Music: Alt-pop (Billie Eilish, Tate McRae, etc.)

[Cloned]

What do you guys think of this genre? Anyone have any recommendations?

Personally, I'm always a sucker for "darker" synth pop melodies and beats. Great for driving at night (or just driving in general).

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[K Fleur]

Billie Eilish is alternative in the way Target is an alternative to Walmart.

 

[Cloned]

Billie Eilish is alternative in the way Target is an alternative to Walmart.

Didn't say alternative period. It's still pop, obviously. Still pop chords, with less bubble and more trap-like synths, etc.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Billie Eilish without fail is a radio turner. She hasnt released a single song where I have understood the appeal.

 

[Cloned]

Billie Eilish without fail is a radio turner. She hasnt released a single song where I have understood the appeal.

Even though I started this thread, I can see where you're coming from there. A lot of her songs are whispery and lack a clear pop melody/chorus. I like others in the genre more than her, tbh. Hence why I didn't post one of her songs in the OP.

But I think she still qualifies as being alt-pop, and others do like her music more than I do.

 

[Ceremony]

The insistent refusal to capitalise song and album titles annoys me much more than the music does.

 

[NyQuil]

 

[member 51464]

I had not heard of either Tate Mcrae or Nessa Barrett prior to your post. Nessa's song did nothing for me, but I did think the video and choreography in the "you broke me first" song was kind of neat.

 

[Cloned]

I had not heard of either Tate Mcrae or Nessa Barrett prior to your post. Nessa's song did nothing for me, but I did think the video and choreography in the "you broke me first" song was kind of neat.

Nessa is more of a TikTok star right now than a pop star. Her music isn’t bad, however.

Tate is supposedly the next big pop star out of Canada, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she becomes much more known over the next few years.

 

[belair]

Alt-pop is a pretty broad genre. I'm not particularly fond of contemporary pop music, which I would define as a lot of the vocalist-driven stuff you usually hear on mainstream radio. But the Bedroom Pop genre has really turned me on to a lot of artists in the last year or so.

 

[Mikeaveli]

Jockstrap is a great new off-kilter pop group from the UK, signed to Warp Records. One of my favourite new artists in general.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

It's just pop.

The most annoying thing is that it's seeped into indie websites. I'm fine with staying in my own lane and not complaining about music I don't like because I can ignore it but it's hard to ignore when publications like the NME that used to push actual bands are now pushing this stuff and bands have been marginalized.

 

[Mikeaveli]

It's just pop.

The most annoying thing is that it's seeped into indie websites. I'm fine with staying in my own lane and not complaining about music I don't like because I can ignore it but it's hard to ignore when publications like the NME that used to push actual bands are now pushing this stuff and bands have been marginalized.

"Actual bands" lol

 

[holy]

It's just pop.

The most annoying thing is that it's seeped into indie websites. I'm fine with staying in my own lane and not complaining about music I don't like because I can ignore it but it's hard to ignore when publications like the NME that used to push actual bands are now pushing this stuff and bands have been marginalized.

Haha, your music’s going extinct. Sux to be u.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but one pop singer who I thought actually did do something innovative (whether it was good or not in the long-term is up for debate) and who's actually kind of better and forgotten as opposed to mainstream acts who have had enduring acclaim/popularity is T-Pain. I hate grading stuff on a curve, but within that realm, I always thought he was always more enjoyable/showed better sensibilities than close to everyone else in the same world. Being a bumbling (yet somehow loveable) goofy idiot didn't help him in that world (radio club/pop party music).

 

[holy]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but one pop singer who I thought actually did do something innovative (whether it was good or not in the long-term is up for debate) and who's actually kind of better and forgotten as opposed to mainstream acts who have had enduring acclaim/popularity is T-Pain. I hate grading stuff on a curve, but within that realm, I always thought he was always more enjoyable/showed better sensibilities than close to everyone else in the same world. Being a bumbling (yet somehow loveable) goofy idiot didn't help him in that world (radio club/pop party music).

T-Pain crawled so Billie Eilish could walk.

 

[HisIceness]

Billie Eilish without fail is a radio turner. She hasnt released a single song where I have understood the appeal.

Some of the kids I volunteer with at my church love her and raved about seeing her wherever it was they saw her (local concert I guess?) pre-Covid. I took a listen to Bad Guy and I didn't get it, and still don't. Part of getting older and turning into "Get off my lawn!" guy I guess, but I didn't like a majority of what was popular music-wise when I was their age (Good Charlotte, Blink 182, Fall Out Boy, Rihanna, etc.) so maybe not.

As for the genre itself, I don't find it to be terrible but it's not exactly my cup of tea either. Overall, it's just okay.

 

[K Fleur]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but one pop singer who I thought actually did do something innovative (whether it was good or not in the long-term is up for debate) and who's actually kind of better and forgotten as opposed to mainstream acts who have had enduring acclaim/popularity is T-Pain. I hate grading stuff on a curve, but within that realm, I always thought he was always more enjoyable/showed better sensibilities than close to everyone else in the same world. Being a bumbling (yet somehow loveable) goofy idiot didn't help him in that world (radio club/pop party music).

T-Pain certainly wasn’t the first artist to use auto-tune but he most definitely was the first to popularize it.

The impact his sound has had on music’s soundscape for the last 15 years can’t be overstated.

 

[nameless1]

T-Pain certainly wasn’t the first artist to use auto-tune but he most definitely was the first to popularize it.

The impact his sound has had on music’s soundscape for the last 15 years can’t be overstated.

Actually, I will argue that Cher popularized it, from Believe, all the way back in 1998. People saw how useful it can be when done right, and it slowly became the norm.

On the contrary, T-Pain is often cited as the prime example of autotune overuse, so he got a lot of flack for an industry-wide issue. It can be argued that he did change the industry, because the music industry tone it down a little bit, and make it less obvious.

 

[Mantis]

Alt-pop is a pretty broad genre. I'm not particularly fond of contemporary pop music, which I would define as a lot of the vocalist-driven stuff you usually hear on mainstream radio. But the Bedroom Pop genre has really turned me on to a lot of artists in the last year or so.

Do you listen to CBC Radio 2 or somethin? I have heard all 3 of those songs played on there recently.

 

[belair]

Do you listen to CBC Radio 2 or somethin? I have heard all 3 of those songs played on there recently.

I have listened to it, but not very frequently. Plug those artists into a Spotify algorithm and you'll pull up a lot of interesting artists that don't get a lot of exposure.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

Billie "the latest hot Irish-American chick" Eilish makes my blood boil into a fury like no other. She is a singularity. Her music is best described as postmodern funeral music. A requiem in a room of crystal white walls, with figures around in creepy form remembering your life as you lay there, staring at a crystal white ceiling with that music and voice haunting your senses in a chilling manner.

That's because the way she sings her music is in such a manner that I feel the energy and life force within me being sucked away into lifelessness. Not sadness or suffering like some Beethoven slow movements, but literally like I'm about to fade to white and die.

bad guy is her most tolerable song but damn, I would listen to a cover over the original any day. Backing instrumentals are fine but ugh, hearing her.

It is not that Eilish is pop that makes me despise her. It's that her delivery is the direct antithesis of what I want to hear in music. And my tastes are extremely diverse, but share an "extraverted" element. Beethoven, Mozart, JoJo, Max Martin's various frontment and women(i.e Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, N' Sync), etc.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

It's just pop.

The most annoying thing is that it's seeped into indie websites. I'm fine with staying in my own lane and not complaining about music I don't like because I can ignore it but it's hard to ignore when publications like the NME that used to push actual bands are now pushing this stuff and bands have been marginalized.

Anyone who says "it's just pop" are either pure consumers or just musicians with no particular special talent or ear for evaluating music.

 

[peate]

Leave it to a knowledgeable Habs fan to best describe Billie's music. It's exactly how I feel about it too. I'll take Miley any day over her.

 

[holy]

Habs fans music taste >>>> Every other fanbases.