Chart music is one dimensional and dull. It has become saturated with dance/auto tune and is devoid of genuine talent. Earlier this week a local radio station played a (very enjoyable) hour of music from 2005, and I decided to take a trip down memory lane and have a look at a Radio 1 playlist from that very year:
A LIST
Bloc Party - Two More Years
James Blunt - High
Charlotte Church - Call My Name
Foo Fighters - DOA
Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To
Hard-Fi - Living For The Weekend
Kaiser Chiefs - Modern Way
Madonna - Hung Up
Sean Paul - We Be Burnin'
Roll Deep - Shake A Leg
Bob Sinclar - Love Generation
Sugababes - Push The Button
KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See
U2 - All Because Of You
Kanye West/Jamie Foxx - Gold Digger
Pharrell Williams/Gwen Stefani - Can I Have It Like That
Robbie Williams - Tripping
B LIST
Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Audio Bullys - I'm In Love
Olav Basosk - Waterman
Mariah Carey - Get Your Number
Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam
The Darkness - One Way Ticket
Craig David - Don't Love You No More (I'm Sorry)
Feeder - Shatter
Jamiroquai - (Don't) Give Hate A Chance
Lethal Bizzle - Fire
Lil' Kim - Lighters Up
The Magic Numbers - Love's A Game
Maximo Park - Apply Some Pressure
McFly - I Wanna Hold You
Ms Dynamite - Judgement Day
Razorlight - Kirby's House
Starsailor - In The Crossfire
C LIST
Athlete - 24 Hours
The Black Eyed Peas - My Humps
Morning Runner - Be All You Want To Be
My Chemical Romance - I'm Not OK (I Promise)
Simon Webbe - No Worries
The White Stripes - The Denial Twist
Will Young - Switch It On
Gorillaz - Dirty Harry
Without letting nostalgia blur my judgement I think the early 2000's were a golden age for popular music. If you take a look at that list, 22 out of the 43 artists play and write their own songs, while the likes of Robbie Williams, Charlotte Chruch and Mariah Carey (among others) are renowned singers in their own right. The rest of the playlist; artists like Craig David, Sugababes and Will Young can be categorised as inoffensive pop songs which many will look back on as the innocent soundtrack of a particular era.
I was unable to find a Radio 1 playlist from 2013 but this one from August last year should help illustrate my point about a decline of musical talent in the charts.
A LIST
Angel - Wonderful
Calvin Harris featuring Example - We'll Be Coming Back
Devlin featuring Ed Sheeran - Watchtower
Drumsound & Bassline Smith - Through The Night
Calvin Harris & Florence & The Machine - Spectrum
Jessie Ware - Wildest Moments
Little Mix - Wings
Muse - Survival
Of Monsters And Men - Little Talks
Pink - Blow Me
Porter Robinson - Language
Redlight - Lost In Your Love
Rita Ora - How We Do (Party)
Sam And The Womp - Bom Bom
Simple Plan featuring Sean Paul - Summer Paradise
The Vaccines - Teenage Icon
Trey Songz - Never Fade Away
Twin Atlantic - Yes I Was Drunk
Wiley - Heatwave
B LIST
Bloc Party - Octopus
Deadmau5 featuring Gerard Way - Professional Griefers
Dizzee Rascal featuring Pepper - Scream
Fazer - Killer
Fun - Some Nights
Justin Bieber featuring Big Sean - As Long As You Love Me
Ne-Yo - Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself)
Rustie featuring Aluna George - After Light
Scouting For Girls - Summertime In The City
The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
The Killers - Runaway
The Script featuring Will.I.Am - Hall Of Fame
The XX - Angels
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Household Goods
Two Door Cinema Club - Sleep Alone
C LIST
We Are In The Crowd - Exits And EntrancesCheryl - Under The Sun
Friends - I'm His Girl
Labrinth - TreatmentPlan B - Deepest Shame
Steve Aoki & Angger Dimas - Beat Down
Tulisa - Live It Up (Big League remix)
Out of these 43 songs three of them feature Calvin Harris, another three of them are remixes whilst 23 of them overall are dance/electronic based and artists such as Florence & The Machine (granted popular in her own right) and The Script feel the need to collaborate or water down their style in order to produce a successful single. The likes of Wiley, Labrinth and Trey Songz are all part of a talentless mix-mash of genres infused with grime/hip-hop/electro/dance sounds.
The real problem here is the record label's unwillingness to change from a commercially successful formula, which will be allowed to continue as long as the Radio 1 playlist and clubs carry on overplaying this type of music. Branding, fashion and style take priority over songwriting, lyrics or even vocal ability (see Ke$ha), and anyone can be made to sound good with the help of autotune, computers and generic lyrics about finding love in a club.
I mean do 'songs' like this even class as music?
Which brings me to Avicii. First let me say generally I'm not a fan of dance with its overbearing repetition and 'fire alarm' riffs, but after reading a couple of glowing reviews I decided to give Avicii's album a listen.
It features everything from country to acoustic to piano ballads whilst Beatles-esque jazz organ solos, trumpets and marimbas can also be found. By ditching drum & bass, screeching synths and autotune, Avicii proves that success can be attained in the commercial music industry by using real musical talent and a wide variety of instruments and genres. Let's hope others can follow in his footsteps.
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