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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2579 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 15, 2024

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Time for a music thread

Recession pop is a trend that's only obvious in hindsight. The specific label only took off this year. Does anyone remember it? You've definitely heard the songs. From 2008-2012, it was impossible to turn on the radio without hearing a song whose lyrics that were more or less "Heyyyy/ woooah/ let's have fun toniiiight/ have a good time toniiiiight/ drink and put your hands up". They were tonally different, and from different genres, but those lyrics basically encapsulate the trend. Music about drinking and partying your problems away and living for the moment, specifically, tonight. They almost all used the word "tonight". Many also said "woah-oah", sometimes the Millenial whoop. Once you hear it you really can't unhear it:

  • Lady Gaga - Just Dance (2008): "Just dance/ It'll be okay", "Control your poison, babe, roses have thorns, they say/ And they're all gettin' hosed tonight"

  • Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling (2009): "I feel stressed out, I wanna let it go/ Let's go way out, spaced out, and losin' all control", "I got a feelin'/That tonight's gonna be a good night"

  • Usher - DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love (2010): "So dance, dance like it's the last, last / Night of your life, life, gon' get you right / 'Cause baby, tonight / The DJ got us falling in love again "

  • Katy Perry - Teenage Dream (2010): "Let's go all the way tonight/No regrets, just love /We can dance, until we die/ You and I, will be young forever"

  • Pitbull - Give Me Everything Tonight (2011): "Tonight, I want all of you/ Tonight, give me everything/ Tonight, for all we know/ We might not get tomorrow"

  • LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem (2011): "Party rock is in the house tonight/ Everybody just have a good time (yeah)/ And we gonna make you lose your mind (woo)/ Everybody just have a good time (clap)"

  • The Wanted - Glad You Came (2011): "The sun goes down, the stars come out/ And all that counts is here and now/ My universe will never be the same/ I'm glad you came (Came, came, came)"

Hey, that last one actually manages to not use the word "tonight". But don't worry, we still get a reminder that "all that counts is here and now".

I turned 10 in 2008 so this was around when I was first starting to gain awareness of the wider music landscape. At the time, I thought, this is just what pop music is. Insipid electro-bangers about dancing the night away and living for the moment. But no, the music of pre-2008 sounded very different. I much prefer the music of 2016-2019 which is when I did most of my partying in college. You had a few stinkers but a lot of the rap hits of the time were actually pretty creative, Black Beatles and Bad N' Boujee come to mind. Are there any trends in the media now that don't have a label yet?

Bro, you're not even going to mention "Good Time" by Owl City? Perhaps it's just too easy.

I'm embarrassed I liked so many of these songs, though by 2011 I had started to get really sick of it and hated (for instance) "Give me Everything Tonight"

I missed more than a few I think, it was an enduring trend

I bet you could get similar results for most any decade. I started to do so for a random 80s top 40, but it’s too messy to finish on my phone.

(Anybody want to write a script to automate this? Google the titles, grep for “tonight,” show a histogram?)

I’d say Maniac, Puttin on the Ritz, Rock of Ages, and Total Eclipse of the Heart have to count. China Girl and Human Nature are certainly more subdued even though they keep the phrasing. And Safety Dance captures the spirit even though it doesn’t specify “tonight.”

But this is the year that gave us 1999, which outdoes any recession-era apocalyptica.

The songs you mention don’t seem to fit the theme, and I only listed a few in the genre.

Everybody's got a bomb
We could all die any day, aw
But before I'll let that happen
I'll dance my life away, oh-oh-oh

They say, 2000-00, party over
Oops, out of time
We're runnin' outta time
So tonight we gonna party like it's 1999

I dunno, I think the sentiment is pretty clear.

Oh I missed 1999, yeah I can see how the threat of nuclear war captures the same ethos

A lot of music is about sex and liquor. It was jarring when I started noticing this 3 years ago lol. Not as aggressive as hip hop but pretty on the nose.

I am two years younger than you, the part about it being recession inspired is fairly obvious in hindsight, somehow you see music from that time being played more frequently in nightclubs than pop music made today.

I really think that music, modern mass produced music peaked in the late 2000s and early 2010s and 2020s barely saw anything distinct besides some people who took off due to having songs that won't stop playing when you open ig.

Are there any trends in the media now that don't have a label yet?

Doubt it

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