I had to endure a long playlist of Bruno Mars songs today

[String Tree]

I noticed that practically every cut had the same drum beat. I don't know what it's called, but it's like a shuffle/disco sort of beat. Besides the lame lyrics, the drums on every cut was annoying beyond belief.

I call it Boring.
YEP!!!

 

[sloppychops]

I'm not really a believer in the true sense of the word, but I think the legend is, you either make it into heaven or you don't, right? Are you trying to tell me heaven has 'burbs? Is this some sort of Faustian thing where if you don't make it to the heaven for the "best people," you still have a chance at slightly lesser accommodations for your soul? Also, who would have thought Bruno Mars would inspire a philosophical discussion about the afterlife?

Well, there's purgatory. That's like a burb, I guess. You get to move up after you do your time there.

 

[sloppychops]

In the final reckoning, you can put your best effort into creating a one hour play list, and someone else out there is going to find it complete crap. Let's all try to get along.

Putting Bruno Mars' discography on auto pilot is not creating a playlist.

 

[goonie]

OK Boomer.

 

[BelairPlayer]

I don’t care for the genre. As that genre goes, however, he’s quite talented. Opinions may differ, results may vary, ask your doctor if Bruno Mars is right for you.

 

[BlueGillGreg]

As a remedy I suggest you listen to Baby Shark for 3 hours.

 

[BrettFuzz]

Meanwhile J. S. Bach is shaking his head from beyond the grave: "You call that music? I have more notes in 4 bars of one of my sonatas than all of the Billboard's Top 100 combined!"

 

[buzzword]

I get sick as f*** of people whining when somebody points out that some music is actually s***. It's always "Just because it's new doesn't make it bad". That YouTuber Mary Spender posted one the other day whining about it and rambled on, badly insulting the boomers and war babies she makes a fortune copying (poorly). Well, just because it's new doesn't mean it's good either. Some music is simply pandering, derivative, contrived, formulated, clich'e spouting crap. **** the average person could write in five minutes without trying. I think people should expect a bit more from their artists these days.

ok boomer.

 

[goport]

Never been a fan of Bruno Mars but the Silk Sonic collaboration with .Paak ended up being one of my favourite albums last year. Never saw that coming. But they capture the 70s vibe perfectly and the musicianship and writing is top drawer stuff. Even the live performances are oozing with the evidence of their fun and talent. That said, I still don't like Bruno Mars solo material but I do have a new found appreciation of his talents.

 

[goonie]

I probably shouldn't admit to this but I like to plug in my guitar, put on Locked Out Of Heaven up loud, and play along.

 

[ping-ping-clicka]

having looked at the thread , I would continue to insist on my right to remain as unplugged from where ever the content included in the thread exists , a door prize include sloth over choosing self inflicted pain.
Sometimes, it really in the vaguest way seems the advice ,
" Turn Off, Tune Out, Play Dead as Humanly Possible, seems like sage advice.

 

[sloppychops]

As a remedy I suggest you listen to Baby Shark for 3 hours.

The best sonic palate cleanse for Bruno Mars is The Dictators.

 

[maxvintage]

This just in: Old guy dislikes music of younger people. He's upset about it.

 

[sloppychops]

This just in: Old guy dislikes music of younger people. He's upset about it.

That's a completely uninformed, knee jerk comment. There's plenty of stuff by younger musicians that I really like. In fact, I'm on record here on TDPRI as stating that much of the music of this era is far more interesting, innovative, and grooving than most of what was big in previous eras.

 

[phart]

Try listening to it nonstop for over an hour.

SMH, “nonstop hour long playlist”. That used to be called “listening to an album”. You have no attention span

 

[Arfage]

ok boomer.

Tell ya' what - when your generation takes a computer that occupies three city blocks, make it a thousand times more powerful, squash it into a briefcase and sell it to you for $300, then invent an internet for you to be arrogant, condescending and full of s***, and do it in a suburban garage - between bong hits, creates music for following generations to copy without doing even just one f***ing original thing, then you can talk.

 

[sax4blues]

I like Bruno

 

[Arfage]

Like many music fans my age (44) and older, I grew up listening to more than my fair share of commercial radio and watching MTV when they actually played videos. Of course, there's never been a shortage of vapidity on Top 40/commercial radio, but there are hundreds of Billboard Hot 100 songs from the '80s and '90s I love, especially '82 - '86ish. I've long contended that the variety of genres and artists on Hot 100/Top 40 formats have continually shrunk. Honestly, that's not even a contention; it's simply a fact. One need only look at the narrowing of playlists after ClearChannel and iHeart monopolized commercial radio following the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

But my more debatable claim has been that what one could generally define as "pop music" (mostly solo acts, peppy songs, dancey songs, love ballads, etc.) has gotten worse over the last 20 - 25 years. That's not to say it's all crap to me; I just find good stuff way harder to come by. Often when I raise this point, I'm often met with either the sort of "You're just getting older" or "It's not aimed at you" quips you alluded to. Or someone completely missed the point and says, "Dude! There's more good music available now than ever before! I haven't listened to the radio in years!" as if I, too, do not have access to the Internet and streaming services, nor have musical tastes that lie outside the Billboard Hot 100. I say all that to say, sure, musical tastes are largely subjective, but there's actually objective evidence of the declining quality of pop music. For instance, see this article about a study on the homogenization of pop: https://www.mic.com/articles/107896/scientists-finally-prove-why-pop-music-all-sounds-the-same

I agree, the good music is out there, often from young artists - although not much originality, but I can live with that. And yes you have to look for it, and I often find it on small independent stations.

 

[Arfage]

All music is derivative

Yes, but to varying degrees. It's obvious where artists like Steve Earle or BR5-49, or Miles Davis get their influences but they make it their own. Many do not. It's the difference between Soundgarden and Greta Van Fleet, or Nirvana and Creed.

 

[Jakedog]

Like many music fans my age (44) and older, I grew up listening to more than my fair share of commercial radio and watching MTV when they actually played videos. Of course, there's never been a shortage of vapidity on Top 40/commercial radio, but there are hundreds of Billboard Hot 100 songs from the '80s and '90s I love, especially '82 - '86ish. I've long contended that the variety of genres and artists on Hot 100/Top 40 formats have continually shrunk. Honestly, that's not even a contention; it's simply a fact. One need only look at the narrowing of playlists after ClearChannel and iHeart monopolized commercial radio following the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

But my more debatable claim has been that what one could generally define as "pop music" (mostly solo acts, peppy songs, dancey songs, love ballads, etc.) has gotten worse over the last 20 - 25 years. That's not to say it's all crap to me; I just find good stuff way harder to come by. Often when I raise this point, I'm often met with either the sort of "You're just getting older" or "It's not aimed at you" quips you alluded to. Or someone completely missed the point and says, "Dude! There's more good music available now than ever before! I haven't listened to the radio in years!" as if I, too, do not have access to the Internet and streaming services, nor have musical tastes that lie outside the Billboard Hot 100. I say all that to say, sure, musical tastes are largely subjective, but there's actually objective evidence of the declining quality of pop music. For instance, see this article about a study on the homogenization of pop: https://www.mic.com/articles/107896/scientists-finally-prove-why-pop-music-all-sounds-the-same

I’m with you on most of this. No one will ever convince me that the 80’s wasn’t the most diverse and creative decade in popular music history. Never before and never since has the genre covered so much ground at one time. It was a fantastic time to be surfing the airwaves and television broadcasts. No other decade even comes close.

You could turn on a pop/rock radio station for an hour and hear ten acts that sounded absolutely nothing alike. It was amazing.