psyche

People raised on it think pop-rock is rock. Give them a flat degree chord and they’ll vomit.

It’s characterised by the dehumanisation of music. Looping. De-emphasis of progression. Melody as an afterthought. It always goes rhythm => chords => melody - not necessarily bad in itself, but there is no thought put in at any of these steps. It attempts to slavishy obey key, save for clumsy shifts up a tone or a semitone or accidentally setting all chords major on its computer. When catchiness is achieved, and it rarely is, it’s regarded as the ultimate end of the music’s existence.

Instead artificial catchiness is created by repetition of stupid but simple hooks until they get “stuck in your head”. Good pop writers are forced to also write terrible music in order to stay ahead in a chart dominated by machines.

Pax