PA6317 Dissertation the Death of Pop Music Are We Amid the Silent

The Death of Pop Music PA6317 Dissertation The Death of Pop Music Are we amid the silent death of a genre? Joseph James Watt 16th March 2017 ID: 00009425 BA Creative Musicianship Word count: 8249 Tutor: Gareth Dylan Smith Page 1 of 26 The Death of Pop Music Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Retromania 4 2.1 What is Retromania? 4 2.2 Retro in Music 5 2.3 The Problem of Retromania 6 3. Accelerationism and Music 8 3.1 An Overview of Accelerationism 8 3.2 Accelerationism and Pop Music 9 3.3 Accelerationist Music and Vaporwave 11 4. Pop Music and Homogeneity 12 4.1 The Simplicity of Pop 12 4.1A Harmony 12 4.1B Dynamics 13 4.1C Rhythm 14 4.2 The Similarity Within Pop 14 4.2A Harmony 14 4.2B Dynamics 14 4.2C Meter 15 4.3 Lyrics 15 4.4 Melody 16 5. Adorno and Listener Regression 17 5.1 Fetishisation 18 5.2 Regression of Listening 20 6. Conclusions and Recommendations 21 7. Bibliography 24 Page 2 of 26 The Death of Pop Music 1. Introduction In 2015, the British Phonographic Industry noted that pop music reigned supreme in the UK, “accounting for the majority of records sold in the Official Albums, Singles and Compilations Charts in 2014” (British Phonographic Industry, 2015). In the same year, it was also noted that pop music was the third most popular genre in the US having shown the most growth year-over-year, as a study by Nielsen had revealed (The Nielsen Company, 2016). Additionally, it was the sixth year in a row that pop music took more than a third of the singles market share in the UK (The Nielsen Company, 2016). Why, therefore, am I set on investigating such a fatalistic subject, theorising on the potential, and arguably inevitable, death of Western pop music during the apparent peak of such a fruitful genre? While the birth of music and its progression to our current musical climate is frequently documented, few documents speculate the future of Western music, and even less so explicitly addressing the future of pop. In fact, Steve Goodman, the author of Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear, believes that we are “at a moment when many practitioners have become fixated on the past and thinkers have found themselves unable to locate possible futures” (Goodman, 2011). In all elements of culture, it is important to identify and anticipate trends so to pinpoint one’s role in it and to deepen one’s understanding and appreciation, just as it is important to understand the history of culture. Before I continue, it is important to clarify to what I am referring when I use the word ‘pop’. Though the term is derived from ‘popular music’, the two are not interchangeable. Throughout this proposal I will be referring to the specific genre of pop; music that evolved into its modern form out of rock and roll in the mid-1950s and is recognised in its increasingly formulaic style, though I will go into more detail on these formulae later in this paper. I believe that the West, particularly in pop music, has reached a fascinating period of music culture, which is becoming somewhat tumultuous. My research will draw on some remarkable common themes in the current state of [pop] music philosophy; “retromania” and self-appropriation, accelerationism and the sub-genre culture, amongst other considerations (Reynolds, 2011). Adam Harper supposes that we have reached a time in music that has brought “composers and listeners to the brink of an era of limitless musical possibility” (Harper, 2011), and I will be considering whether this ‘infinite’ potential is useful, or being misapplied in Western pop music, and why, with such limitless possibility, “[pop] music [is] becoming increasingly formulaic” (Percino, Klimek and Thurner, 2014). As further clarification, though I will be referring to the whole of pop music, I would argue the damage to the genre stems from Page 3 of 26 The Death of Pop Music ‘popular’ pop music, such as the formulaic chart music with which one will be familiar. I will also briefly reflect on the effects that the Information Age has had on the face of music, considering how it has changed the way music is created, how music is shared and consumed, and how the consequential effects of this have saturated the ‘musical landscape’. I will be drawing from a variety of texts, and this dissertation will serve as the synthesis and discussion of these readings. 2. Retromania 2.1 What is Retromania? “Not only has there never before been a society so obsessed with the cultural artifacts of its immediate past, but there has never before been a society that is able to access the immediate past so easily and so copiously.” (Reynolds, 2010) Retromania is a term originally coined by Richard Horn in his book Memphis: Objects, Furniture and Patterns (1986), and refers to enthusiasm for retro designs. ‘Retro’ is distinguishable from antique or vintage as it is merely an imitation of a previous style. Retro usually refers to characteristics that are nostalgic, and in this essay, I will be using this expression to refer to replications of styles from the 1950s onwards. The term ‘retro’ was first used in relation to music by Simon Reynolds in his 2010 book Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to its Own Past. In this, he argues that “we're wallowing in our memories more than ever—and that cultural innovation is stagnating” (Harvey, 2011). The book focuses on a particular element of post-modernism; the virtually habitual acts of self-appropriation in Western music, predominantly where pop music is “characterised by its self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions” (Tate, 2015). Retromania is a fascinating trend, and it is important to consider its role in the potential demise of pop music. It is, of course, worth recognising that this has been an inclination of many elements in Western culture typically since 2000. One can look at such examples as Instagram, a popular photo application for phones designed to share pictures of a style that are “reminiscent of Polaroid and Kodak Instamatic photos”, H&Ms ‘50s-esque’ 2012 Autumn fashion campaign with Lana Del Rey, or even the television show Mad Men, a style-conscious show set in the 1960s – 70s (Handberg, 2015). To some extent, we are all victims of ‘Retromania’. A look in our wardrobes, at our furniture or Page 4 of 26 The Death of Pop Music our crockery, would probably exhibit an item reminiscent of the recent past. Walk into any electronics shop, and one will find oneself surrounded by kettles and radios, many of which are designed to be ‘nostalgic’. Retromania has become a key element of modern western culture, and as such is slowly replacing much of what was ‘modern’ while being barely recognised. Fig. 1: Lana Del Rey in H&Ms 2012 Autumn fashion campaign. (H&M, 2012) 2.2 Retro in Music The trend of “using the past as if there were no tomorrow” is less recognisable in music than it is in fashion, and therefore it is important to reflect on some examples of the use of retro trends in commercially successful pop music from the last five years (Handberg, 2015). Consider ‘The 1975’, a pop-rock band comprising of four members, all in their twenties. The band has been nominated for numerous prestigious awards, including ‘Best Act in the World Today’, and has also won ‘Best Album’ at the Q Awards for the album I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It. However, it could be argued that this success has not been due to innovative, pioneering music; the album is very clearly rooted in the ‘80s. SPIN, an online music news website, looked at 30 reviews of The 1975’s album and noted every time an artist from the 1980s was referenced; a total of 31 artists from the 1980s were mentioned in these 30 reviews, from INXS and Prince to Duran Duran and Fleetwood Mac (Unterberger, 2016). Page 5 of 26 The Death of Pop Music The ‘80s revival has been witnessed through many artists over the last decade, such as La Roux, Lady Gaga, Mika and Little Boots. Of these, Lady Gaga has frequently been compared to Madonna in both style and music (Bryant, 2016), McCormick (2009) has drawn similarities between La Roux and Eurythmics, while the characteristics of their lead singer Elly Jackson have been compared to those of Annie Lennox (Reynolds, 2011). Simon Reynolds recognises Will.i.am as a “pioneer of 90s recycling”, and in his Guardian article Total Recall: why retromania is all the rage, he points out that “the non- ‘80s parts of The Time [by Black Eyed Peas] sound like boshing techno-rave from the early days of Berlin's Love Parade” (Reynolds, 2011). The power of retro in recent pop music is very evident. This in itself is not a problem; as Jackson of La Roux pointed out, recreating ‘80s music in a modern context has allowed her “to pick out the best bits” (McCormick, 2009). But this does raise the question of whether this trend of retromania could be contributing to the demise of pop music. Fig. 2: In For The Kill single sleeve (Polydor Records, 2009) 2.3 The Problem of Retromania Retro itself is not an issue, and of course, is not a new phenomenon. Music of all genres, including pop, has gone through various resurgences and reimaginations over the last 30 years, yet has not been damaged by these revivals.

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