Is Pop Music Becoming Boring?
Pop music has become hard to define. Over the years, there have been so many genres of music that have emerged, making the options seem endless. There are so many people who love so many different kinds of music. This makes a specific genre of “popular” music hard to pin down. Today, the pop music genre seems to have fallen into a cycle of consistently producing songs that sound the same. Somehow, the repetitive pop music of today is still gaining traction. Why?
A basic pop song has a few elements that you can most likely find in any pop song out there. They are written in one key, played in 4/4 time, have a repeating verse-chorus structure, a repetitive, catchy melody, and a title that exists in the lyrics multiple times. Combine all these things, and you have got yourself a pop song. This has become the pop song formula simply because this is what creates the most listened-to and mainstream music. The formula produces an easy-to-listen, often catchy tune that people continue returning to. The lyrics are easy to remember and usually relatable, the chorus repeats, the structure is easy to follow, and the melody is so basic and recognizable that it becomes an earworm that people cannot avoid.
I am not here to hate on this. If you want to use this foolproof formula to write the world’s next hit that will top all the charts while you ride out a one-hit-wonder career, go for it. But, if you are not even going to write the song, you should not be allowed to capitalize on the fame. Let’s talk ghostwriters.
Ghostwriting is a term that is most widely known for its existence in the world of literature. An example of typical ghostwriting would be when one person is paid by another to write some work for them, where the one doing the paying is the one taking all the credit. The way this works in the music industry is that someone will write an entire song for another person, and all they have to do is sing the song and take all the credit and fame.
One of the best examples I could find of a ghostwriter writing a hit for a famous artist was when I saw on Billboard.com that a German singer-songwriter named Bibi Bourelly wrote Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money.” Maybe it’s just me, but I had never heard of Bibi Bourelly until I had gotten to the bottom of Billboard’s article titled “12 Music Stars Whose Hit Songs Have Been Written By Other People.” While Rihanna is a great example of a modern pop star who has had other people write her hits for her, Frank Sinatra gives some perspective on how long this has been going on. Some of Sinatra’s biggest hits were written by Charles Singleton, Eddie Snyder, and Bart Howard. While Sinatra was one of the biggest stars of the 40s and 50s, the guys writing his best songs are people I have never heard of.
The pop stars of today are still widely thought of as musicians. While this might be the case in some instances, the majority of pop stars are just that: a star. Other people write their lyrics and music and manage their entire careers, while the pop star is just the face to the name. It almost seems unfair. Of course, the ghostwriter knows what they are getting into, but that being said, it would be a step in the right direction to simply call them writers instead of ghostwriters. I believe that if Bibi Bourelly wrote a song that Rihanna sings, it should be considered Bibi’s song, not Rihanna’s. But hey, that’s just what I think.
Maybe pop should entirely abolish the concept of ghostwriting hits for pop stars. Then perhaps we can work on the originality of the music and its structure. Either way, it seems that the pop music genre has a few things that it needs to work out.
Strike Out,
Ryan Manney
Boca Raton
Ryan Manney is a Content Writer for Strike Magazine Boca. His hobbies amount to surfing, skating, writing, reading, and everything music. When he isn’t surfing, he loves watching and/or playing live music. He also likes to wear cool clothes. You can reach him on instagram @ryanmanney or email @ r.manney3@gmail.com
