Editorial
Editorials belong in magazines and newspapers. They are meant to inform and entertain, and often do so by being laid back and full of witty sarcasm. They are opinionated pieces and are guaranteed to evoke emotion from the reader. Feel free to agree or disagree with the following ideas; the worst thing you could do is remain neutral.
I can’t stand the radio with my picky music taste. Of course everyone has unique musical preferences and, like snowflakes, no two are identical. However, I have valid reasons for my dislike of today’s popular music.
It seems that nowadays, the majority of songs consists of a catchy tune and senseless, robotic, autotuned vocals. This might be hard to believe but music actually used to have meaning before. The immoral song subjects people don’t seem to mind hearing are of clubbing, drinking, money, sex, and the like. Who hasn’t heard of Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Madonna, the Black Eyed Peas, and Rihanna? These are some of the hottest artists today who are real life examples of empty music. “Take me for a ride/Oh baby, take me high,” asks Rihanna, while the Black Eyed Peas propose, “Come on let’s go let’s lose control/Let’s do it all night till we can't do it/No more.” With only a few lines from today’s top songs, a clear trend could be seen.
A radio song can sound good just as a piece of pie can look appetizing. Yet after being tasted, the pie might taste of rotten apples just as a song’s meaning might turn out to be dreadful. People listen to music mainly for the good sound and I can’t blame them. I too can be shallow and judge a song based on its melody before paying attention to the lyrics. But the message behind many radio songs is so utterly ridiculous that I find it impossible to appreciate the tune.
What bothers me is the overlooking of good music which includes both lovely sound and profound meaning. This is the case with the musicians I enjoy; they are amazing artists, but they lack the recognition they deserve. Facebook can demonstrate the inequity through numbers: Lady Gaga currently has twenty-six and a half million fans, while a great Canadian band called Metric has just over four hundred thousand fans.
I am not saying that all radio music is bad since about one tenth of songs are decent. But there is still a big imbalance. This makes me wonder whether it’s really the society that controls what the stations play or someone with a high position and a lot of money. Are these powerful people like kings who feed the population junk in order to get even wealthier? The sad part is that the public actually doesn’t mind settling for poor music. I wish that everyone would be pickier in their song choices so the radio could become a little more bearable.
