Is Pop Music Becoming More and More Boring?

Blogpost

January 12, 2021

Boredom in Pop Music?

The decisive answer is – NO

If you take a very deep look at Spotify, for example, you will find an enormous variety of music. The question is, who does that? Of course, there are listeners who are always on the lookout for new sounds, but these are only a few music enthusiasts with free minds. The majority of listeners visit the charts and the big Spotify playlists. And that’s where the majority and the mainstream rule. The big radio stations join this majority and thus create a reciprocal cycle.

This is nothing new, but the consequence of this cycle has increased in the search for the lowest common denominator. This has something to do with the returns in the streaming age. Profits from music production are now only generated with millions of streams, whereas in the days of physical recordings they were profitable with far lower numbers.

The streaming services’ rules on how streams are paid for is also leading to conformity. A 31-second fragment generates just as much revenue as a 10-minute epic. However, radio had already established the standard size of about 3 minutes per song a long time ago. The function outshines the art.

Research shows that the hits are getting simpler and simpler, but this is no wonder after the observations described above. However, the success of Billie Eilish with completely new sounds proves that there is still enough room for innovation. The prerequisite, however, is a large crowd of fans who are more interested in the artist and then also follow his music.

And now we are at the marketing of art in general. The rules are not new, and the fact that the artist’s public appearance carries a lot of weight is also not new. Actually, on closer inspection, I don’t see anything really new at all, and expect that everything will balance itself out over time – until the next technical revolution. That’s just how evolution works. and there are always winners and losers.

What is new, however, is that electronic tools have drastically simplified the possibilities of music production. This calls up many soldiers of fortune who 40 years ago would never have risked the high costs of music production and would have remained music lovers or hobby musicians. Today, many of them live out their passion as producers and create a hermaphrodite being of music lover and music producer. However, many lack artistic skills and also lack the time for further musical and technical training. So they fall far short of their dreams and expectations. This creates a huge torrent of frustration, which is then also poured out on social media, and a new voice in the concert of critics, desperately seeking reasons for their failure.

This voice claims the demise of musical quality in popular music, overlooking the fact that it is contributing powerfully to it. Nevertheless, of course, everyone has a right to live out a passion, and we wish them all the best of luck in doing so.

RESPECT

I am no idealist, and love is sometimes too much of a good thing for me. I think that respect which excludes racism and nationalism per se is enough. Respect also allows a personal retreat when other attitudes to life conflict too much with one’s own.

PROSPERITY

Wealth is always relative. But I would grant everyone the right to enough food, a solid roof over their heads and the opportunity to develop their talents. If some people think they need to keep the current prosperity gap, they should buy a few more luxury cars – what the hell – I’m not a communist.

SERENITY

The first two demands are a prerequisite for making serenity possible for the poor at all. It is likely to be a great challenge for all the half-rich, because in my opinion the hunt for the WORK-LIFE-BALANCE is nothing else but the fight against the constantly threatening poverty in the existing social system.

The Founder

My name is Horst Grabosch and I am the mastermind of all projects presented on this website.

I was born in the largest coal mining area in Germany, known as the “Ruhrgebiet”. After school I worked as a professional musician until I was 40 years old. This time is well documented on WIKIPEDIA

After a burnout I had to give up my job, moved to the south of Germany, to the Munich region, and did an apprenticeship as an information technologist.

Another burnout forced me to rebuild my existence again, which collapsed just because of the corona crisis. In expectation of poverty at retirement age, I began to build a second career as a musician in 2019.

Newest Music

Tropical Fruit Mix - Horst Grabosch, Alexis Entprima

Tropical Fruit Mix

Horst Grabosch and Alexis Entprima with a new dance track that again goes into the leg as well as the brain. A poppy horn section, borrowed from the days of Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears, is at the center of the song. As you would expect with Grabosch’s compositions, there are also extensive quotes from the blues and a guest appearance by the Peking Opera – all perfectly molded into a tropical house track.

Talk to Me - Horst Grabosch & Alexis Entprima

Talk to Me

Horst Grabosch continues to surf the wave of summer with his alter ego Alexis Entprima. Today his message is “Talk to Me”, which is always better than “Shoot on Me”. Like the last summer singles, it is electronic dance music with always different subgenres, like electro or Future House in this case. And again Grabosch invites some eclectic guests. In this song a rock band sounds from another world. There’s definitely a different way to be boring.

I Need You Now - Horst Grabosch, Alexis Entprima

I Need You Now

The song is a dance track in Future House style. As usual with the eclectic producer Horst Grabosch, elements from other worlds appear. The title of the song appears in the comprehensible lyrics, but is only a thematic orientation. The story is told in the music and in the cover. It is about loneliness and the desire for togetherness in a crazy world. A slowly but steadily growing listenership begins to understand the overall concept of the soul-seeker in his books and songs. Interestingly, we also find other electronic producers expanding their stylistic and sonic repertoire within a single song. The pioneering attitude of the artist Grabosch seems to follow a trend. It is no coincidence that Grabosch also urges more anarchy in thinking in his books. It is a very special anarchy that does not exhaust itself in the struggle for resistance, but refuses to obey partly unspoken rules. One could call it a liberation of the mind.

See You Again - Horst Grabosch, Alexis Entprima

See You Again

‘See You Again’ is a drum ‘n’ bass style track. The book author and music producer Horst Grabosch works with onomatopoetic voices in his emotional international songs. Mostly only the title is understandable in English. But this title expresses the mood of the song. Here it is about meeting again in life or even afterwards. New soul food from the soulseeker Grabosch. Easily consumable music with surprises and depth. Also suitable for chillout or lounge issues.

Easy - Horst Grabosch, Alexis Entprima

Easy

So how should we classify this song? The only word we can clearly understand from the voices is ‘Easy’ and that’s exactly how the song comes across. It’s not the first time Grabosch has poured out his magic over a fairly commercial base. Yes, there are a lot of samples involved, but so ingeniously integrated that soul really shines through and in addition there are his inconspicuous but pretty melodies, which he always artfully puts together from the samples or plays in himself. Easy is a song that puts you in a good mood. A young couple walks on the beach and protect themselves with an umbrella against the sun. Everything is easy, even listening, as melodic elements reminiscent of easy listening of the 90’s resound over the loose electro house groove. An eclectic mix of modern electronic music and traditional elements of pop history. Swinging chillout music.

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Newest Fanposts

Censored by Apple

When asked by the distributor, the album violated an Apple rule: “it is considered very generic for Apple Music, so it can have many copyright overlaps”. Since the album is an acoustic meditation and soul journey and comes under the genre “New Age”, I did some research and found dozens of albums with recordings of singing bowls. What is more generic than the recording of a sound body without additional structured content? The 13 tracks of my album are clearly highly artfully arranged and very different pieces of music. What is the problem?

A Deeper Meaning of Lo-Fi

First a brief introduction for those who have never heard the term Lo-Fi. It defines the intention of a piece of music in terms of sound quality and is a provocative contrast to Hi-Fi, which aims for the highest possible quality. So much for the tip of the iceberg.
Philosophically, Lo-Fi is a departure from the “higher and further” of our world. At a time when even Hi-Fi is no longer enough for many, and Dolby Atmos (multi-channel instead of stereo) is establishing itself as contemporary, the Lo-Fi trend takes on an almost revolutionary air. I would like to highlight 2 aspects of Lo-Fi that underpin this claim.

Mother Tongue and Discrimination

Quote: No German-language title in the Top 100 of the Official German Airplay Charts 2022.
BVMI Chairman Dr. Florian DrĂĽcke criticizes the fact that not a single German-language title can be found in the Top 100 of the Official German Airplay Charts 2022, thus setting a new negative record for a trend that the industry has been pointing out for years. At the same time, the study shows that the variety of genres listened to, including German-language music, continues to be great. In the music offer of the radio stations this is not reflected however. The fact that songs in German don’t play a particularly big role on the radio is not a new phenomenon, and the industry has addressed and criticized it many times over the years.

Alexis Entprima

For best streaming sound we recommend:

Entprima on Qobus

Entprima Publishing

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