Most of us who have been listening to music for a while are not all that happy with the things are going, overall, in the music industry. I've noticed that some of my peers get a little bitey when I say my goal is to produce a "hit song". I know where they are coming from. For most music people (recording guys, band guys, etc) there haven't been that many hit songs that have done ANYTHING for them in the past 15 years. (I'm pretty sure I counted 10 songs in the Billboard Top 100 of the past

10 years that did anything for me. That's 10 out of 1000 songs!!!)

Luckily, I've been on a big time 80s kick for the past year or two. For whatever reason, songs that came out when I was 4 seam to bypass the scrutiny that I might put on a new song. When I say, "I want to produce a hit song", I don't mean I want to produce uncatchy garbage. I mean I want to produce songs that make other people feel like I do when I listen to "Your Love" by the Outfield or whatever.

Alright, so here is where it gets tricky. When did a "hit song" go from being the most catchy song to a "hit song" being total shit that should be despised? I noticed an enormous drop off in my opinion on pop music in the 1994-95 range. Is this just me showing my age or was there a obvious change in music?

There is no doubt that writing styles change. You can really see that in rap music (by far, not my favorite genre) because it's the genre with the least "shame". I've heard a few modern rap songs that are almost entirely monotone. I mean the vocals. I mean the "beats" or music behind the vocals. Everything. I just can't imagine how any person could feel excited about listening to monotone. However, these monotone songs are dominating the charts. They are hit songs making zillions of dollars. How?

In comparison, I have to admit that I own 2 rap cds. Dr. Dre "The Chronic" and Snoop Doggy Dogg "Doggystyle". I have a blast listening to those records even now. It is rap music, but there is a lot of music going on. There are differences in mood. Differences in emotion (admittedly not much in the vocals, though). At least the music was structured/created in a way to evoke some sort of feeling out the listener.

So how do we go from those to rap cds to a song with one sample being repeated the entire song? Is the Summer of '69 type of "hit song" dead? Clearly, the monotone stuff is effecting a lot of people....so therefor, is it legit? Should I look for the deeper meaning in the monotone stuff?

Brandon