What Corrupted Pop Music?

Something Nasty Happened Behind The Woodshed
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If you asked the average American "What happened to popular music?", you'd probably get a large majority agreeing that something awful turned the music of our youth into what passes for a tune today.

So, here's a countdown of seven possible reasons, beginning with #7, and arriving at #1, the most likely culprit.

#7: The Decline of Traditional Performance.  We forget that a mere 65 years ago, most music was performed (at school, in the park, in a concert hall, along a parade route, in a church).  What do all these venues have in common?  They involve music that's approved of, and music that's almost always played competently.  This reinforces traditional music structure.  Sure, there was music in the parlor on the piano, and music on the back porch, and performance in clubs.  But this unconstrained playing constituted a minority, or involved accepted structure, like practicing traditional forms.
#6: Distribution.  Gone are the days when a musical artist could record and release music to make a living.  Sure, some mega-famous stars can.  But most musicians find that the music download format makes it impossible to earn a living--especially when splitting proceeds among 4-5-6 members of a band.  So, it's touring and ticket sales, or bust.  To tour, you need excitement, commercial appeal, and good music, secondarily.
#5: The Collector.  Starting in the late '50s and '60s the number of records sold to the public skyrocketed.  Those buying records started from scratch.  Not only was the Baby Boom generation the largest ever, to date, but it was joined by older generations.  Essentially, there was a huge demand for recordings, and that demand eventually became satiated, relative to subsequent generations.  This, even though LPs gave way to cassettes, CDs and DVDs.  When music listeners each had their collection of favorites, they often preferred to listen to the familiar, thus abandoning the current pop scene, leaving behind a younger and younger audience for pop.  Thus, pop became teen-age music, to a degree.
#4: Splintering Market.  The explosion of recording in the last half of the 20th century enabled niche artists to reach specialized audiences.  Thus, those who enjoyed Gospel, or Cowboy poetry, or traditional Hawaiian, were removed from the target audience.
#3: The Rise of Rhythm.  Rhythm is much more visceral than melody.  With the decline in the age of the average pop music listener, the appreciation for geometrically satisfying harmony gave way to the excitement of the beat.  Example: rap, where lyrics and beat mesmerize, and a few simple movements in tone are all that it takes.
#2: Cleverness, Rewarded.  An aspiring artist in a sea of similar voices will feel it imperative to set herself apart.  This encourages commercialism (the gimmick that will attract attention, rather than the song that'll have to compete with dozens of similar offerings).  Flashy dress, suggestive or explicit lyrics, thundering, captivating shows, easier tunes that hammer away at the basics.
#1: The Averaging of the Market.  It's a fact of commercial life that selling more is better than selling less, so the unlikelier the songs, the less chance of promotion.  This encourages formulas that are used to hit the jackpot over and over, with pop songwriting now farmed out to the same hands, who work with their 'successful' blinders in place.

So, it's no wonder.

The ultimate factor is, of course, that the less interesting popular music gets, the less that older, more open-minded, more sophisticated music listeners are to stick around when the latest merchandise assails the ear.  So, pop music is what's left behind.

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For the record, I listen to Radio Paradise (link), with its four channels that one can move between at will (the main mix, mellow mix, rock mix, and groovy mix).  The groovy mix has more spacey, unorthodox material; the mellow mix can be thought of as calming, and the rock mix is relatively harder edged.  The main mix is thoughtful classic rock, world music, even some popular classical music, combined with some obscure numbers, but mainly critically acclaimed material.   No commercials, just a mild-mannered voice occasionally pointing out interesting things and once in a while reminding listeners that they can donate.

Music on RP can be ranked (if you want), and each song sports an average rating.  There's also a full screen of background material on the artists, plus listener comments on the current selection to look at.  And, you can play slideshows synchronized with the music, for those wanting the full immersion experience.