Day 16: Your Views On Mainstream Music

Ugh... I... Uhm...

I apologize in advance for what I'm about to say.

Okay delving right into it...

I listened to a lot of mainstream stuff as a kid when you like everything and the world was colourful and then... Punk Goes Pop, Brutal Legend, Shadows Of The Damned, Lolipop Chainsaw...

I fell in love with alternative culture, metal, rock, hardcore, with weird things and weird people.

So when I look at mainstream music, I often feel a bit... Disgusted.

And it's genuinely not because I'm trying to be an asshole. It's just that a lot of pop annoys me, I am also... Addicted to hearing screaming. Like if I go too long without hearing metal my mind  just... Breaks. I love that.. Sound. It's so... Satisfying. And chuggy guitar tones and... Like... It's fucking beautiful.

When I think of mainstream, I picture like Deep House, Hip Hop, R&B, Electropop, Folk, Urban... And a lot of those genres just don't appeal to me. They don't give me any satisfaction. Yes, I could search through Hip Hop and try to find the gems, but a lot of it sounds like smut. ESPECIALLY mainstream Hip Hop. Folk usually just bores me. I can listen to it, and like Of Monsters And Men, The Lumineers, The Temper Trap... I love those bands... But my love for them is superficial. My love for Bring Me The Horizon is eternal.

Pop... Meh. I kinda like some Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, they're sort of the lesser evils I guess, I have no real love for Arianna Grande or Miley Cyrus, love Lady Gaga and Jessie J, love Lana Del Rey... I have real love for my divas. But like... Drake, ew. Rihanna, nooooo. Beyonce... Blegh.

And I will admit, when I was still a huge Glee fan, I had a much greater appreciation for pop and mainstream music but now...

I dunno.

Ever since I discovered AudioTree Live... I think I listened to mewithoutyou recently and BAM. My whole brain exploded. Like... Eargasm. The music is so much more real on this underground, independent kind of scene. I love this side... It's very hipster or whatever but I mean, the music is quality.

And it's made me just feel like mainstream music is... Irrelevant. Boring. Superficial. Without depth. Without... Substance. Even stuff I would have enjoyed a few years back, stuff like Blink-182, Good Charlotte, Green Day... They bore me now. I don't listen to those bands unless I'm with a sort of 90s kid crowd that won't ever delve into this rich scene of culture and weird sonic experiences. Like I would even have made a case for Avril Lavigne a year or two ago but now it's just... A lot of spoken word hardcore punk blends, some indie, some psychedelic... AudioTree is really fantastic and all their sessions are quality, I can honestly say if you're looking for new music, that's the place to find it...

So I guess I can just say that while I can respect anyone who records an album... I guess I just wish it was truer to your feelings than to how many records you wanna sell or whatever. Rather find a market for your art than make art of a market. But I might just be biased.