Popular Culture Review
are topped by artists such as Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd, Maroon 5, T-Pain,
Avril Lavigne, Daughtry (fronted by Chris Daughtry, the fourth place contestant
diversity (hard rock, rap, pop rock, alternative rock), the popular songs begin
to contain and utilize many of the same elements. The various forms of rock
songs begin to use electronically sampled drum loops similar to the popular rap
songs. Rap songs incorporate loud and crushing guitar rhythms and sounds.
And whether pop, rock, or rap, popular tracks all start to become overly
compressed, weakening the dynamic diversity of the top-selling artists. Again,
this homogenous interfusion of styles cannot be directly attributed to American
Idol, but it is notable that before 2001, popular songs were sonically more
diverse because of increased harmonic content and smoothly compressed
dynamics. However, after American Idol
popular music in American culture, the music industry began to rely heavily on
a singular template that encompasses a variety of sounds.
By 2009, RS foregoes the distinction between genres in its top-rated
lists and simply rates songs via iTunes sales. Again, this in itself is not an
but it does reveal parallel activity, which is to say that as the talent-based TV
series grew in popularity, so too did a blurring of musical genres and artistic
Peas, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, Justin Bieber, fun., and Carly Rae
Jepsen. The top 5 lists shared by these artists contain fewer divergent songs,
making no distinction between genres; instead, all of the songs rest on the
laurels of proven sale-tactics in song composition and harmonic content, such
as hip hop beat-orientations and electronically augmented vocal effects. The
distinct homogenization of popular music is clearly recognizable with the songs
charted in RS’s 2013 list (top 5 instead of top 3 to allow for possible expansion
of diversity).
Table 3
Top Singles (June 2013)
Singles
Artist
Song
1
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
“Can’t Hold Us”
2
Pink (feat. 9