Don't you hate it when people post obnoxious text at the top of their blog and you have to scroll past it every time you want to read what they've posted? Man, I really hate that.
Posted 11-04-2011 at 11:35 AM bySplat Updated 11-04-2011 at 11:49 AM bySplat
Heard this song for the first time a few days ago and it's been on my head since.
Apparently the guy played at a homeless shelter and was moved to write this the same night.
I don't listen to a lot of mainstream music, but because they play music in the shop where I'm working I've heard a lot of it, and I'm actually starting to feel overwhelmed by the number, variety and sometimes convolution of songs about young love, and songs about sex, and songs about sex cunningly disguised as songs about young love (it's amazing how even in their music these people will shoot holes in their own lies. One that's played several times has the guy saying 'Hey, you're beautiful, let's start a long, deep, wonderful relationship, oh, and if you want to change your mind after I've gotten you to bed, that'll be fine by me.').
But amongst them all, and feeling quite out of place, is this one, which has also played a few times. It's kind of a relief to know that a song that's not about mating has made it into common circulation (this apparently reached number 3 in the charts in England last year, so I might be one of the few not to have heard it before). It also slightly restores faith in humanity that a song like this, that looks outwards and looks at the discomfiting problems faced by other people, can become popular. It's not happy listening, but it needs to be listened to.
But it has moved me, really made me feel the reality faced by so many people in situations like the one in the song (in case you missed it, it looks at the life led by a homeless prostitute whose addicted to crack - a class A drug by the British system, meaning it's one of the most dangerous and most illegal, hence 'class A team'). I don't know if it'll come to anything, but at the moment I can't stop thinking about it, and actually I want to hold onto that.
I'm actually starting to feel overwhelmed by the number, variety and sometimes convolution of songs about young love, and songs about sex, and songs about sex cunningly disguised as songs about young love
The number of songs about love and sex isn't surprising. If the media can keep teenagers, an impressionable demographic, under the illusion that this is what that love thing you've been hearing about is and that this is how you should feel about someone right now, and if they don't feel like that back, you're a failure, then they're going to be keeping them insecure, which means the kids'll be getting all the newest clothes, stink potions, DVDs and music to try and attract the opposite sex.
People generally write songs about what is popular and important to them. To share some examples:
(War/Peace) John Lennon - Give Peace A Chance
(Money) Allo Black - I Need A Dollar
(Space) David Bowie - Space Oddity
(Equality/Prejudice) Lady Gaga - Born This Way
(Society) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
(Technology) Daft Punk - Technologic
In general many bands produce many different songs. Really it depends on the type of music you're hearing. Pop music and R&B generally is about love and nothing else. But you will also hear songs which have nothing to do with romance or love, for example "Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song" or "The Beatles - Paperback Writer".
Musical genre plays a big role in the likelyhood of hearing romantic songs.
It certainly does, because pop music is aimed mainly at teenagers and other highly insecure and impressionable people. And I bet most of the singers don't even write their own stuff. Ghostwriters are pretty prominent figures in pop music. Let me put it this way - an artist doesn't hire a person to write his stuff for him. A businessman does (although that isn't a stab at the performers themselves - I think a lot of them are probably as cluesless as the consumer).
The reason why contemporary classical isn't currently known as pop music is because it doesn't contain simple figures that you can attach platitudinous words about love to (and probably also because the size of the performing ensemble is largely dependent on the piece. More money has to be spent on large ensembles than pop and rock bands, because more rehearsal time is required and more equipment is involved if you're going to record it right).
Pop music (Plop music) is at its worst because it takes so little of nothing to actually generate all this clicking and buzzing that the kids are whittling to.
