Yeah, yeah, yeah...nice Jewish girls and who gives a shit.
Seriously -- the album that's from (I Quit, or as I like to refer to it, If Only) is making a lot of critics Best-Of lists for 2025, and given that I've never mentioned these kids here before, I just gotta say, and for the record, that I totally don't get it. Bloodless, soulless, too cute for words MOR without a single element of interest, either vocally or instrumentally.
Of course, I feel pretty much the same about most of the rest of current/contemporary commercially successful pop, but even so...😎
Hey -- wait a minute. That's obviously a subject for this weekend's business. To wit:
Most current/contemporary commercially successful pop music -- yay or nay? Your thoughts.
Discuss.
Now granted, the above may seem like critical laziness on my part, but swear to god I've been meaning to ask y'all about that for what seems like ages. And in case you haven't guessed, my feeling is that most of today's music is by and large the crappiest it's ever been in my lifetime. Or at least since the pre-rock early Fifties. I mean, like "How much is that doggie in the window" crappy.
In any case, I should add that I'm enforcing no arbitrary rules here, although I must emphasize the whole "commercially successful" parameter. Which is to say we're talking Taylor Swift-adjacent or nearby, sales-wise; some obscure indie not-even-a-cult act that nobody but you has ever heard of should not enter into the discussion. 😎😎
Alrighty then -- what would YOUR opinion be on this weighty topic?
And have a great weekend, everybody!!!
6 comments:
I dislike most current pop music. Dislike is maybe too strong. I mostly don't care. The biggest problem for me is the manufacturing of music using drum programming instead of a drummer, synth programming instead of a keyboard player, synth bass, it all sounds so artificial. What does real sound like? The Faces, but that was 50 years ago. Too many of the better (real) bands today are doing some form of aggressive, punk-like music, which I'm also not that crazy about. Then there are the power pop bands that make good, relatively retro sounds that I like, but, most of those are not big sellers. Haim and Wet Leg are both pop/rock and successful, and to me sound like the older style music that I like updated a bit to the present day. And both bands sound like people making music, not computers. And the lyrics don't sound like they were written by a 15 year-old girl. That's why Haim and Wet Leg both made my top ten. Catchy melodies, harmonies, guitar based, a touch of humor. You love the D'Addarrios but this pop is crap? I'm not sure that makes sense to me.
https://kleaveburg.blogspot.com/2025/12/best-of-2025.html
Wet Leg? Oy gevalt. 😎
So little new pop enters my life I am not qualified to discuss it. I'm just an old guy now with hundreds of albums and CDs. My Mac Music app is on shuffle, so it's like having my own free form radio station.
That said, as has been discussed her before, does every new band that gets on SNL really suck as bad as it seems, or do I just notice the awful ones?
The only time I hear commercial pop is in the gym or the barbershop. It's all so bland and faceless that it goes in one ear and out the other. This applies to the last 50 years. Is Haim really any different than Bread or The Village People, for example?
- Paul in DK
I try not to flame, and I love your blog, but...Oh get over yourself.
When I talk to people my age and older about the current state of pop music, they always seem to apologize for liking something. "Sorry, but Haim is pretty good." "You know, I kinda like Sabrina Carpenter, sorry."
The difference between what the D'Addarios do and what Haim does is like the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing one.
The Lemon Twigs have taken this music that we still rave about--Brian Wilson, John & Paul, Burt Bacharach, Raspberries, Big Star, etc., and created something fresh. I hear all that I love in the Twigs music and never feel like it's a pastiche. Haim's melodies go nowhere. That melody of the song you posted is two or three notes, like most current pop music. You can't say that about the D'Addarios.
Pop music is so god-awful these days, Haim sounds like The Beatles by comparison.
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