granitecrane said:The issue isn't that something is commercial; it's that it's garbage. And honestly, at least 90% of what plays on MTV is just commercial garbage.
Commercialism has always been around, but it turned into actual trash the moment MTV blew up in the 90s and fueled this massive, heavy-duty commercial machine. MTV basically acted as the gatekeeper, deciding what became a hit and what didn't just by choosing what to air. They’d play the worst music imaginable, lacking any real taste, and eventually, every record label started tailoring their output to suit them. Artists were forced to churn out whatever was easiest for the mindless masses to digest, and MTV leaned heavily into the teenage demographic—mostly because they're the loudest and the quickest to chase trends.
Yeah, that's pretty much how music history has been a disaster—almost. Fortunately, over the last few years, MTV has been slowly losing its grip on credibility, and better music is finally starting to crawl back onto the scene.
Do you really think we had those millions of pathetic boy bands in the 90s because all those kids suddenly felt this overwhelming surge of artistic inspiration? Where are they now? They vanished because they didn't create themselves; they were manufactured by people looking to make a quick buck. And where is all that lousy 90s dance-techno-trance stuff? Even if it still exists, nobody plays it, and nobody listens to it. Nowadays, the commercial focus is R&B, but I doubt R&B, Beyoncé, and similar nonsense will even exist in fifteen years. No one will remember them, let alone listen to them. Why? Because it all boils down to instant celebrities who have to be quantitatively "in," rather than contributing quality to music itself or satisfying a more discerning listener. You might find someone tolerable here or there, like Alicia Keys or Macy Gray, but who’s going to have the patience to sift through wheat from the chaff fifteen years from now? Nobody, I guess. People will likely prefer listening to Boney M, ABBA, or the Bee Gees—who were considered commercial in the 70s—over the commercialism of the 90s like Scooter and DJ Bobo, or today's fluff, simply because the former was actually good music, while the latter mostly isn't.
So, it isn't really MTV's fault; it's the audience that allowed MTV to brainwash them.
Some points are valid, but again, I have to say that's just your own opinion and taste. Who are you to decide whether something is garbage or not? If it's trash to you, maybe it isn't to someone else....
It's true that MTV turned into a machine, but why is that even surprising? It's a totally normal phenomenon in the music industry, in show business, and things like that....
Just because the stuff that defined the 90s isn't on TV today doesn't mean it was all crap and failed to leave a mark. They defined that era, and that's that. That was the period when the world saw the first real boy band (New Kids on the Block)....of course producers smelled a profit by targeting young girls, so that's exactly what they did. But, whether you like the music or not, you can't really argue that the guys in those bands weren't doing their jobs well (singing and dancing)....it wasn't exactly amateur hour. Their music was pure mainstream, sure, but it was solidly produced. That era passed, just like the era of certain 80s bands passed. We see who survived today... Robbie Williams, one of the biggest British stars (coming from a boy band), and Justin Timberlake, one of the biggest American stars (also from a boy band). I can't, like you, dismiss the success of someone like Beyoncé, who has been in the industry since she was five, possesses an incredible vocal range, great production, and even better choreography, or someone like Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and the rest....you can't just spit on something just because you don't like their sound. Those women worked incredibly hard to get where they are, and I wouldn't call them "instant" stars, considering they've been at this for 15 years by the time they were 23.
That’s just the current state of the music charts... you can't really ignore it.
Besides, everything is manufactured these days—the image, the public appearances, the carefully crafted statements... and it isn't just limited to mainstream pop, either. Metal bands and hard rock groups do the exact same thing. At the end of the day, it’s all just business.
Regarding that 90s dance scene, of course it evaporated. Dr. Alban isn't exactly trending right now, but believe me, dance music is still at the top of the food chain. At its core, dance will always exist. You'll have guys like DJ Boba, sure, but there will also be much better offerings, similar to how we have the house, dance, and groove styles today (which, let's face it, evolved from dance anyway)... think LCD Soundsystem, the Shapeshifters, or Faithless.
I mean, even modern R&B isn't what it used to be... so we shouldn't claim that certain styles or MTV artists just vanished because they weren't high quality. In their own era, they were what was "in." Naturally, some were better than others... some resonated with people, some didn't. That's just how it works.
Music has branched out into a hundred different subgenres, and I guess I'm actually happier now because there’s such a wider variety available. I don't restrict myself by labeling things as commercial versus non-commercial, or techno, pop, or rock... for me, it just comes down to whether I vibe with it or I don't.
For instance, I don't like jazz at all, but I won't go so far as to say it's garbage... because I try to be realistic. It just doesn't sound like anything I enjoy, even though plenty of people swear it's the ultimate genre. Some of them are being sincere, but a huge number of them are just posers... and honestly, it's nauseating.
It’s easy to claim you listen to jazz just so people will have a higher opinion of you, whereas if you say you follow the current mainstream scene, people assume you lack the ability to recognize quality. Prejudices, prejudices... I suppose those are the first things you have to get past when it comes to music.