I totally agree, it really irks me when people talk about pop music with the assumption that it's easier to write than any other genre of music. In many ways, it's actually one of the hardest. That being said, in Linkin Park's case, I feel that it's a genre they've already done so well. For Linkin Park, my guess would be that writing a song like Heavy or Numb is easier than writing in a more alternative style. I'm not saying the song isn't "inspired" (whatever the hell that's meant to mean) or that they put no work into writing it, but I do think based on the sheer number of poppier songs in their discography, writing in that 4 chord, 3 minute ABABCB structure is easier for them than writing a song in a more alternative style. Again, not a bash on the song at all, I'd argue that how good a song is has zero correlation with how much effort you spent writing it (otherwise Bach's 1500+ compositions would be worthless compared to any modern band's 12 songs that took 4 years to write), but after 3 years, I personally wasn't expecting such a simple song. The opposite is true for many other bands though. There are loads of bands I love that couldn't write a good pop song if their life depended on it. So to your point, writing pop music isn't easy at all. I've just always personally preferred LP's less poppy side. But I respect the band for doing what they want to do, and that's all that matters in the end. (No pun intended).
Coldplay played their new song with The Chainsmokers - Something Just Like This I thought it was all electronic but the whole band showed up and played on it. Have a listen people. GENRE IS INDEED DEAD.
So true man ! The thing is that pop has been related to artists like JB, Selena, Nicki Minaj and various up & coming artists which use a lot of autotune and are literally unable to perform their songs onstage. This has put all the bad light on pop and in a sense generalized that Pop is all about autotune, catchy electronic music etc.
Are you seriously suggesting that JB, of all people, can't sing? Is your rock-centric perspective really that warped? Outside of taste, there's zero things wrong with Auto-Tune or "catchy electronic music" except close-minded fucks that make incorrent assumptions. Auto-Tune is a fucking industry standard, the way Pro-Tools is. And it's just one facet of an incredibly wide range of digital production tools - DAWs, effects, instruments, everything - that everybody uses to some extent or another. If someone legitimately sucked at singing, like you claim all pop artists do, no pitch-correction could actually save them.
Man i know autotune is a standard. I was saying that it is used in a bad way. and regarding JB, he lipsyncs on most of his concerts. No offense man, i was unable to convey correctly
Until it's Gone is great. It's better than Heavy. Better lyrics (yeah, I said it, and stand by it. I'm aware of how maligned the lyrics for Until it's Gone are around here). Better instrumental work. Both lyrics and music conveyed with more emotion. Harder-hitting drums and guitars (no, I'm not talking "nu-metal style" and my tastes are far broader than that. I just mean they come across more impactful than in Heavy). Lyrics such as "finding what you've got sometimes, means finding it alone" are lyrics I think are good, with a good emotional instrumental backdrop to that among other lines in the song. Has an actual intro and is 3:53 in length when many of you didn't like Heavy's lack of an intro, abrupt beginning and short 2:49 length. I actually even prefer Chester's vocals in Until it's Gone, and so far have preferred tracks that are only Chester and/or Mike as opposed to Guilty All the Same with Rakim or Heavy with Kiiara (even though Kiiara did a good job, and even though I loved All for Nothing despite Page Hamilton's inclusion) No disrespect intended but... that's what you're hung up on? No conventionally defined chorus? I just find it a little odd; one minute LP gets criticized for repeating song structures, the next they do something less conventional with structure and that's an issue too. Maybe it's really true what they say about the LP fan base and how the band can never win. Until it's Gone doesn't present any issues giving you a pretty good idea what the chorus is intended to be. I also find it funny that Until it's Gone has been knocked for repetition (despite it being pretty clearly it was done intentionally and with a purpose by the band) and Roads Untraveled seems to get praised for repetition. I like Roads Untraveled, for its own reasons, but why doesn't that song get the same flack for repetition and simplified lyrics that Until it's Gone gets?
Sorry but i think that thing is called opinion. repeating the lyrics works really well in Roads Untraveled or The Catalyst, but it sounds super cheesy in UIG. IN MY OPINION. But i agree about "they can't win theory", i've just seen this on Reddit, fits to current shitstorm for HEAVY:
^Great words Seems like the song didn't chart. Although I don't really love the song, but it was good to see it getting a lot of buzz on different platforms. All for Nothing
It did chart, look here. Not very high though, I expected it to do a lot better. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkin_Park_discography#As_lead_artist
Heavy didn't have a full week of tracking during that period. It will debut on the Hot 100 next week. It is currently #30 on the US Pop chart, #29 on Alternative, and #34 on Hot Adult Contemporary.
I wasn't trying to invalidate your opinion. I was more getting at how you seemed to be caught up in Until it's Gone not having a defined chorus, and how that isn't really important because they don't make it hard to tell what the chorus is supposed to be. They even got criticism for saying the chorus too often. But if you need a conventionally defined chorus, then, to each their own. I think this song had meaningful and purposeful repetition, and that it was broken up well by instrumental stretches, verses, etc to save the listening ear from only hearing the title of the song repeatedly. I think, like you do, there's a difference between bad and good repetition. Bad would be just about all of Beyonce's songs... ok I'm kidding, but songs like Sound the Alarm, Single Ladies, Girls Run the World... (I may have all those titles wrong, I don't pay much attention to her work because I think most of it is terrible). Until it's Gone repeating the core theme of the song was far from cheesy in my opinion. I honestly think some people just got hung up on those three words being labeled as cliche, and didn't allow themselves to see it from any other perspective. They continue to drive that message home to pour on the emotional undertone of it all. You can even kind of hear Chester's voice breaking at certain times he sings it. I think it's very well done. We can agree that LP can never win with their fans, generally speaking.
I was referring to when you said something along the lines of "I don't think ANY band will release something that bad again (The Hunting Party)". So I was saying I can assure you some band out there will absolutely release something worse. If you just meant Linkin Park never will, then I have no problem understanding what you meant, and I'd probably agree chances are good you'll never hate anything by LP as much as you hate The Hunting Party due to hating its first half. But my comment was responding to the "Any band" part. Sorry if there was a misunderstanding.
I just listened to Heavy again. And no I still don't like it that much and since I like the diverse LP sound I thought of what the "problem" is. I think that, leaving the genre out of the equation, its a good song, but (again, genre aside), its not really that high as a LP song as far as quality is concerned. Its very generic and past songs always had their own little twist to them, but since this song is lacking it, it makes it come off like a bad song.
I think Heavy does have some twists to it: The instrumentals, female vocals, Chester's singing. I think those are the things that some people didn't like, since it was so different from what they had done before.
but then again, what other song on the chart has a feature on it? YUP almost all of them. My point was that its something that LP adds thats pretty much sets it apart from the other songs. Sure the points you mentioned have never been done by LP before but its all in the "how to write a pop song 101"