Kurt Cobain killed himself and the 2 Pac and Biggie murders in late 1996 and early 1997 respectively. I think those 3 deaths might have really set the tone for music 1997+ I mean hip-hop got big in 1997 with Puff Daddy and rock music even if it was still there from 1997-2002 it lost all its rebellion that it had. I think its amazing how rap music thrived after 2 Pac and Biggie's deaths so much and rock music just flat out lost its way after 1996. I mean even Britney Spears was more rebellious than most of the rock bands that have came out in the past 10-12 years or so. The infamous RS March 1999 cover of Britney parents went crazy but Britney sold alot of records because she was rebellious at the time because of that RS cover.

To be fair I don;t know who made rap more popular Puff Daddy in 1997-mid 1998 or 50 cent in 2003. At least in 1999-2002 Hip-Hop was there but if you didn't want to hear it you didn't. From 2003-early 2006 and 2007-mid 2008 hip-hop was everywhere. I think it might have been Puff Daddy that mainstreamed Hip-Hop to a mass audience and 50 Cent pretty much blew hip-hop's populaity up overnight. If not for Britney Spears arrival in early 1999 Hip-Hop might have dominated music singlehandidly from 1997-mid 2008. Britney does have a glam rap image I think in her music video's from like 2004+.

I think that we all think the same thing about the next generation, my mom wasn't listening to top 40 radio in the late 90s, and now I don't listen to top 40 today--but I did in the 90s and my nephew still listens to top 40 today. . .I think it's relevant to what we grow up with

CD sales are next to dead, but downloads are doing very healthy and a growing industry, so I don't think it's dead, though I certainly am in the same boat as far as abstaining from most of today's hit music.

I agree with tv's post - I've thought about that before too, about how there hasn't been any truly rebellious and controversial music since Cobain and Tupac/Biggie died. I guess Eminem would be the closest, but I think the pioneering in music stopped after like 1995/96 and maybe that's partially why.


I think that we all think the same thing about the next generation, my mom wasn't listening to top 40 radio in the late 90s, and now I don't listen to top 40 today--but I did in the 90s and my nephew still listens to top 40 today. . .I think it's relevant to what we grow up with

CD sales are next to dead, but downloads are doing very healthy and a growing industry, so I don't think it's dead, though I certainly am in the same boat as far as abstaining from most of today's hit music.


I think that's half true. You're probably right about liking what's familar the best. I love music of my childhood and early teen years, which explains why I'm comfortable with let's say 1981-1995 or so, and that nothing else will ever seem quite as good to me.

However I disagree kinda too. When I was a kid I remember lots of adults who liked the songs at the time. Maybe not to the point teenagers did, and probably not as much as they liked what they grew up with (the 50s and 60s)... but music seemed to draw alot more "casual older fans" than it does today. My dad's good friend was a Hall & Oates fan, and he even looked a bit like Oates, lol.

There's A FEW songs like that today, like "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. Overall I think it's less common because so much pop is aimed at tweens whereas when I was younger it seemed to be aimed more at anybody. At least certain songs.

I was driving around the other day, and realized something:  I never listen to "Top 40" radio anymore.  And have not done so in around 15 years.

Mostly it is because I really can't stand any of the songs I hear on it anymore.  Which is strange, because growing up, both my parents, and all of my grandparents would listen to the current pop music.  I remember taking long car rides in the 1960's and 1970's, and even through the early 1980's, and they all listened to the current music.  Be it The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys, to Barry Manilow and Hall & Oates.

Is it me, or has pop been loosing it's cross-generational attraction?  20 years ago, I could have named almost every song on the pop charts.  I knew all the artists, and would listen to it for hours.  But today, most of it repulses me.  And I am not the only one, because my dad, my cousin, and my wife all feel the same way.

I think pop music started to die around 1990.
And "rap" isn't music.

I think pop music started to die around 1990.
And "rap" isn't music.


I agree 100% with 1990 being the year pop music started to die. Come on, Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer all in one year?

There's A FEW songs like that today, like "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. Overall I think it's less common because so much pop is aimed at tweens whereas when I was younger it seemed to be aimed more at anybody. At least certain songs.


The reason why music seems to be targeted toward younger people now than in, say, the 80s and 90s is simple demographics.  A quick look at a birth rate chart tells the story.

http://www.nchealthandhealing.com/elements/media/topic-media/3_2a_Birth_rate_chart.jpg

Notice the dip in the birth rate in the mid-60s, bottoming out in the mid-70s, then slowly increasing in the late 70s to mid 80s before experiencing a short boom in the late 80s and early 90s.  This graph tells us pretty much the whole story.  The reason why there was a lot of adult-oriented music and music appealing to older people in the 80s and 90s was due to the influence of the Baby Boomers, the largest amount of which (those born in the 50s and early 60s) were in their 30s and 40s during the 80s and 90s.  The Baby Boomers, numbering far more than their Gen X successors, were a large and viable demographic for marketing music and pop culture towards.  Generation X was catered to, as the youth always are, but their small size meant that companies would have experienced a noticeable decline in profits if they hadn't continued to make stuff for the Baby Boomers in their 30s and 40s.

Now fast forward to the present day.  The Baby Boomers are now in their late 40s to early 60s, with the majority being in their 50s.  Not a demographic typically catered to in the world of pop music.  Now the Gen Xers are in their 30s and 40s, in the same position as the Baby Boomers in the late 20th century, but whereas there were more Baby Boomers than Gen Xers, now there are more "Gen Yers" (still hate that term) than Gen Xers.  While there was a need to cater to older tastes in the late 20th century, lest profits decline, there is now no incentive to target the older Gen Xers because now they have a much larger Gen Y group to target.  Of course, profits are declining anyway, although this can be attributed to a number of factors.

The noticeable increase in birth rates in the first half of the 80s means that these people would've been in high school or college in the late 90s - right around the time that the young started to get catered to more (boy bands and all that) at the expense of the old.  Birth rates do decline a bit in the mid 90s before increasing again in the late 90s - the ten year olds currently being targeted by Disney with Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, and all that.

It's all in the demographics ;D

True, and they say the 00s are known for having high birth-rates too, so I do expect them to cater to the much larger, younger audience for years to come.  This means that Hanna Montana will still have a job. Honestly I can't wait for this new generation(Generation Z?  What comes after that!) to defend pop culture, because I know a kid now that just turned 13 and will defend her Disney Shows just if I would defend my rap and hard rock music when I was that age.


I guess it depends on who you ask when pop music really dies.  I will say that Rap music is probably the biggest generation divider, since parents really hated when their kids listen to rap music.  Its strange how something as simple as rap have so much publicity, especially during the days when Clinton was questioned whether kids should listen to it or not.  I love listening to rap music, but I couldn't stand any rap music after following the Master P craze back in 99-01 era.

It's not like it used to be that's for sure.

I remember the days of sitting down every Sunday to listen to the Top 40 Charts and recording my favourite songs off the radio. Nowadays, because of the net no-one has the need to that. They can search and scour for anything they want music wise on the net. And if they don't know what they want, they can put last.fm on to play their favourite genre and recommend stuff. Pop music isn't dead - it's out there, it's just very different to how it was 10-15 years ago.

True, and they say the 00s are known for having high birth-rates too, so I do expect them to cater to the much larger, younger audience for years to come.  This means that Hanna Montana will still have a job. Honestly I can't wait for this new generation(Generation Z?  What comes after that!) to defend pop culture, because I know a kid now that just turned 13 and will defend her Disney Shows just if I would defend my rap and hard rock music when I was that age.


I guess it depends on who you ask when pop music really dies.  I will say that Rap music is probably the biggest generation divider, since parents really hated when their kids listen to rap music.  Its strange how something as simple as rap have so much publicity, especially during the days when Clinton was questioned whether kids should listen to it or not.  I love listening to rap music, but I couldn't stand any rap music after following the Master P craze back in 99-01 era.
Rap music was decent from the late 80's to mid 2005 and than it fell off a cliff after mid 2005. The last 4 years of rap music have been absolute crap.

I agree 100% with 1990 being the year pop music started to die. Come on, Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer all in one year?
Yeah but Rap music in the early to mid 90's didn;t dominate the charts like it did in the mid 2000's(50 Cent's popuarity from 2003-mid 2005) like I said in a post above. My mom even liked music from 1990-1996 and she's a baby boomer.

Yeah but Rap music in the early to mid 90's didn;t dominate the charts like it did in the mid 2000's(50 Cent's popuarity from 2003-mid 2005) like I said in a post above. My mom even liked music from 1990-1996 and she's a baby boomer.




I actually think MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice's songs are catchy. There's something about today's music that is sooooooo lacking. It's missing melody and artistic creativity I think.

Dead ?.....Nah.....not with Miley Cyrus,The Jonas Brothers,Taylor Swift, Metro Station {Shake It}

I agree with both of tv's posts.

Rap music wasn't everything back then, it was popular, but it wasn't painful to the ears like it is now. Last year, especially had horrible rap songs. This year, I'm hearing more of, well I don't know what you would call the genre but "Boom Boom Pow" and songs that sound like it like "Right Round" and all these 2009 songs. What genre would that be called? Crunk?

I agree with both of tv's posts.

Rap music wasn't everything back then, it was popular, but it wasn't painful to the ears like it is now. Last year, especially had horrible rap songs. This year, I'm hearing more of, well I don't know what you would call the genre but "Boom Boom Pow" and songs that sound like it like "Right Round" and all these 2009 songs. What genre would that be called? Crunk?


Crunk is more of a 2003-2004 thing.  Lil' Jon and all that.  Crunk used to be the worst genre of Rap until "Snap Music" ("Laffy Taffy", "Crank That", etc.) took the crown around 2006-ish.  Ringtone Rap is what some detractors like to call it.

Now, stuff like "Boom Boom Pow" and stuff isn't a particular genre other than simple Mainstream Rap.  It does use a particular technique though known as Auto-Tune, which gives the voices in the song that electronic style feel.  Lately every rapper on the face of the planet is using it and it's become so overused and overprocessed that it ruins otherwise decent songs.  Maybe "all these 2009 songs" that you mention would be Rap songs using Auto-Tune, although I don't think "Right Round" uses it to my knowledge.  You can blame T-Pain for saturating Rap with Auto-Tune.

I thought that Britney and Gaga were pop.

Are they some other genre? ???

Television, on the other hand, is either A) Too commercial with seemingly endless "log on to..." or "text to..." or "call" crap that doesn't let you enjoy the purpose of what's on, B) Too bland and dull scripts with numerous scripted series canceled after a few shows, or C) Too "in your face" graphics that distract what is actually going on. Not that TV isn't as bad as music (lots of old series plus perennialy good stuff like sports), but with hundreds of channels, TV has really isolated pop culture so much that there is no good recurring theme.

If you haven't seen anything, check out Google Books' Billboard archive of 1,700 issues dating all the way back to 1942. The pre-rock issues shows a simple, Americana-type society with everything in good order. Then the golden years (1955-1986) will show rock/music evolving in a innovative, outstanding approach. By the time the archive resumes in 1992 we find it starting to get darker by looking at the ads, and when we get to the new century we can really see that music has devolved into both recycled garbage of past glory and dark, raging hip-hop oriented stuff along with ads that are really "in your face".

Crunk is more of a 2003-2004 thing.  Lil' Jon and all that.  Crunk used to be the worst genre of Rap until "Snap Music" ("Laffy Taffy", "Crank That", etc.) took the crown around 2006-ish.  Ringtone Rap is what some detractors like to call it.

Now, stuff like "Boom Boom Pow" and stuff isn't a particular genre other than simple Mainstream Rap.  It does use a particular technique though known as Auto-Tune, which gives the voices in the song that electronic style feel.  Lately every rapper on the face of the planet is using it and it's become so overused and overprocessed that it ruins otherwise decent songs.  Maybe "all these 2009 songs" that you mention would be Rap songs using Auto-Tune, although I don't think "Right Round" uses it to my knowledge.  You can blame T-Pain for saturating Rap with Auto-Tune.
I think stuff like "Boom Boom Pow' , "I Love College" or "Day N' Nite" has more in common which pop-rap of the late 80's/early 90's than it has in common with early to mid 2005 rap I think.

The autotone that was used in it Jamie Foxx's current hit "Blame It" just ruins the whole song.

T-Pain even though he had a hits in mid 2005-early 2006 his sound wasn;t all over the place until maybe his early 2007 hit "Buy A Drank" (a #1 Billboard Hot 100 hit)had an effect on auto-tone being popular in the long run. The autotone didn;t really hit big until late 2007 maybe. I remember music sounding in early to mid 2007 like it still had a 2004 sound to it. Late 2007 music didn't sound like 2004 music thats for sure.

Late 2007 music didn't sound like 2004 music thats for sure.

Credits to Soulja Boy for that.  >:(

I remember early 2007 rap, like Pop Lock & Drop It, and Throw Some D's, does sound a little different. I didn't know what to call Boom Boom Pow and Right Round because they're not rap or R&B, not pop, I thought there'd be a special thing they're called.

I think comparing a recent R&B song to an R&B song from 10 - 12 years ago, you'll notice a big difference. They were a lot slower and sounded more like R&B.

Boom Boom Pow and Right Round are just pop rap, I think calling that stuff hip-hop is a bit laughable really, it's more like Britney Spears than it is hip-hop imo. They get annoying after awhile like a lot of things now. It seems like actual rap music is dead today really. I do think this autotuned pop rap stuff will probably date horribly.

Boom Boom Pow and Right Round are just pop rap, I think calling that stuff hip-hop is a bit laughable really, it's more like Britney Spears than it is hip-hop imo. They get annoying after awhile like a lot of things now. It seems like actual rap music is dead today really. I do think this autotuned pop rap stuff will probably date horribly.


Or maybe it will become the music streak of the '10s?

It all sounds kind of new to me.

Anyway, more 90's nostalgia in recent songs from this year. There's Yuo Can Get It All - Bow Wow's reference to TLC's Baby-Baby-Baby (1992)
and Sugar - Flo Rida's reference to I'm Blue - Eiffel 65 (1999)
That pitbull song, that 1, 2, 3, 4 I know you want me, the music that plays briefly sounds like the music from "The Bomb" - Bucketheads (1995)(These sounds fall into my mi-i-i-i-nd) But I'm not positive

edit - forgot that The Bomb was a sample of that Chicago Song. "Street Player" from the late 70's.

Credits to Soulja Boy for that.  >:(

I remember early 2007 rap, like Pop Lock & Drop It, and Throw Some D's, does sound a little different. I didn't know what to call Boom Boom Pow and Right Round because they're not rap or R&B, not pop, I thought there'd be a special thing they're called.

I think comparing a recent R&B song to an R&B song from 10 - 12 years ago, you'll notice a big difference. They were a lot slower and sounded more like R&B.




Yeah definitely, there's no real slow jams today, the "slower" ones are actually more mid-tempo (Birthday Sex, Boyfriend # 2, Rockin That Thang, Knock You Down, etc.). These days everything seems very high energy and dance oriented.

^ Yeah I miss slow songs that still were catchy and had that pop sound. Especially true R&B which seems to be dead - like "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men or "I Can Love You Like that" by All for One. In some ways that's more like Motown than like Soulja Boy. ;D

^ Yeah I miss slow songs that still were catchy and had that pop sound. Especially true R&B which seems to be dead - like "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men or "I Can Love You Like that" by All for One. In some ways that's more like Motown than like Soulja Boy. ;D


I heard SWV's "Weak" today, and I thought. That's R&B. Not "Birthday Sex"

Pop music is still alive...it is in a different form.  The pop we have now sounds more pop like than it was about 2004.  We are now going back to the classic pop sound again and it will be back in the 2010s.

There are still genres of pop. I'll probably get a groan here, but I get my 00s pop from people like Brandy and David Archuleta. However the feelgood happy pop of the 80s has definitely lost it's way.


It is coming back in some form.  But I noticed there is too much earlier decade influence in music, such as the 1960s swing beat.  Listen to the V Factory or any modern boy band, Sean Kingston, Lady Gaga.  Pop.

I heard SWV's "Weak" today, and I thought. That's R&B. Not "Birthday Sex"


I agree, love "Weak"  ;)