To my mind, there are very few musical genres that have absolutely nothing to recommend them. Even though I don't like rock music, I recognize there are rock artists who have something to say. I'd say that popular musicians can be divided into two basic groups: those that have very little to say but have a gift for melody and/or style and those who lack a strong melody component but have lots to say. Naturally, there is lots of overlap between the two groups: Gordon Lightfoot has a knack for a strong tune and writes a good lyric. The Beatles were mostly about melody but they did have a few songs that were interesting lyrically - no Cole Porter but nevertheless quite striking: "A Day in the Life" comes to mind. In the present day, to take two Canadian examples, Ron Sexsmith and Rufus Wainwright are two songwriters with a strong melodic gift and, esepcially in Sexsmith's case, craft intelligent, meaningful lyrics.
At the other end of the spectrum, there is the light weight pop of a Britney Spears and her ilk and rap/hip-hop. I don't listen to enough of either to pass any kind of an informed judgement but it seems to me that the Britneys and the Christina Aguilleras are muscular, all purpose entertainers, singers and dancers. From what I've heard, their bands are excellent and the production impeccable. And it would be foolish to dismiss the rap scene even though I never listen to it and own no CD's. Obviously, some of the rap/hip-hop artists know how to weave their way through the beat with intelligent improvised lyrics. No art form which can be improvised with ease and elegance can be easy to do.
The only contemporary music I truly cannot stand is the "sad girl at a piano" phenomenon. I won't name any names but there are plenty of them out there - and I most definitely do not mean Norah Jones or Diana Krall both of whom are very accomplished artists. I mean the sorrowful looking chick who plays about three chords on the piano with the range of expression of a 10 year old, choking on mournful badly written lyrics, accompanied by a ponderous band at a languid tempo (note that most of these bands will have a percussionist with congas) Their videos are usually shot in grainy black and white, trying to evoke the existential dispair of a film noir. The lyrics are always meandering, fairly bursting with hot air. The girl at the piano is full of earnest self-importance, as if imparting to the world the truths of a Socrates with the harmonic gravitas of a Mozart.
"PUH-LEEEEZE". Get a life. Get away from your laptop. Take some piano lessons. Learn more than three chords. Travel. Fall in love. Experience loss. Get married and have a kid. Gamble. Read. Whatever you do cease and desist from writing songs until you have some experience to fall back on. And even that may not help: it's all very well to want to expose your profound existential suffering to the world but it's much better done by someone with talent.
What do I know? It's obvious that chick schtick sells - otherwise the airwaves wouldn't be full of it and I'd have one less thing to complain about. Ta-ta!!
