Comment by seibelj | Hacker News Reader

Comment by seibelj | Hacker News Reader

I disagree with criticisms of current art or “pop” art like pop music, popular fiction books, etc. To become broadly popular you must appeal to as many people as possible. This is a balancing act between mediocrity and edginess that pushes just the right amount of boundaries to feel “new” and “fresh” without turning off a lot of people. So by definition the most popular song in the world is going to usually be fairly non-offensive.

If you get very into a genre of art, like for me is horror movies and metal music, you quickly realize there is a super deep well of amazingly high quality content that pushes the boundaries of the art form. There are passionate community members and creators that are using all the latest and greatest technology to produce ever higher quality art at less cost, expanding the amount of art and the number of people with the funds to create it.

If you look at the top-40 music charts and cringe just find music you actually like because there is tons of it being made and a community behind it. All the criticism about “modern art sucks” is such snobbish and flippant bullshit.

Even with music for example - look at what indie artists are doing. Touareg rock for example, or Altin Gun for Turkish folk psychedelia, Newen Afrobeat who are combining Chilean folk with Afrobeat or Coke Studio in Pakistan will be marvelled at decades from now.

Heck, just go through the KEXP YouTube catalogue to be blown away by what's happening in music.

Music never gets truly widespread appeal across society let alone globally. The highest selling album of the last 25 years was 1997’s Shania Twain Come On Over at 29.6 million copies verified and 40 million claimed. Bump that to all time and you hit 1982’s Michael Jackson Thriller at 47.3m verified and 66m calmed which had both people buying multiple copies over time and multi generational appeal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums

Not that everyone who likes a song buys it, but regional sales show vast differences in sales and thus tastes for different albums.

>So by definition the most popular song in the world is going to usually be fairly non-offensive.

Number one song on Spotify as of this moment:

"If he ate my ass, he's a bottom feeder"

"Beat it up, n-word, catch a charge"

"Never lost a fight, but I'm looking for a beating"

"I wanna gag, I wanna choke"

"Pay my tuition just to kiss me on this wet ass pussy"

If we take the premise to be true, the conclusion to be drawn is that those lyrics are NOT offensive. They way that ridiculous song has been celebrated in the media tells me that’s true.

Young people consume top 40 pop, they're the consumer demographic for new pop music.

And your point is? Stodgy conservatives being shocked at the cultural shift in what is entertaining vs. out-of-bounds reflected by the younger generation popular art is...not a new phenomenon, nor is popular art deliberately and flagrantly violating the taboos of the stodgy conservative establishment.

The quality and sophistication of mainstream pop art is an important indicator, though. It is consumed by the majority of the population and gives sense to the "wisdom" of an era.

Nowadays you simply don't find any mainstream music approaching the levels of sophistication of, say, 1980s mainstream music. Where's the Dire Straits, the Gary Moore and the David Bowie of the 2010s?

Wasn’t 80’s pop music disco?

Probably disco was still important, but the mentioned artists were hugely popular and influential, despite not being strictly in the "pop" category.

Also disco, when it first appeared on the scene was strongly associated with an LGBT audience, and the Moral Majority crusaders then absolutely denigrated it.

Good art is by definition subversive, and you won't find subversion in the Billboard Top 40. Which is why conservative criticisms of stagnation in art/science feel so blatantly hypocritical too.

Disco died pretty early on in the 80s. Flock of Seagulls and Tears for Fears are quintessential 80s IMO.

The 80s were the era of synth-pop/new wave/new romantic. Initially emerging from late 1970s punk, diverting into sub-genres and refining its sound until around 1987. Generally dark and touching music with a very intellectual text.

Early 80's. Top 100 charts of like '80, '81 had a lot of disco-inspired songs. This fizzled out around '85-'86.

I just looked at the top 5 songs from 1985, and I will gladly take WAP or Old Town Road over Careless Whisper or Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. Top of the billboard has mostly always sucked IMO.

Janelle Monàe may be this generations Bowie. And Kendrick Lamar can definitely hold his own in comparison to dire straights.

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