When I'm taking a break from a steady dose of punk/hardcore (we are in a golden age for hardcore imho), I've been falling down a rabbit hole of contemporary reggaeton. I had been familiar with early reggaeton because it really just seemed to be sped up reggae in Spanish and I listen(ed) to a lot of reggae. (Music clips to follow.)
That's part one. Part two is that I was driving home from my regular pizza by the slice place and listening to a local college radio station that tends to be very good for indie rock stuff. The set that I heard was all pop music that seemed to be 80s New Wave with a 2019 mainstream pop radio twist. Back in the day (and I don't mean that to sound like some grandpa spewing nostalgia) there is no way pop masquerading as alternative would have been played on a good college station like the one I was listening to while driving. And less farther back in the day Pitchfork was writing about (mostly) independent music and no mainstream top 40 artists. But now college radio is sucked into pop sounds and Pitchfork prefers to lead with stories about Taylor Swift. Damn, pop is everywhere all the time.
Three songs while I was driving:
Sigrid - Sucker Punch (major label in the US but because she's Norwegian she's not supposed be mainstream pop--think Robyn who is for some reason huge among indie fans). LA show is promoted by GoldenVoice, which before they started Coachella exclusively booked alternative and punk shows.
LPX - Global Warming (label is listed as self-relased but on tour opening for X-Ambassadors so no way this is a band self-releasing music)
Paramore - Idle Worship (not going to bother with the video since they're on a fake indie label or a label that might have been independent at one point but now owned by a major).
Reggaeton-- one old song and two new songs:
El General - Muevelo
Yung Beef and La Zowi - Empezar
Bea Pelea - A Los Dos (Ft. Kaydy Cain & El Mini)
Short version: it seems like a mainstream pop sound is everywhere now and the only way to avoid it is to make some type of extreme music. But maybe that's always been the case and I was able to ignore pop sounds.
That's part one. Part two is that I was driving home from my regular pizza by the slice place and listening to a local college radio station that tends to be very good for indie rock stuff. The set that I heard was all pop music that seemed to be 80s New Wave with a 2019 mainstream pop radio twist. Back in the day (and I don't mean that to sound like some grandpa spewing nostalgia) there is no way pop masquerading as alternative would have been played on a good college station like the one I was listening to while driving. And less farther back in the day Pitchfork was writing about (mostly) independent music and no mainstream top 40 artists. But now college radio is sucked into pop sounds and Pitchfork prefers to lead with stories about Taylor Swift. Damn, pop is everywhere all the time.
Three songs while I was driving:
Sigrid - Sucker Punch (major label in the US but because she's Norwegian she's not supposed be mainstream pop--think Robyn who is for some reason huge among indie fans). LA show is promoted by GoldenVoice, which before they started Coachella exclusively booked alternative and punk shows.
LPX - Global Warming (label is listed as self-relased but on tour opening for X-Ambassadors so no way this is a band self-releasing music)
Paramore - Idle Worship (not going to bother with the video since they're on a fake indie label or a label that might have been independent at one point but now owned by a major).
Reggaeton-- one old song and two new songs:
El General - Muevelo
Yung Beef and La Zowi - Empezar
Bea Pelea - A Los Dos (Ft. Kaydy Cain & El Mini)
Short version: it seems like a mainstream pop sound is everywhere now and the only way to avoid it is to make some type of extreme music. But maybe that's always been the case and I was able to ignore pop sounds.
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