And then there is Drake, whose singles always reach number 1 on the charts, regardless of the quality. Justin Bieber has been contributing to this generic pop phenomenon for a decade now, with his first offense being “Baby” (2010). But overall, Maroon 5’s lackluster songwriting is emblematic of the impersonal music capturing the world today.Īnother perpetrator of the single-making machine are the Imagine Dragons, who always seem to make it to the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 with every song release. Their debut studio album Songs About Jane (2002) still hits a nostalgic beat in my heart, and “I don’t mind spending every day / Out on your corner in the pouring rain” is still a lyric I cannot help but belt in hopeless unison. Of course there are exceptions: Maroon 5’s most recent hit “Memories” (2019) deals with the loss of the band’s manager who tragically passed away in late 2017. There seems to be no personable touch to it. However, the place Maroon 5 finds itself in is that their recent music sounds like it was made for the radio - to be heard on your way to your 9-5 job or to be played in the background at parties. Whether we like it or not, “Moves Like Jagger” (2011) and “Sugar” (2014) score our childhood memories. Anyone who listened to the radio in the 2010s knows that their songs were inescapable. Maroon 5 has been on the pop music scene for a hot minute. But do these “albums” stem from an effort to create an honest narrative that invokes a connection with the listener? Are their intentions coming from a place of emotional relief, or the desire for chart success? In a technical sense, artists still do make albums: collections of tracks combined under one name. The thing is though, do today’s pop artists make personable albums that grab at your heart in a jarringly accurate way? When I first heard “THE QUIET” (2015) by Troye Sivan, it felt like the secluded words of my journal had been broadcasted to my ears in a strikingly relatable way. They make us feel seen and heard in a way that sometimes the closest people in our lives cannot. Albums are a way for people to escape the bigger problems they are facing in life. Īlbums are supposed to tell a story, whether it be through the lyricism, vocalization, or melodic progression. My album would be Blue Neighbourhood (2015) by Troye Sivan. Even if no one wants to narrow it down to just one, everyone has a favorite album of all time - the one piece of art they would save if every other work of music vanished from the place we call Earth.
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