If you look a couple posts down the page, you'll notice my post "Choice Of Movies These Days." Well, unfortunately, it's not the only form of entertainment in which people seem to have lost their minds. Music is another category as well.
In today's musical world, there are three different types of music fans in general that are easily findable. There's the country fans. There's the hip-hop fans. There's the pop fans (I'll elaborate on that genre later). Sometimes hip-hop and pop cross together for fans.
Now, this isn't a post to diss certain music genres. People in general are going to have their opinions on what genre of music they like (sadly). What I want to comment on here is what happens to be in the content of said music that always seems to hit the charts.
When it comes to pop... well, if you think close-minded about it, it might just include artists like One Direction, Carly Rae Jepsen, or Rebecca Black. If you include the electronica artists and all that good stuff, that might include Lady Gaga, Owl City, Bruno Mars, and I guess Taylor Swift now since she branched out recently.
But the fact is, the content of most of these lyrics is flat-out filled with nothing but mindless partying, and more often than not the negatives that come with it (sexual & drug activity). Now of course there are some exceptions (Owl City's Christian, so he wouldn't write about stuff like that, for example). But when you generalize, the lyrics of these bands/singers are just pathetic. There's no feeling to them. They're just... what are they even singing about?
But the hip-hop lyrics usually are even worse. And although admittedly I'm mostly exaggerating here, most of what you hear on a hip-hop/rap disc are bleeps. Like, seriously though. It's as if cussing is the only thing they can think of to say. That's just flat out uncreative. And let's go back to the whole partying thing gone amok. Sometimes it's even worse here.
And sadly, that right there is the type of stuff that hits the Hot 100.
In comparison, let us go to some other genres that although occasionally they get some hits, it's not like it used to be... or it never was. Alternative. Rock. Hard rock. Screamo. Metalcore. And it's not just about having some grating guitars that grant the different lyrics, even in the rock genre. This can extend to bands that don't do such things, like Coldplay or U2. But the lyrics within them are hardly ever filled with that type of partying crap. And usually, they don't cuss too much (if at all). One or two cuss words is nowhere near the same level as any hip-hop disc, and in those cases, they're not uncreative... they're simply trying to get their point across, and from their point of view, that's the best way to do it. I don't necessarily agree with that notion, but it doesn't bug me nearly as much as the bozos whose main vocabulary is made up of four-letter words.
Now this does *not* mean that these genres are perfect. Screamo and metalcore in particular are quite mixed bags--several of the bands in those genres do indulge in the overloading of cussing, or sexual/drug content. But for the most part, these bands aren't just blathering about nothing. They're talking about the hardships they have faced in their life, and (hopefully) they're trying to get past them. And even if they're not, it's still got much more substance than Carly Rae Jepsen or One Direction ever will. Because they're being *real.*
Furthermore, let it be known that this is *not* a post to endorse CCM (contemporary Christian music) either. Quite frankly, I don't like that stuff at all. On rare occasion, something decent in that genre will pop up, but the problem with *that* genre is that the people writing those lyrics, more often than not, act as if when you're Christian and following God everything's perfect. But this is not the case. The world's a rough and dark place. I think that the songs should be endorsed are the ones that acknowledge this. What makes them even better is the desire to fight past the struggle, or already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I mean, I'm certainly not suggesting that everyone listen to nothing but dark depressing music with absolutely no sense of hope at all. If that were the case, the suicide rate would go up.
But something that should also be known is that I'm not dissing pop and hip-hop as genres. Sometimes, some pretty good stuff in that genre comes up. I will listen to most musical genres. And again, this is not a post to diss certain musical genres. This post is more focusing on the lyrics that we listen to. And this is how I feel about this situation. Sure, as a whole, the lyrics that I'm endorsing might be found more often in the music genres that might be just too heavy for some people. Well, allow me to introduce you to Coldplay, Anberlin, and U2. These are three alternative rock bands that have very good lyrics and as a whole I don't think they could possibly be too musically heavy for anyone. That would be a good place to start. And over time, you might just find other bands on your own that I didn't mention that would fit your musical criteria.
Postscript: On a few occasions, I don't mind songs that are about partying... if it's handled in a responsible matter. Without the negatives that too often come with it. I couldn't listen to Family Force 5 and like them if that were not the case. Just to clear that up.
