Mainstream Music: Where Has The Quality Gone?

Music has been such an important part of getting through this pandemic. Being isolated is lonely when you have nothing to relate to, or even if you do, you still need a connection to the outside world. Since the pandemic started, hit albums such as After Hours by The Weeknd and Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa have corralled hit after hit, but have repeated endlessly on the radio, on TikTok, Instagram, and all over the internet. 

If you were to eat the same meal over and over again, how long would it take you before you got tired of it? Not long, probably, unless your stomach is an endless void. Though it’s hard to see through an objective lens, it is routine for album after album to drop, and for the quality to dip each time. Could Covid-19 be causing a musical pandemic of underperforming albums and low-quality songs? 

You may lie differently on the spectrum of average music listeners, not caring too much about quality and rather you just want to have something to listen to. It really can be a complicated conversation when you consider people’s likes and dislikes in music. Awards shows such as the Grammy’s have become complacent with trends in music, because rather than quality, they award quantity. Take a look at Justin Bieber’s “Yummy”, nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance last year, but the general response to the song varies from person to person. An article from Pitchfork says that, “the song plateaus as soon as it starts, never inching past the toddler-like repetition of ‘yummy-yum’ in its chorus.” That is a harsh criticism, but it is fair. 

As so many of us have experienced, being in one place for so long can either ignite our creativity or dampen it. Artists like Doja Cat continued working and pumping out hit after hit, despite the pandemic and stayed consistent just as she was before.  Her hit song, “Kiss Me More”, featuring SZA, has earned 3 Grammy nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Again, being holed up somewhere for an extended amount of time can extend creativity to somebody or really lessen it. Musician and guitar craftsman, John Calderon, said that it’s “gone both ways. Some musicians have made good of the situation and have become more creative in making music. However, there are still many ‘musicians’ who keep sampling music from the 70s and 80s and putting their own twist to it. I honestly believe they are plagiarizing and being uncreative, to say the least.” 

Another fair argument made in music is that a Grammy might award creativity, but it does not validate it. Take Steve Lacy’s 2017 EP album, Steve Lacy’s Demo, as an example of an artist reaching a new peak of creativity but not winning anything for it. Track 3. “Dark Red”, has been making its way around social media, and has gained even more popularity since its release nearly 5 years ago. 

So, has music lost its special touch since the pandemic began or before that? It’s hard to see music objectively when it’s all around us playing at stores, coffee shops, schools, etc. We’re surrounded by music. An Ariana Grande song released 3 years ago may have a completely different effect than one released yesterday. Because music is so abstract, it’s impossible to accurately pinpoint where it’s right and where it’s wrong. 

Music producers and songwriters could also be held accountable for a lack of individuality. It stems from the question of whether these producers and songwriters should be actively trying to get their songs back on track to be “quality” or if they should go with what’s being put out, because of potentially facing the possibility of irrelevancy. Calderon said, “in the pursuit of trying to be relevant in this day and age, musicians and producers are basically reproducing music that already exists and producing 4-minute fillers to try and stay in the game. Hence, we need to check out the non-mainstream and independent musicians out there. They’re probably doing it better.”