this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
71 points (74.5% liked)

Showerthoughts

29698 readers
842 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics
    1. NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
    2. Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
    3. Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct-----

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Been thinking a bit about this, popular music (the ones that hit top 100 charts or whatever) never has lyrics that point out real problems or point to culprits and how they're fucking our shit, which is very easy to find in punk rock and some variations, as well as rap.

Of course, part of the problem are the record labels themselves, which often hold artists "hostage" in order to profit off them. Bigger ones will obviously prefer to avoid having such lyrics become popular.

Still, there seems to be absolute zero songs in certain genres that even come within 10 meters of talking/singing/teaching/bringing awareness about situations that affect a LOT of listeners, even from far away, and would be extremely helpful in spreading some knowledge.

Granted, doing so is easier said than done, a catchy tune that calls out big oil's many attempts to burn the world, or big pharma's frequent price gouging, aren't things "any idiot" can come up with. But that nobody outside "angry" genres seems to be doing it is what saddens me.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

90% of people have never heard of Electronic Body Music. And that's a conservative estimate lol. Same goes for dub. Most may have at least heard of reggae and passing. And only generally associate wub wub wub with EDM.

If it isn't the forcefed to them over radio broadcast, most people have never heard of it unfortunately. But yes, EBM postpunk and all those others are all pretty good for calling out society and the problems in it. They just aren't popular, or at least never played on broadcast radio so they can get popular. But let's be honest, who doesn't like a good song about eating the rich.

[–] Shurimal@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

You're right, of course, but my point is that it's not only metal, punk and other "angry" music, or more precisely, music that is aesthetically an acquired taste. There's a lot of mellow, danceable and catchy music that has themes other than "Ooh, baby, baby, yeah, aha". That this sort of music is not played on radio is a completely different problem.

Take a listen to eg VNV Nation's Tomorrow Never Comes and tell me it couldn't be a nr. 1 hit on radio and in clubs. It has all the making of a good catchy pop song, yet has some very thoughtful and contemplative lyrics.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

eating the rich

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.