Trying to be less of a dick

[Mark Mania]

So I normally really don't like currently Top-40 type music. But I'm doing my best to be a part of the world and experience pop-culture and not just live in the 90's and 00's for the rest of my life. For the past like 6 months I've been listening to the Top-40 songs and picking out ones I can actually stand listening to. I've only found 25. But here they are...


Bang Bang - Jessie J
Doo Doo - Troy Ave
GDFR - Flo Rida
Lips Are Movin - Meghan Trainor
Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson
Heroes (we could be) - Alesso
Centuries - Fall Out Boy
Chandelier - Sia
Don't - Ed Sheeran
Take Me To Church - Hozier
Animals - Maroon 5
All About That Bass - Meghan Trainor
Cool Kids - Echosmith
Wrecking Ball - Miley Cyrus
I Love It - Icona Pop feat Charlie XCX
Ain't It Fun - Paramore
Forever - Haim
I Want You to Know - Zedd
LOVE 3X - ZZ Ward
Honey, I'm Good - Andy Grammer
Shut Up and Dance - Walk the Moon
Hey Mama - David Guetta
Talking Body - Tove Lo
Worth It - Fifth Harmony
I Really Like You - Carly Rae Jepsen


So out of these I maybe actually like about 5 of them. But I can stand listening to all of them.

["Supersonic" Branden Harvey]

I prefer 80's metal to modern garbage. Metallica is my favorite band. I also like rock from the 70's as well. Lynard Skynard was awesome.

[Mark Mania]

Right, and I appreciate that. But I can't listen to just the same music that I listened to growing up forever. I want to experience what everyone else is.

["Supersonic" Branden Harvey]

That's an understandable position. But I can't listen to garbage, just because everyone else does. There is some newer stuff I do like. But not much. Metallica is still releasing new albums. St. Anger sucked but they returned to form with Death Magnetic.

[HusH]

You don't have to go with top 40 to stay in the "know."

Whatever genre you were into when you were younger just look for new artists, or bands from that era, surprisingly you will find a lot of bands that were big for a few years while you were growing up are still around making music.

I grew up right outside of Tampa,Florida. It's the Death Metal capitol of the world, so that's what I grew up with, as well as thrash, grindcore, and heavy metal. I also got real big into outlaw country like David Allan Coe, Hank 3, Joey Alcorn, and Bob Wayne. And I've been known to dabble in a bit of real rap, not the crap that's played 20 times a day on radio stations.

And all those genres I just mentioned are thriving under the radar, you don't have to subject yourself, or force yourself to like something just because it's cool and trendy. Just stick to the genres you loved growing up, there's always new blood in those genres that need a chance to be heard.

[Mark Mania]

I think you guys are missin my point. I know that there is good new music out there. But, these wouldn't be "top 40" songs if they weren't popular for some reason. I'm not a music snob, the three concerts I've been to more than any others are Rush, taking back Sunday, and blink 182. I just like to try and figure out why certain top 40 songs are popular. In doing this, I've found some I can tolerate.

[HusH]

Honestly most radio is bought and paid for these days.

I have a few friends that have worked as DJs and the sad state of radio is record companies pay stations to constantly have their song in rotation until it catches on. It's a shitty set up.

Also because everything is so PC, and we have to watch our ass with our advertisers, a lot of really good bands or singers wont get any airtime because of certain subject matter, even if the song is really good.

But a very good reason a lot of those songs are considered Top 40 is because of kick backs stations get to play them once sometimes twice an hour until it's beat into people's brains that they should like this artist, regardless of how good the song is.

That's not saying all Top 40 is garbage, these days most of it is, but you do uncover a good hidden gem every so often.

[Speede]

Jul 25, 2015 12:49:30 GMT -4 HusH said:

Honestly most radio is bought and paid for these days.

I have a few friends that have worked as DJs and the sad state of radio is record companies pay stations to constantly have their song in rotation until it catches on. It's a shitty set up.

Also because everything is so PC, and we have to watch our ass with our advertisers, a lot of really good bands or singers wont get any airtime because of certain subject matter, even if the song is really good.

But a very good reason a lot of those songs are considered Top 40 is because of kick backs stations get to play them once sometimes twice an hour until it's beat into people's brains that they should like this artist, regardless of how good the song is.

That's not saying all Top 40 is garbage, these days most of it is, but you do uncover a good hidden gem every so often.

This. One of my buddies from the fed I was in before joining the APW is a DJ for a rock station, and it's pretty much the same way with mainstream rock a lot of the time.

As far as your list goes, I'll admit to liking some of the top 40 music they play, but out of that list, there are three songs I seriously don't know, and only a grand total of 7 songs I would say I actually like, and that's including one of the three I didn't know and looked up based on your list (mainly because I hadn't heard ZZ Ward had released a new song): Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk, Alesso - Heroes, Ed Sheeran - Don't, Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass, Echosmith - Cool Kids, Paramorw - Ain't It Fun, and ZZ Ward's Love 3X.

Some are borderline/tolerable: I can reasonably say it's not a stretch to enjoy Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball from time to time, in part because of brilliant covers by other artists. Maroon 5 hasn't reached that level of intolerable yet.

But so many of these I just hate with a passion: Flo Rida - GDFR, Hozier - Take Me To Church, David Guetta - Hey Mama (ft. Nicki Minaj, who I despise, mind you), and Fifth Harmony - Worth It are among the top offenders. And with Hozier and Guetta, it's not so much the song as it is other factors- the message behind the song in Hozier's case, and Nicki Minaj in the case of Guetta. 9 times outta 10 I can't force myself to listen to anything of hers in full, and I think I have yet to hear the song in its entirety just based on her TERRIBLE reputation in my eyes.

So while I respect you for it, Mark, I will admit, you're tolerating quite a bit more than I, and this is the music of my freaking generation...

[Kris]

Just imagine the idea of how the generation after yours is going to romanticize the fuck out of all of that music, good or bad.

I legit laughed until I cried when I saw someone posting about how they wish they were children and teens in the nineties, how the music was so much better and how things were so much simpler and being able to wear flannel and Doc Martens-- they legit tried to make grunge romanticized, which is probably where I laughed hardest.

I know I'm probably rambling a hair, but I think my point still stands-- this is a cycle, down to the older generations going 'What the Hell is that?!'. I think Mark's doing something really cool by trying to keep an open mind.

(Though Uptown Funk is so catchy, I think it's hypnotizing him a bit.)

[SalTal]

I always took the approach that I just listened to what I liked, and didn't listen to what I liked. I don't know the last time I turned on a radio to even get an idea of what the Top 40 are. I know some of the stuff I have on repeat at the moment is popular (Bills, Sugar, Shut Up and Dance, Uptown Funk), but I also know that there's probably LOTS of stuff that I like that would get me run out of town haha!

I never understood why people get snobby about music. It's all taste, opinion, mood, etc. Who is to say anyone else's of those is more important? Not to say anyone in here is being a snob mind you.