Opinion: The Problem with Trap Music Going Mainstream (Part 1)
It is no secret that radio pop music is repetitive--it always has been. After all, repetitiveness is what makes a song catchy and memorable to the listener. Recently, trap and hip-hop music have been encroaching more on radio pop’s territory and have established their space in mainstream media. While this may seem great on the surface level, this newfound audience of hip-hop has led to an increase in the genre’s redundancy. Recently, as hip-hop music has become more widely accepted by pop culture, hip-hop has also become an increasingly more repetitive genre of music.
Over the past few months, multiple high-profile hip-hop albums have been released--The Voice of the Heroes by Lil Baby and Lil Durk, Hall of Fame by Polo G, and Slime Language 2 by YSL Records. These were all highly-anticipated albums that hosted the work of dozens of producers. I respect all of these artists as musicians and enjoy their music, however, when I attempt to listen to these albums, I fail to separate the songs from one another. They all sound far too similar. At least 11 songs on Hall of Fame were written in a minor scale and at least 15 were performed around 140-170 BPM (beats per minute). All but 3 songs have strikingly parallel guitar or piano melodies--birthing the meme of nicknaming Polo G as “Piano G”. Of course, there are exceptions--the song “For the Love of New York” breaks from the album’s trend of piano and guitar melodies and opts for a unique dancehall/reggaeton-inspired beat.
Recently, industry music producer PVLACE--who worked on Slime Language 2--explained on Instagram Live his stance as a music producer on hip-hop’s repetitiveness.
“It’s not healthy for this whole industry, but...the results are crazy. I make the same [thing], it gets placed...on the biggest albums--Young Thug’s album, the Migos album. It’s two chords--and this is what [people] want?”
Even if the music lacks lyrical depth, that’s fine. Unfortunately, we’re used to that. What I do believe is unacceptable, however, is when the production remains static for the entirety of the project. We know what trap producers are capable of. Legendary producer Mike Dean is known for his extraordinary skill with pianos, guitars, and physical synthesizers. However, as PVLACE expressed, when producers do make unique beats,“ the market is so oversaturated” that “nobody [vocalists] picks them”.
Image from billboard.com
