Mainstream?

I only recently started expanding my range of music into different genres. I particularly like listening to adult contemporary, alternative rock as well as a variety of contemporary Christian artists. I've listened to a couple others and liked them pretty well too, but those three are probably my favorites. However, I've been accused by a lot of people to listening to mainstream music, especially when it comes to listening to alternative rock.

Mainstream music, according to Wikipedia, " denotes music that is familiar and unthreatening to the masses". Now, at first glance, to me, this doesn't look like something bad. We love to familiar and you really can't enjoy a piece of music if it makes you feel uncomfortable. But many see mainstream as a bad thing. Mainstream is what the media feeds the masses and what everyone eats up without thinking about it. Music written with four chords, music that can be played with no real skill and lyrics written with the intention of making money.To counter this, most people turn to subcultures. Punk rock, underground hip hop, heavy metal and the like. Anything else is considered the accursed "mainstream" reserved for people who have crappy tastes in music.

But really, why does mainstream have such a bad name. Sure, it may not take as much skill to play an alternative song as it does to one of another more complex genre, but does that really make the song any better? If I were the best cook in the world, and I skillfully made a really crappy dish, would it be any better that a simple cook, who used regular ingredients and methods to make something that was actually worth eating? Just because something isn't hard to do, doesn't make the end product any less valuable. And then there's the issue of lyrics, and I must agree, some lyrics are repeated over and over again. But let's be honest, if we sing about the same things over and over, we're going to run out of ways to say it. Of course there are always other ways to say things, but being a writer I understand that sometimes the idea is lost in convoluted words. Sometimes the best words are the simplest.

As for the artists that write and sing music just for the money, you'll know who those are. Art is an expression of the soul. While I'd admit some of the more popular music is written just for profit, not all are. If you can feel the artist in their music then they're obviously not doing it for monetary gain.

There are many other reasons why people may pick one kind of music or the other, the likes of which can make a debate that I could write forever about and never resolve. I'm saying that subcultured music is bad. People have all kinds of tastes, and if that is what you like then by all means, listen to it. But don't write of 'mainstream' music as being crappy. You just may miss some really beautiful songs when you aren't looking.

See you tomorrow!