Why I listen to Top 40
Posted August 21st, 2009 by Dan
I listen to top 40 music. Exclusively. This is not a joke.
I do this because I like good music. I like well written, well produced, well mixed music. I like hearing the most talented artists. I like hearing the bands and artists who are at the top, because they are the best. This is what top 40 radio affords me.
How do I know what the best music out is at any given time: I look at the Billboard charts. I ignore anything below 40. It’s that easy. I know it is the best music out because it is the most purchased, or most played, or both.
There are certain self-proclaimed music mavens out who would find this view repugnant. I think you know who I’m talking about. Despite never writing a song or learning to play an instrument, they are somehow an authority on music composition. They love bands you’ve never heard of, precisely for that reason. They’ve got a music blog where they use ambiguous descriptions like “spatial”, “dichotomous”, and “neo-post-emocore” to describe simple, boring music. If they review an album from a band you’ve heard of, it’s mediocre and disappointing. If it’s from a band you’ve never heard of, it’s amazing. These people get off on criticizing success and promoting failure.
Among this community of success hating contrarians, Pitchfork Media is King. Check out their Best New Music section. Now take a good hard look at these unknowns because you will never see or hear from them again. Sure, they may continue to record albums for the rest of their lives, but you won’t ever hear about them because they will suck. Pitchfork picks losers and parades them around like heroes fighting against the crushing oppression of the music industry and cultural ignorance. A shitty band’s determination to carry on in the midst of constant failure and lack of any significant fan support is what makes them so great and worthy of exposure in the eyes of the contrarians. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that there is no real oppression, no cultural ignorance, and no conspiracy that keeps these bands underground. They don’t succeed because their music blows. End of story.
If an independent band really has better music than what’s already out there, you don’t have to dredge the gutters of indie blog-dom to hear them. Labels find and sign the best independent artists because they are already setting trends and garnering fans. By necessity, they have to find the next big thing in order to stay in business at a time when music consumers have endless choices.
Despite the ramblings of music industry outsiders, record labels can’t control what music people will like. They can’t control what songs people will like. If they could, they wouldn’t spend millions on market research before promoting songs to radio. When consumers literally have the entirety of all recorded music, past and present, at their fingertips (read iTunes, Lala, Spotify), it’s ridiculous to believe that the major labels and corporate radio stations conspire to control what we listen to. Major labels still dominate the airwaves because they have a product people want: new music from the best artists.
Music snobs like to deride popular commercial music: “It’s manufactured”, “It’s simple and clichéd and formulaic”, and “It all sounds the same.” Well guess what:
1. Yes, it is manufactured, in the same way Ferraris are manufactured. Record labels sign the most talented and charismatic artists. Then they hire the very best songwriters. Then they get the most distinguished producers. Then they go into the the best studios, with the best engineers, and have the best studio musicians play on the record. Then the very best mix engineers finish it off. What comes out is as close to musical perfection as you can get.
2. Good music IS simple and clichéd. Pop songs use the same chord progressions over and over because they sound good. They allow for powerful vocal melodies and hooks. And yes, pop songs often have “trite” lyrics. That is because they talk about universal subjects that people can relate to. A good song doesn’t need an English professor, a classical composer, and some jackass with a blog to explain itself. A good song is self explanatory. You get it the first time you hear it, and you want to hear it again and again.
3. Contrary to the contrarians, Top 40 music does not all sound the same. Top 40 does not discriminate by genre. On any given day, you can hear Kings of Leon (indie), Kelly Clarkson (pop-rock), Black-Eyed Peas (cross-genre), Beyoncé (R&B), Kanye West (hip-hop), Matt Nathanson (acoustic), and Lady Gaga (electronica). When someone says that popular music all sounds the same, what they really mean is that it all sounds good. They mean it has better songs, better production, and higher sound quality than the music they listen to.
My favorite criticisms come directly from the shitty artists that write shitty music that nobody likes except for assholes that have record players. Rob and I usually get to produce awesome ass bands, but every now and then we are forced to polish some real turds. I often hear this statement from such turd makers: “I could write crap like that [commercial music] if I wanted to.”
No you couldn’t. If you could have you would have. Provided you weren’t too ugly or an idiot you would also have a marketable image. You would have some kind of following. If you had your shit together, you would have a manager who might be connected enough to get you an audience with a major. An if you really truly could write and perform commercial music, you would get signed and get a chance to be on top 40 radio, where millions of people would actually give a shit about your band. But you don’t have any of this. You don’t have anything.
See, the problem is not that bad indie bands don’t want to sell-out, it’s that they aren’t good enough to. Their best songs aren’t good enough. Even if they sat down specifically with the intent of writing a commercial song that would become a smash hit on top 40 radio, they would not be able to. These facts are bad news for the “true artists” who don’t want to “sell out”. Good music leads to money and fans. Not wanting to “sell out” is a self-fulfilling prophecy that can only lead to destitution and obscurity.
Not every basketball player can play in the NBA. Not every writer can be a best selling author. Not every employee becomes a CEO. And that’s the way it should be. The best always rise to the top because they are the most talented, most intelligent, and work the hardest. Kids don’t grow up wanting to be like bam-bam and knuck-knuck down at the street ball court, they grow up wanting to be like Kobe and LeBron. People don’t pay to read the neighborhood community newspaper, they pay to read Thomas Friedman and Nora Roberts. Companies don’t take direction from the mail boy, or Sharon in accounts receivable. They take direction from people like Steve Jobs.
We need to stop pretending the music industry is not subject to the same laws that drive all professions. We need to stop pretending that the top artists are not the best artists. We need to stop pretending that the indie artists du jour like fleet foxes and Bon Iver are somehow in the same league as Coldplay and Justin Timberlake. These artists are at the top for a reason, make more money for a reason, and are much more well-known for a reason. Hands down, they are the best.
Next time you want to hear good music, skip the hype and noise from the chain-smoking Pabst Blue Ribbon crowd. Just do what I do:
1. Turn on your radio and find the Top 40 station (or stream from that station’s website).
2. Enjoy.
Don’t waste your time on losers.
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