No Talent = Musical Success?

C

Card Slinger J

Aspiring Trainer
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I've been noticing lately that people are becoming famous music stars when they don't even have the talent to do so which is rather sad in today's society when it seems like the main thing that matters to them is money, egoism, and good looks. Smells like capitalism to me...

I guess you could say that Music Artists that are talented aren't making any money with their records due to the success of mp3 downloads and such especially iTunes is hurting it. I hardly hear anything good on basic radio anymore unless it's a classic from previous decades.

Be nice If Satellite Radio like SIRIUS wasn't so expensive and it was cheap as Basic Radio so you can listen to whatever you wanted from the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and other Music Genre's which are fascinating. I feel as though Music describes what a person is like and fits their personality.

If you think the music industry these days hasn't gotten downhill then hear the cover for "We Are the World" for helping the victims of the Haiti Earthquake and compare that to the 80's version for Africa which had better quality and talent as well.

Back in the day we had big names like Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, U2, George Michael from Wham!, among others.
 
Fame does not equal talent. Example: William Hung

I do believe there is good stuff out there, if you know where to look. Even glamourised stuff like American Idol still manage to produce at least pretty good singers from their competition.

Actually it isnt that hard to believe the music industry went downhill... Just pick any 3 recent songs at random and listen!
 
I find that a lot of the real talent nowadays is the low key indie label stuff, having said that - it's a bad attitude to go into music for the money, and that's probably why the big artists at this time are so turd :D.

The worst you can do is sell yourself to the music industry once you've made it (cough Kings of Leon) cough, which is why artists often produce good early gear and then naff stuff later on - 5 albums in 7 years? I mean, come on :p!

EDIT: Gotta disagree with George Michael, but that's all down to personal taste hehe.
 
Well depends what you mean by talent, take, kanye, jay-z, kid cudi and and eminem, my favourite rappers, they have no talent when it comes to signing, maybe kid cudi does, but they have other talents to make up for it like their creative lines and use of jokes. Kanye has got of artistic vision, like his latest album and people like him for that, i really don't mind if they don't have any singing talent, they are still great.
 
Nowadays(and earlier I suppose, but it's worse now) it's all about making money for the record Label. Look at Bieber. A kid who makes money because he is a "hearthrob", he's "kid-friendly", and his (poorly written) songs are about love(which he know nothing about). Sure he's popular now but in a few years when his Label can't make money off of him they'll drop him and everybody will forget about him. The same thing is happening to the Jonas Brothers and did happen to boy bands like the Backstreet Boys.
and shouldn't this go in the Entertainment section?
 
Good point Shadow Arceus. Many acts in the last 20 years are good for 1 or 2 albums and then gone. Even if they are around, radio has gotten so bad they won't play the new songs.
 
I completely agree. What famous pop/rap music has become has been awful.

~THE PROCCESS OF MAKING FAMOUS MUSIC THAT THE COMMON YOUTH WILL LOVE YOU FOR~

1
Discover a catchy ringtone.

2
With your "How to Rhyme" book, spend at most a total of five minutes working on the lyrics. Make sure to have offensive comments that apply to women, poverty, race, etc.

3
Play the ringtone constantly over and over again while singing the lyrics.

4
Publish the song.

5
Create a music video of yourself singing the song while applying the cruel comments and wearing little clothing.
 
Remember when rock 'n' roll was the end of music?

Or jazz?

Or when people thought of the waltz as godless.
 
Changing times beget changing tastes in music. What a lot of people have said here is true. No music is truly awful, if there is but one fool left to listen to it. What we perceive as "Good music" is Drastically different from what people listened to only 50 years ago. These artists you guys refer to: Justin Bieber, Various Rappers, Taylor Swift. They're good musicians. They know what to do to get famous in the industry, and they do it. It's what they love. It's as simple as that.
 
The thing with music is that people do not necessarily want to listen to mind-blisteringly good talent; they just want something that's immediately catchy and enjoyable. If talent was everything in the musical genre, the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Cryptopsy, both of whom have produced landmark albums in their respective genres, would have ascended the musical charts, not the likes of the artists we currently see.

Most people are not up for having to "get used" to talented music, much of which is far from accessible. Modern music simply caters to this short musical attention span, and perhaps there's a certain talent in figuring out how to mass produce catchy songs. As for the artists themselves, eh, some of them have talent: despite not listening to pop at all, I'm OK with Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. But others, such as Justin Bieber, it'd be really hard to justify them as truly "talented".
 
@Zenith, I don't recall any of the examples you listed being overly edited and taking no instrumental talent/skill to create. You and ShadowLugia do have a point, in fifty years people will probably look back and say " Remember pop and hip-hop? That was way better than this modern crap we have today."
 
Well, these days, all these solo pop 'stars' do is sing the song, normally badly. They have people write the songs for them, they have people edit the songs so it sounds aalright, the list goes on. I find that a lot of the best music is found in the indie pop genre, which is often overlooked in the heavily synthesised main stream music culture there is today. Those bands at least sound like they're playing music, unlike some stuff, which to my ear seems to be people shouting stuff loudly about inappropriate topics.

And I want to know how mainstream pop videos always seem to include a sexual part, no matter what the heck the song is about. It's almost as if the makers think, "Hmm. We live in a society mostly populated by idiots. What do idiots like? Sex, alchohol and rap. Hey, let's make a song about those things!"

Sometimes, music can be great but have bad lyrics. Other times, the reverse is true. But when you can find a balance between the two, you have perfection.
 
You all know its true people. People who have horrible talent decide to go into the music department. Just look at Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus.
 
Miley and Justin didn't use autotune to start their careers. Justin, in my opinion, is a very legit singer. Let it be known that he is cooler than us all.

~L_X_F
 
GHJamesGH said:
Musicians such as me determine who has the "real" talent.
Click to expand...
That's stupid. What if I don't agree with you? Musicians shouldn't make music for other musicians, they should make music for the general public.
 
Not everyone is a talentless saleout. Lady GaGa has talent. she always sings live and sounds great and can play the piano and writes her own songs...and unlike everyone else, they arent all about love:)
 
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