The introduction of Pandora to my life has been a pretty major event. I am not normally a listening to music type guy. When I am in the car I am normally listening to a podcast, but at my desk when I am working music sometimes cuts down the distractions of the office. I used to just listen to epic soundtracks, but Pandora has opened up a whole new world to me.
Anyway, I have been listening to the “Today’s Hit Radio” station lately and it is essentially the first time I have listened to current pop music in 5 or 6 years. So coming back to pop music (at least what is played on Pandora) there are two major things that I notice:
1) Everything is auto-tuned. I mean seriously, does anyone sing without a computer anymore.
2) Every other song is samples something from the 80s. It works nicely because I can easily identify with the music, but still it seems sort of crazy to me that you find some much sampling from earlier stuff. I know that all music is derivative to a certain degree, but doesn’t anyone write music anymore?
OK, old guy rant is over now.