Opinion: Gen-Z is saying “fuck you” to corporate pop music, and is liking whatever the fuck they please, and good on ’em!

half moon run: my son was friends with the sister of one of the band members … or something. anyway, i love this song.

So what, and why is this particular to a generation?

People buy what they like, always has been. You're not special.

It's nothing new. All young men around the world in every era, have found pasty thin pretty young British pop stars irresistible.

Wasn't it always the case? I liked the current underground music in my Gen X youth, but also much older stuff. I listened to college radio or niche shows on public radio, not mainstream radio.

erm, Aztec Camera is KIWI, thankyouverymuch! what I really meant, though, I guess, was that zoomers are making music and disseminating it on their own terms, which is a huge fuck you to corporate interests.

I guess. But they do that for everything not just music.

[quote]People buy what they like, always has been. You're not special.

Where did I say this is about me? 🙄

What I was getting at is that people aren’t BUYING - they’re sharing.

Two things:

1. I love that they shun corporate driven pop and its formulaic approach to music. They have the world at their fingertips and I hope they continue to shape it and not let it shape them.

2. I just listened to Aztec Camera last week for the first time in probably 15 years! They were also a part of my formative years.

[quote]Wasn't it always the case? I liked the current underground music in my Gen X youth, but also much older stuff. I listened to college radio or niche shows on public radio, not mainstream radio.

Absolutely, R4! I was the same.

Living with my kid and working in a high school, however, has given me some insight into how kids are taking in media. American media is still going on about Beyonce and shit, but how many high school kids give a single shit about her? They’re in their own very specific cultiral niches.

[Quote] Wasn't it always the case?

Yep. This is just another intellectually lazy writer trying to credit Gen Z with doing what every modern generation before has done. I grew up in the 80's and I know I wasn't alone in loathing the Phil Collins and Hall and Oates and the Lionel Richies abd Bon Jovis of the era and found alternative acts of the day as well as acts from the past that I loved. They are hardly pioneers.

omg, R8❤️! This is what I meant in the first place, but was too stoned to say:[quote] I love that they shun corporate driven pop and its formulaic approach to music. They have the world at their fingertips and I hope they continue to shape it and not let it shape them.

^^^THIS!^^^

Aztec Camera/Roddy Frame’s accoustic version of Van Halen’s “Jump” is one of the saddest, most amazing songs I’ve ever heard, yet I can’t find it anywhere!

(Also, that song you linked is so lovely…)

[quote]Aztec Camera/Roddy Frame’s acoustic version of Van Halen’s “Jump” is one of the saddest, most amazing songs I’ve ever heard, yet I can’t find it anywhere!

Ask, and it shall begiven you.

R10 - Intellectually lazy writer? You give me too much credit. I may have a BA in English, but I’m not a fucking writer - just someone wondering how long the “music industry” will last when people in their twenties are sharing their art with one another willy nilly and couldn’t give a shit about what corporate boomers push upon them. I my punk days we WISHED for this!

As I stated, I’m a gen x-er, too. I guess the difference is that I see how media/society has changed, whereas some people are sticking their heads in the sand hoping for what? 🤷🏻

Hy shit, R12 - I can’t thank you ENOUGH!!! 🙇🏻

Sloppy, not lazy. Have you never heard of Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, The Weeknd and Dua Lipa. They aren't trading it away for free. Some young people are paying attention to "corporate" acts.

Obviously, R15, and I *love* some of them. Gah! (Did I mention I’m stoned? Yes I did! 😬) Maybe what I mean is that because of the internet, society has fragmented, for good or ill. In the coming years, it will fragment further… and that has a lot to do with stoner thoughts, so sorry…?

Of course, responding to my own R1… my kid lives in Montréal and knows these people… 😬

People have always done that op

Op just thinks it soooooo cute and unique because it involves his or hers kid. It’s not special op. I was listening to to Bessie smith and the velvet underground as a teenager in the 90s 2000s

You type annoying OP.

Stock, Aitken and Waterman are devastated by the news. Just inconsolable.

Oh, ffs, R19 - I was a fucking punk back when it took effort to seek out music that wasn’t corporate and utter shit. All I’m saying is that now, it seems more people aren’t passively being fed corporate pap, and that’s a GOOD thing. I love that kids now can easily discover Ella Fitzgerald or Can or whatever and have all that knowledge, and not be, like, “omg - Beyonce has a new album!” because that’s all they’re being fed. I work with zoomers, and I love that about them, is all.

[quote]You type annoying OP

Your opinion is noted, and is a wonderful contribution. Thank you!

Yes…you’re too stoned. Go to bed.

Thank you, R24 - I think you’re right. I know exactly what I’m trying to say, and it’s actually meaningful, but it’s not coming out right. :/

r24

[quote] erm, Aztec Camera is KIWI, thankyouverymuch!

They most certainly are not, they were Scottish.

The bit that's even more obnoxious than millennials is they can't possibly believe that anyone but THEM has heard of whatver it is they plucked out of the past to collectively revere.. .

like The Kate Bush trend.. but this has even been said about Nirvana. They can't believe you would possibly know and if you do then you've only found out after they did and are just trying to be a coool. Like you're even worse than their parents... which means it's time to pop an' lock and drop it like it's hot.

but then it drags in the millennials, of course, that want to burn it... because it represents cultural appropriation, so both that genre and it's listeners must be clensed with fire.

Fire? Attracts the Gen X fire eating Lesbian Avengers and the topless Dykes On Bikes, duking it out over their favorite country western song...as the debate ranges on whether femme boomer KD was considered lite weight in comparison to lesbian troubador Merle Haggard.

It's about time. Back in my day our parents hated our music, your parents are just laughing at yours 😂

R15 True but at the same time, they’re not on a level that pop stars before them were.

I mean Dua Lipa, does she even go Platinum? Certifications don’t even matter anymore which shows how much corporate pop has gone down the drain.

There is truth to what’s being said.

There’s too much music out to make big pop stars today.

R10 Yeah but Phil Collins and Hall & Oates were huge! There’s no one comparable to them today sales wise or radio hit wise and that’s OP’s point.

wow, R28… and I thought [bold]I[/bold] was stoned! 😬

Ha! R31 - In gym glass we actually had to do aerobics to Hall and Oates songs, that’s how ubiquitous it was. We had TV (major networks), local radio (songs programmed by corporate interests).

There were independent record stores, and there you could find fanzines and hear about things word-of-mouth, but you had to really want it and seek it out, otherwise it was all corporate pap! :/

[quote]They most certainly are not, they were Scottish

ofmg, R27 - how did I think they were Kiwi all this time?! There were indeed Scottish! Thank you!!

r34 middle earth

Frau thread with ALL CAPS for EMPHASIS.

Just attempted to listen to Aztec Camera. Just as I remembered when they came out - corporate, formulaic, mainstream pablum - marketed as "The New Romantics". Yuk.

OP's post only confirms to me that the only thing more annoying than Gen Z are their parents who think their spawn are super duper special.

OP: are you a frau?

Seeing "corporate pop music" in print reminded me of when corporate pop music was the good stuff, such as that brought forth by Mo Ostin, of Warner Brothers Records. He died on Sunday. Here's his obit from the Washington Post (in its MSN version, which should not be paywalled).

You already know the answer to that r39. And she’s just so proud of little Jaxen sticking it to the man!

Just wanted to add I too love the band HALF MOON RUN — the lead boys are real cute in person, my bf and I used to scream for them to make out at their shows in NYC several years ago