Le Epic Choons
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luka
Well-known member
My friend just sent me this
Got me thinking about a quality of modern pop music that I don't think there was so much of in the past -
I'll now struggle to describe it but it would include qualities like
"darkness"
atmospherics
filtered chords, hinting at barely suppressed emotions
minimalist drums
big build ups, explosions of hi-hats
"EPIC"-ness (but married to sultriness)
I suppose this is to do with dance music merging with pop music to some extent.
Is this a zeitgeist thing? Do people need heightened, portentuous music?
A tune like "Happy" by Pharrell stuck out a mile, with its faux-innocence.
Got me thinking about a quality of modern pop music that I don't think there was so much of in the past -
I'll now struggle to describe it but it would include qualities like
"darkness"
atmospherics
filtered chords, hinting at barely suppressed emotions
minimalist drums
big build ups, explosions of hi-hats
"EPIC"-ness (but married to sultriness)
I suppose this is to do with dance music merging with pop music to some extent.
Is this a zeitgeist thing? Do people need heightened, portentuous music?
A tune like "Happy" by Pharrell stuck out a mile, with its faux-innocence.
luka
Well-known member
For all the hysterical grandeur of this music, people who listen to enthusiastically often seem totally unaffected. Overwrought vocals, emotion amplified through the roof against maximalist productions, feverish crescendos and overstated climaxes... all reduced to perfunctory current of muzak exhaled faintly by the anemic car speakers of an annoyingly convenient mini-van stuck in traffic on the motorway, being steadily washed down by the sound of the air conditioning.
Its emotional content is not to be taken (certainly isn't taken) at face value and in that regard, it is like reality tv.
Its emotional content is not to be taken (certainly isn't taken) at face value and in that regard, it is like reality tv.
luka
Well-known member
This prompted me to think of how advertising these days is often anti-dramatic. It's all tongue-in-cheek, ironic, using "epic" music only to deflate it with a blokey eye roll. Obviously you still get pompous adverts with sweeping crane shots but I'd say the norm is now the opposite of that.
Whereas as a general rule music doesn't seem to be cheeky or humorous or even innocent (not that advertising ever is).
Music is fighting for attention and significance, advertising is cloaking itself in mundanity
Whereas as a general rule music doesn't seem to be cheeky or humorous or even innocent (not that advertising ever is).
Music is fighting for attention and significance, advertising is cloaking itself in mundanity
luka
Well-known member
Also when thinking about the "dark" "moody" pop and rnb, it's relevant to consider movies and TV that are popular ATM - Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, True Detective, (even Game of Thrones?).
High definition textures, "cold" filters, dark shadows, psychic unease, paranoia. James Bond becomes a therapy case. Some of those BBC dramas are like this too -The Bodyguard, The Night Manager. IdleRich's thread about Lynne Ramsay made me think of this
High definition textures, "cold" filters, dark shadows, psychic unease, paranoia. James Bond becomes a therapy case. Some of those BBC dramas are like this too -The Bodyguard, The Night Manager. IdleRich's thread about Lynne Ramsay made me think of this
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
luka
Well-known member
Show tunes used to be pop music. Like classical music they're meander melodically and aren't particularly repetitive. A verse might not even have a repeated melodic idea in it. They're narrative in that respect (and of course were written to serve a narrative function).
In the post rock n roll world there's been an increasing trend towards repetition and- to quote big knob blissblog- "the endless succession of NOW". blues three chords vs the harmonic complexity of show tunes/classical music. 1 bar melodic motifs repeating over and over in pop songs. the harmonic stasis or modal jazz/rap/grime etc.
this trend corpse has grasped is a return to the previous narrative, showtune emphasis on structure and narrative (the thread after all is call dramatic).
In the post rock n roll world there's been an increasing trend towards repetition and- to quote big knob blissblog- "the endless succession of NOW". blues three chords vs the harmonic complexity of show tunes/classical music. 1 bar melodic motifs repeating over and over in pop songs. the harmonic stasis or modal jazz/rap/grime etc.
this trend corpse has grasped is a return to the previous narrative, showtune emphasis on structure and narrative (the thread after all is call dramatic).
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
“Love Me Harder” = consensual/non-consensual?
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
This is the most compact epic I can think of in this mode post rock n roll, virtually no repetition, builds to its climax in just over two minutes then ends.
sus
Moderator
Ariana is interesting because she was like, a block of marble that corporate entities sculpted into product. Have you seen those before and after photos of her?
Which isn't to fixate on looks, but this is like, the obvious physical alteration that metaphorically stands for all the behavioral sculptings that've been done to her.
Which isn't to fixate on looks, but this is like, the obvious physical alteration that metaphorically stands for all the behavioral sculptings that've been done to her.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Ariana is interesting because she was like, a block of marble that corporate entities sculpted into product. Have you seen those before and after photos of her?
Which isn't to fixate on looks, but this is like, the obvious physical alteration that metaphorically stands for all the behavioral sculptings that've been done to her.
What the goddamn hell
Clinamenic
Binary & Tweed
I remember her character in Victorious, and she was basically a supremely aloof character, borderline disabled.Ariana is interesting because she was like, a block of marble that corporate entities sculpted into product. Have you seen those before and after photos of her?
Which isn't to fixate on looks, but this is like, the obvious physical alteration that metaphorically stands for all the behavioral sculptings that've been done to her.
