With iPods, satellite radio, popular music getting more specialized

By James Sullivan
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 7:00 p.m. ET Jan. 19, 2006
Heard the new Gavin DeGraw single yet? Fall Out Boy? How about the Pussycat Dolls?

At the moment, these emerging artists are the proud owners of some of the country’s most popular songs. If you don’t recognize any of those names, don’t beat yourself up for being hopelessly out of touch. Chances are your neighbor doesn’t know them, either.

And if you’re familiar with one, it’s a solid bet you haven’t stumbled on the others. They inhabit three distinct universes — pop sincerity, pop-punk and pop confection, in that order.

True, each of those worlds collide at the mall. But then they quickly go their separate ways: One ducks into Hot Topic, while the others make beelines for Express or Abercrombie & Fitch.

Like every other corner of the marketplace — from cable TV to breakfast cereals — the pop music planet has imploded into countless little fragments filling countless little niches. With dizzying technological advances and ever more narrowly conceived channels of distribution, consumers are learning the fine art of discrimination.

For better or worse, it spells the erosion of our shared culture.

From the advent of radio, the whole country heard the same songs.

Whether it was “Chattanooga Choo Choo” or “Love Train,” most listeners recognized most of the hits of the day. But radio, driven by demographics and advertising, grew increasingly compartmentalized.

Top 40 all but obsolete
The Top 40 became all but obsolete as a programming format of its own, preserved only as an unappetizing smorgasbord hosted by Ryan Seacrest, lumping together booty-shaking Jell-o, redneck meat and potatoes and power-ballad lard.

Now, suddenly, old-fashioned radio itself is threatened with extinction. From the ubiquitous MP3 players to the surging medium of satellite radio, the listener is building a virtual fortress according to his or her own tastes — all emo with a secret penchant for Billy Joel, say, or Selena, reggaeton and Nancy Sinatra.

Who do we think we are? Increasingly, the answer to that question is coded in our playlists. I have the soundtrack to my life, and you have yours. What’s that? Can’t hear you — I’m cranking “Get Off My Cloud.”

If Mariah Carey sings her smash single “We Belong Together” on next month’s Grammy Awards telecast, or Kanye West performs “Gold Digger,” plenty of viewers will be hearing those very successful songs for the first time. By contrast, it’s hard to imagine an American who hadn’t heard “Bette Davis Eyes” by the time that pervasive ditty won 1981’s Song of the Year.

Undoubtedly, there will always be crossover hits — those select songs, be they maddeningly inescapable novelties or honest-to- goodness instant classics, that get fixed in the collective consciousness. A few years back, for instance, every rapper seemed to be professing his love for Coldplay. But in the age of bottomless individual choice, that kind of convergence will happen more and more infrequently.

Looking for cross-over hit? Do a commercial
That’s why bands bent on world domination, like Green Day and U2, agree to do commercials, perform on New Year’s Eve and lobby for NFL halftime shows. For them, having another hit song is really just preaching to a few million of the converted. Immortality, or the illusion of it, means foisting yourself by any means necessary onto the other six billion or so.

So should we lament the passing of the pop mainstream? Should we all sing a chorus of “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye” to the outdated era of lowest-common-denominator entertainment? If there’s any way to sidestep the next “Rhinestone Cowboy” or “Who Let the Dogs Out,” wouldn’t that be a small victory for cultural refinement?

Or would it? As it stands, far too many of us find it far too easy to dismiss entire genres of music out of hand — all hip hop, for instance, or all country music. No style of music is inherently bad; it just takes some effort to sort the good examples from the, ah, less good.

With our aptly named iPods, we’re coccooning ourselves from the world around us. Those of us who don’t think we care for hip hop, or country, or dancehall or neoglam or futuristic cheerleader pop, can tune it out more effectively than ever before. Sadly, we’re already frightfully good at ignoring each other as it is.

fact file Top 40 music in 2006

The top 10 singles on the Billboard charts illustrate the diversity of pop music. (Ranking as of Jan. 19)
Song Artist Clip
Grillz Nelly Listen
Check On It Beyonce Listen
Run It! Chris Brown Listen
Don't Forget About Us Mariah Carey Listen
Stickwitu The Pussycat Dolls Listen
There It Go (The Whistle Song) Juelz Santana Listen
Laffy Taffy D4L Listen
Photograph Nickelback Listen
Dirty Little Secret The All-American Rejects Listen
Be Without You Mary J. Blige Listen

James Sullivan lives in Massachusetts and is a regular contributor to MSNBC.com.

I agree with the current top 10 representing pop to the fullest. A few rap, a few rock, a few R&B, a few pop.

Hmm, interesting. I'm not sure whether it's a good or bad or mixed thing yet but I do agree that people are increasingly identifying themselves by the music they listen to which then for some reason seems to dictate or sympathise with all kinds of other factors in their life. Music culture is generally not just about music anymore, people are subscribing to whole cultures through it and yes it can create friction or stereotypical assumptions. It's not a new phenomema though, it might just seem more striking because there are apparantly more categories to fit/fall in to and those categories develop sub-categories(genres) and just keep getting more and more specific. Of course there is cross-over otherwise those sub genres would be so specific that they no longer fit in their paradigm but to those well versed in those paradigms a sub-genre could probably stick out like a sore thumb and go almost completely unnoticed by someone less knowledgable/interested in it or from another category who perhaps just doesn't bother outside their own 'box'.

That said, there are still people who like all kinds of music or who will listen to anything as long as it's right for their mood and being immersed in one or two types isn't always bad as long as you're open minded and don't just automatically label everything else as inferior. Some people look for certain technicality in their music and might just find more of it in one category hence go with what they know they like which is fine (as opposed to being influenced into it for some reason e.g peers) but as long as they're aware it might/will also exist in other areas, just not as obviously or in the way they expect.

Also, I think even though music has seemingly always played a big part in people's lives, now it seems to play even more in respect to other 'hobbies/interests' - it's pushed and associated with a lot more things then other hobbies generally are which is probably why more people are into it and moulding their categories to exactly how they like/want it hence further pushing the genres. The only other major lifestyle 'hobby' that I can think of at the moment that competes is fashion but still that ties heavily into music as well. Whereas something like reading for example still has more of a level of independence i.e. you can like specific genres without that reflecting on your other tastes such as music, a person who likes emo or who likes country can both like crime fiction and though people can still guess what a person may be like by some books they read, it's much less interdependent or reaching then music. That's only for fiction though (if you don't count those few who specialise only in a certain type of crime or science fiction or fantasy for example - they are not as common as specific music followers though and it probably wouldn't be as easy to guess their musical tastes), non-fiction tends to be read in accordance to people's careers/serious interests but not always. Basically, music affects a lot mroe about people's lives then it used to and people are accepting that; it used to be a big part before as well but it wasn't so integrated with other parts of a person's identity unless there was a reason like it was their job.

As for the breakdown of pure pop, I think it's just in the advent of the 'new' major music type of the moment. I mean what has dominated the big music markets in general over the last few decades? From Golden Hollywood there was a lot of that kind of musical melody, traditional swing, blues/soul, jazz, country, rock, classic metal, punk, pop, ska/soul, r'n'b/swing, pop and now hip hop? Then there are all the smaller but still big enough movements for example in the UK, back in the late 80's onwards there was punk, ska, then reggae, swing (not the swing mentions before), jungle, drum'n'bass, house, acid house, techo/dance, trance, garage, rap/r'n'b and now hip hop which has now dominated over the prevailing pop and rock major categories. Many of those smaller types of music were evolutions of each other but the major movements (rock, pop, r'n'b/hip hop) seem totally different to each other so I'm guessing that whatever is next will probably be fairly different to hip hop rather then similar or a progression. The reason for that may be that when we have a major music dominating, people get tired or welcome something that is different.

(I haven't written a longish post in a while so there )

mainstream pop died back in 2002 to me

iPods have blown the music world wide open. I'll admit, when I was 15, I knew just a few songs and didnt really have loads of artists i liked. but now that i have an iPod, (im 16) i know all these artists, and have 3,500 songs on my iPod. Having an iPod has really helped me find my own niche in music, and really actually like music. before i thought music was boring, now im an addict.

The only good songs on mainstream are the one's that push the boundaries of what's conventional (ie. Gwen Stefani - Crash).

Nothing happened to "mainstream pop". It just evolves as generations get older and new ones come along. James Sullivan's point isn't coming across very well, honestly. Most of the songs that are dominating iTunes etc. today are songs that you're likely to here on a Mainstream, Urban, Rythmic, AC, Rock, etc. station on FM radio and are most likely big hits on those formats.

I'm a person who listens to all types of music but not because of the arrival of things such as satellite radio and iTunes. I've always been eager to find new music and successful at doing so. I'm a very musical person and I have been since before I could even talk. I do dream of going and eventually make my way into the music industry because of my love and devotion for music.

I've always disliked people who only stick to one or two genres/formats. I find them to be shallow, ignorant, among other things.

Best article I've seen in a while.

Actually it's pretty inaccurate and badly researched.

I read this at another board, and I looked at a few other people's comments so excuse me if I steal a few things from what they said.

First of all, this is not a new issue. This same decline occured in the early years of 70's, 80's and 90's (see a trend?).

It's funny that he mentions "Bette Davis Eyes" when that came to radio during a time that had some of the lowest audience numbers in history. If you compare those numbers to the incredibly massive audience numbers of songs like WBT and Gold Digger, they pale in comparison. Theres no doubt more people have heard those two songs than BDE in 1981.

Even if it was inaccurate....it is still well-written. But this happens with every genre of music, every generation. Nothing new...

Anyone can flower up crap. He may be a good writer, but that was not a good article IMO.

gotta agree with justin on this one...the article doesn't accurately convey what its title stipulates

I agree, pop has just evolved. (sp?)
People went crazy for boybands, people went crazy for teen blonde girls, people went crazy for "rock girls", it's like a cycle.

You think you have diversity now? All this freedom of choice you are getting currently is just trying to swamp you with crap and overwhelm you. So eventually, you will want freedom FROM choice and then you will have no choice but to listen to what you are told, mainly hip hop and r&b which in the future will be the only 2 genres of music left. If you aren't a hip hop fan, i'd suggest you start enjoying it now.

Thank you !