Are men to blame for homogenized mainstream music ??

I agree that it could be men manipulating women's impressing of themselves but that has always been the case. Hyper sexualized "characters" have always played a part in selling music. The difference now vs. Then is just what they want to focus on. Madonna did much the same thing and, n her own way, Chrissie Hynde did as well although she was more an example of a mature when who acknowledged her sexuality and embraced it.

Still,,there is a double standard when it comes to men and women and ther expressin of their sexuality. Miley is selling herself to males and females alike.mi wouldn't call it appealing but I do hope that yong girls are smart enough to realize it's an act. This is, nfortunately, a extension of the little girl beauty pageants which use the reverse imagery to sell little girls as sexual to an adult audience.

 

In my experience with women, men are to blame for everything

 

Roger is pretty cool.

 

Why bring gender into it? It's the fault of the Idol and talent shows on tv. Last time I looked there wasn't just a bunch of old guys in the juries.

 

The list of hits from 1984 looks to me like it's dominated by middle-of-the-road rock. Not exclusively so--there's some pop and R&B in there, too, just like your typical list of hits from today would have some hip-hop (and even some rock!) among the pop.

Even if pop is all over what used to be the singles charts, I think that popular music as a whole is more pluralistic today than it's been in the past. Click over to the album charts, and there's lots of pop, hip-hop, country, R&B, and rock music. And while pop is the most popular, I don't think it's as widely considered to be the normative form of popular music to the degree that rock had been in the past.

But it actually doesn't matter. It's not strictly a bad thing if a particular genre of popular music is especially popular at any given time--it depends quite a bit on whether it's good or not. For example, I would love it if the charts were dominated by indie rock. And if they were, I wouldn't start a discussion about it by asking who was to blame for the charts being so homogenized.

"Blame" only has a negative connotation. You don't blame people for something that's good--nobody "blames" LeBron James for those titles in Miami. You don't even blame people for something neutral. You only blame people for something that's bad, and it's plainly untrue that the title of this thread--which ruminates on who is to blame for the current state of the charts--makes no judgments about the quality of music.

 

Whatever happened to the idea that power corrupts?

 

That's a laugh. Miley has made more money than her father will ever see. It isn't even close.

 

Wasn't it the Hannah Montana alter-ego that made the money?

 

I assume you're joking since that's like saying that anyone who works as an actor isn't making money, that their characters are making the money.

 

In 1964, five of the top twenty songs on Billboard's year-end chart were written by Lennon/McCartney and performed by the Beatles. But nobody today says that there was a problem with homogeneity in music in 1964. And it's for a couple of reasons: 1) people like the early Beatles, and they like Lennon/McCartney songs; and 2) even with the Beatles as successful as they were, popular music was still pluralistic! Because outside of the Beatles and rock-and-roll, there was still folk, jazz, blues, traditional pop, music from shows and movies, etc., just as even with Max Martin and Dr. Luke and pop today, there's still rock, hip-hop, R&B, country, and electronica.

The problem that is being bemoaned on this thread is not that there is too little variety in the most popular music. It's not that men aren't buying enough music. It's that the most popular music is pop.

 

I never watched it, but I think on the show the Miley character's personality was split into two halves, Hannah the rock star and Miley the every-girl, which is pretty creepy. Anyway, I wasn't really talking about her per-se, but the millions of girls who follow her on her route to "empowerment".

 

I have little interest in Miley Cyrus or Hannah Montana. I was merely responding to your "rich daddy" comment. Miley made a boatload of money while working on that show, while working on other television shows, and while recording music (both in an out of character). Her father had only one big pop hit, as far as I remember. A quick search I did indicated that Miley's wealth is already eight times that of her father, and if I had to bet on one of them to continue recording chart hits it would be Miley. And I'll admit to liking one Miley tune, "See You Again."

 

They realize that adult men had already replaced their LP's with CD's during the 90's. Then some reverted back to vinyl. So, this group of consumers doesn't represent a large group. Oh, and when you attend shows for new acts, the acts are geared toward college-age kids.

 

Definitely - and it's all about the merch. with that demographic.

 

Some men certainly are to blame for homogenized mainstream music. That is, if you really need to blame anybody for this. All of those men are labelheads by profession.

 

Historically driven by men? Huh?

 

Even earlier Sinatra crowd ...

 

Driven by men?
Elvis fans ...

 

Homo what ! Boy it sure gets heavy round here

 

Well, he's probably still playing down the highway from you in Branson. I got conned into seeing one of his shows (a matinee!) there a few years back. The first set he did his hits. After the intermission he introduced his friend, mentor and spiritual advisor who happened to be sitting in the front row, the Reverend Dr. Jerry Falwell, before tearing into a set of Neil Diamond songs. I gave up a great opportunity to be arrested for making a public disturbance that day.

 

What's interesting about that list is I was 16 at the time, and I know every one of those songs.
I don't think I've heard a single song on the contemporary list that was posted.

Is the music being made today targeted for a younger audience?
I doubt that I was the target audience or if artists had pre-teens in the mid 70s and early 80s,
(when I none the less had my tastes shaped by performers of the day) It seems to me if anything has
changed, it's maybe that today's artists are more aware that young people are their key audience?

 

Adele seems to be the exception of a good female artist who doesn't use sex to sell her music.

 

Now, don't going attacking BBWs and the men who love them.

 

That's been with us forever, from Clark Kent/Superman to Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon. It's a fantasy that allows us to imagine ourselves as something other than ordinary. I don't see anything creepy about it.

 

That a fact!