almacg

Hit the nail on the head. It's all good and well to write symphonic masterpieces, but essentially the public want a melody. If you can write a complicated piece, that's all well and good, but the general public will not give it the time and day unless it has a good melody. This is the main reason why Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner etc, gained popularity, they were brilliant melodists. Historically, the melody is the key to a successful piece of music, and still is. If you can combine a fantastic melody with interesting harmony, and all the other hallmarks of a competent piece of music, you are on to a winner. A non melodic piece will not be appreciated by the man on the street.

With regards to the original poster, I am shocked that he has received so many negative comments about his views. I'm afraid that pop music has become over-saturated with superficial, artificial, nonsense, and it IS everywhere. Not only is this negatively affecting the music that gets played on the radio, the steets, everywhere you bloody go, but also the music that accompanies TV drama's and films. It's sometimes hard to escape it. I'm a composer, and as such I like to be free to have my own musical thoughts without being bombarded by puerile, invasive, mediocrity.

Now there are of course some exceptional 'pop' artists, such as Matt Bellamy and many more over the years, who clearly could write interesting and emotionally charged music (although pop music can never supercede an orchestra). However, the overall pop industry is simply a commercial machine, churning out the same old clichéd chord progressions with almost the same melodies and I despise it! The fact that film music is becoming more and more like orchestrated pop music, is the most worrying thing of all. Of course there are some exceptions, but I long for the days of Auric, Steiner, Korngold etc, when film music was not watered down to the level it is today.

Overall, the superficiality, and hype of pop artists is a shocking exposé of modern society. Amy Winehouse (no idea if she's well known outside of England) is best known for her drug abuse and alcoholism, despite her talent as a singer and songwriter. I feel that pop music mirrors society, which is largely an over-superficial, shameful society that idolises just about anybody as long as they get on the telly. Just look at facebook, everytime somebody goes out and has a 'laff' they have to prove it to the entire world by posting pictures of themselves stumbling around in a drunken stupour. I'm not saying I'm against having fun, but I don't feel the need to let everybody know exactly what I'm upto. Pop music has caused this celebrity-obsessed culture that drives modern society, and has raised many people to be completely obsessed with what people are upto, rather than what they achieve! Pop music itself is largely uninspired, and to write a song that gets in the charts is more about luck and studio production than anything else. You can get a song in the charts regardless of your musical endeavours, music is no longer an achievement (on the whole), just another vein attempt to get people to look at you.

I like to read about the lives of the great composers, but I don't want to read newspaper clippings, regailing me with 'hilarious' stories of binge drinking accompanied by upskirt photos of their girlfriends.

To those who were critical of the original poster and no doubt will be of my comments, you have to remember that music is subjective. There are people who despise more music than they love (and for me that's been the way I look at music since I was about 3 years old). This opinion is as valid as somebody who loves everything they hear (although you could argue that people who love everything cannot distinguish between good and bad). The fact that popular music has become an over-hyped, superficial, shameful, over-produced, under-substantiated, unmusical, clichéd, celeb-fest is fairly obvious to me at least, because society itself has the same traits. More people voted for Big brother than the number of people who voted in the general election that saw Tony Blair's second term... think about it!