by ALISON LEVIER Section Editor
To teenagers, it seems that the most important things are sleeping and music. As long as they have plenty of both, they are set. Now, as lovely as it would be if this article was about sleeping, it is not. This is about music, and how popular “artists” nowadays should not be granted the privilege of being classified as such.
Let us just start out by observing the music that is considered “good”. It usually consists of some ugly rapper (usually with a criminal record), yelling to a backtrack about how much clubbing he has done, or about the women he has been spending his free time with. Ah, yes, the lyricism of a true legend.
“The only rapper I listen to is Eminem because he actually raps about things other than getting drunk. His lyrics mean something,” said sophomore Liz Marchese.
Listening to music like this is actually troubling, and personally, I usually feel like any intellectual ability I possess is slowly dying with every poorly dictated word said in the “song”.
They should not even be classified as “songs”, really. It is literally just illiterate fools trying to sound like profound philosophers. Honestly, the deepest lyrics in popular songs do not leave the surface. Probably the deepest lyric that is in a current popular song is Flo Rida’s “I Cry”, and the lyric is “I cry just a little when I feel like letting go”.
I could have written this song when I was in the seventh grade because it is such a stupid song. That is the only way to describe it. It is just plain silly. Plus, the line I mentioned before is the only line said throughout the song. It literally just keeps repeating for the entire two minutes of the song. It is not even good! It is a lazy attempt at well-written lyrics.
In addition to awful lyrics, songs nowadays do not even take an actually talented person to sing them. Auto-tune is ruining the face of the music industry, with so many popular artists relying on it to pay their bills.
“Auto-tune is killing music. Soon artists won’t even have to record their songs, they can just have their voice digitally added,” said sophomore Anne Ballman.
All it really takes to be a popular artist, it would seem, is the right connections and a pretty face. Half of today’s big artists do not possess the actual ability to sing and, even if they do, they do not know the correct way to sing and will eventually throw out their voice croaking the way they do.
Take Nicki Minaj, for example. She cannot sing. Sure, she can rap, but she also sings in her songs, and when she sings live, it is pretty rough. Same with Taylor Swift, as much as I hate to say it. Taylor Swift is a great songwriter, but she cannot sing live.
Artists today, in my opinion, should worry less about their public image and more about developing their talent. But, really, why would they? People are buying into their gimmick without them really putting in any effort, so really, their talent does not matter to the public. Why should they care?
It is sad to see how corrupt the business has gotten, and how the defining artists of our generation are literal trash.