What is it with all those inspiring songs about not being afraid to express who you really are on the indside and to overcome your fears.
All major stars jumped on the popular bandwagon and have released song with that similar meaning.
Examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1FrqwZyKw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXvmSaE0JXA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYa1eI1hpDE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjVNlG5cZyQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocDlOD1Hw9k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5-yKhDd64s

Because a decade of angsty and faux-angsty songs was enough?

Because 2 decades of angsty and faux-angsty songs was enough?


fixed

Lady Gaga - Born This Way
Ke$ha - We R Who We R
Katy Perry - Firework
Taylor Swift - Mean
P!nk - Raise Your Glass
P!nk - F**kin' Perfect (Foo sez "Really?  An angsty protest against eating disorders as a self-esteem booster?  Dude, WTF?")
Eminem - Not Afraid


OK, so Gaga turned it to 11.  (And you forgot Cee Lo Green's F*bleep* you, really a self-esteem-booster to all us schlubs, cleverly disguised as a flame against the stuck-up girl on whom he had a crush back in the day :)

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...but that's forgivable, because we both agree that Gaga really did take it to 11 with Born This Way.  

But this isn't anything really new.  We'll skip over the rock (Roger Hodgson, Had a Dream, in which he "don't care what the future brings, give a damn about anything, I'll be fine if they'd only leave me alone!", WASP, I Wanna Be Somebody, and Twisted Sister's trifecta of Shoot 'Em Down, You Want What We Got, and We're Not Gonna Take It, we'll pretend that Timbuk3 was joking when the future was so bright they had to wear shades) and the rap braggadocio tracks of the old-school era (plenty to choose from, but let's just start with anything by LL Cool J :) and stick with top-40 pop:

Right Said Fred, I'm Too Sexy, 1991: (intended for the listener to sing with, not sit back in awe of.)

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Adam Ant, Room at the Top, 1990: (ditto)

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Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Success, 1988: (OK, this was really SSS just saying they had more money than the listener, but you could take it as a motivational anthem if you chose to.)

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And since I've referenced Coutts & Co and Amex in the same thread, I must now bake a small cake in the form of a credit card, but with black icing, not green, while humming "there is always room at the top / don't let them tell you that there is not..."

But no, I'm not stopping at 11, and I'm going back before 1991, 1990, and 1988.  Let's go back to 1984, and the grand{daddy|mommy} of 'em all. Here's Divine, I'm So Beautiful, in 1984 (making Lady Gaga look downright mainstream by comparison.)

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If Gaga took it to 11, Divine took it to 12, but as Devo said in 1981, we're Through Being Cool: (ostensibly about themselves, but clearly directed at the listener and intended to normalize geekiness some 15-20 years before geeky was cool)

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As bewildered as I am by your inclusion of Pink, F**ckin' Perfect's anti-anorexia protest in this list, I'll take the wayback machine past the three-decade mark, see your P!nk, and raise you this anti-suicide protest: (addressed directly at the listener, and knowing what we now know about the band, they were dead serious about it)

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Queen, Don't Try Suicide, 1980.


Because 23 decades of angsty and faux-angsty songs was enough?



fixed


FIXED!

Yes, there have been a few tracks over the past couple of years in which the singer addresses some self-esteem-boosting lyrics ("You're awesome!") to the listener instead of asking the listener to empathize with them (by singing "I'm/We're awesome!"), and that's a pretty interesting topic worthy of further investigation.

Both Creeder's tracks and mine fall on both sides of that line.  If there's a trend, I don't think it's a trend about self-esteem-boosting songs, but there might be something to the notion that singers are willing to directly address their audience through their lyrics than they once were.  I'm skeptical of that, as this thread's pretty selective, but I'm willing to dig around with the rest of y'all to figure it out.  Where's an analasys of the meaning behind each song (performer singing to listener or encouraging listener sing with performer, and +ve/neutral/-ve self-esteem message) in the top-40 lists when we need one?

I think it had to do with the whole gay bullyings/deaths in 2010 right? Wasn't that what started this whole 'love yourself' explosion in the music industry?  ???

I like the "love yourself" (okay maybe not to the point of narcissism) attitude. It's refreshing, even if the music may not be sometimes. It's guilty pleasure music and we sure do have the right to love and be ourselves. :) I think it's one of the biggest reasons why pop music is so popular, most of it is positive.

I think it had to do with the whole gay bullyings/deaths in 2010 right? Wasn't that what started this whole 'love yourself' explosion in the music industry?  ???



I think it started more in the 80's.

Because a decade of angsty and faux-angsty songs was enough?


But...but...you have Kurt Cobain as your avatar!  :o

And Kurt Cobain is about as angsty (and faux-angsty) as you can get.

But...but...you have Kurt Cobain as your avatar!  :o

And Kurt Cobain is about as angsty (and faux-angsty) as you can get.


I never said I didn't like angsty music, I just said it got overdone.

I wish music would back to the fun time stuff like "Woomp! There it Is!""  8)

I wish music would back to the fun time stuff like "Woomp! There it Is!""  8)


or the Sugarhill Gang.  ;)

I think it had to do with the whole gay bullyings/deaths in 2010 right? Wasn't that what started this whole 'love yourself' explosion in the music industry?  ???


Possible, but unlikely.  That sort of thing had been going on since the 90s.  You might be right, but I'm wondering what changed between then and now to account for it?

On a lighter note, and I'll dig into the obscurity vaults for Freezepop (ZOMG they're touring in 2001) has been doing this schtick since way before it was cool.  

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  - Freezepop, Do You Like Boys, from "Futurefuturefutureperfect", 2007.

Positively tame compared to Boys on Film, from "Fancy Ultra-fresh", 2004, so let's split the difference.

No, wait, that's what Boys on Film did.

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There's a fan-made video that's got good audio that should be SFW anywhere outside of the bible belt, but in deference to American cultural sensitivities, I'm still inclined to skip it.  But it's trivially googlable *cough* HCypZwGTBnc */cough* for you chicks who are into that sort of thing.

OK, I admit it.  I'm a bigot, or at least a wuss, 'cuz I wussed out on the fan video in favor of something a little more (umm, it's been decades since I thought about political correctness, but I think I've got the right word here) "heteronormative".

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 - a different set of fans doing a fan-made video for Freezepop, I Am Not Your Gameboy, 2004.

But in the spirit of not taking anything too seriously, and since I'm on a big Freezepop kick at the moment:

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  - Freezepop, Do You Like My Wang? (a joke about computer terminals from Wang Laboratories...)

The only thing I can think of that's changed in the past 10-20 years as that people don't take this sort of thing so seriously anymore, which is absolutely fabuactually pretty awesome.  Back in the day, you were either "straight" or "one of them LGBTLMNOP activists".  No middle ground.  Even saying "as long as it's between consenting adults, it's none of my business" or "the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation" (with a hat tip in the general direction of Canuckistan) lumped even a heterosexual as being a closeted LGBT-type.

Random thought - without any substantiation - for the night:  The cultural moment that most moved society from "then" to "now" was marked by Seinfeld's line "Not That There's Anything Wrong With That", which brought us the term "NTTAWWT".

These are songs that, 5 years ago, I would have said could never be popular again.  Very reminiscent of the 80's, in my opinion... and a topic I thought would be too cheesey for today's tastes.  But I'm so glad I was wrong!  I am loving pop music right now.  First time in YEARS.

These are songs that, 5 years ago, I would have said could never be popular again.  Very reminiscent of the 80's, in my opinion... and a topic I thought would be too cheesey for today's tastes.  But I'm so glad I was wrong!  I am loving pop music right now.  First time in YEARS.


This.

Just as grunge picked up on what was best about distorted electric guitars (and the dinosaur/arena rockers were just riffing on something they liked in rhythm and blues), the current round of pop is picking up the most interesting bits of the last generation's electronic music.  So it goes.

Has anyone else noticed a change in the hip-hop style in 2011, it's this more introspective, alternative rap with fully sung choruses, loud, distorted drums(some even sounding like drum n bass, like Kanye West's new song Turn Off The Lights), and squeaking synths. Songs like Words I Never Say, I Need A Doctor, Written In The Stars, and Love The Way You Lie are just some examples of this new style that I notice, it seems a world away from most of the '00s style rap in sound and themes.

Expressionism and self-esteem? It was pretty popular in the 70s too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKEnVOuOOOE

Has anyone else noticed a change in the hip-hop style in 2011, it's this more introspective, alternative rap with fully sung choruses, loud, distorted drums(some even sounding like drum n bass, like Kanye West's new song Turn Off The Lights), and squeaking synths. Songs like Words I Never Say, I Need A Doctor, Written In The Stars, and Love The Way You Lie are just some examples of this new style that I notice, it seems a world away from most of the '00s style rap in sound and themes.


It doesn't seem to be as angry either...much more positive. Maybe they realized they'd taken that as far as it could go, maybe hip hop's audience is shifting from angsty teens to grown-ups, maybe both.

Its a far cry from 50 Cent.