

Is popular music becoming sadder? - primodemus
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/06/is-popular-music-becoming-sadder.html

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blackhole
I've tried repeatedly to compose songs in Major rather than minor, as I
usually do, but I keep ending up with a fucking Pachelbel's Canon chord
progression :| It just sucks you in like a whirlpool you have to constantly
swim away from.

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huxley
Nick Hornby wrote about the essentially sad nature of pop music in his novel
"High Fidelity" (1995):

"What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing
with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence
will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands,
literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and
loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable
because I listened to pop music?"

The movie was good, the book is amazing.

Teenage tragedy songs from the 50s or 60s are quite depressing (though the
scenarios are pretty maudlin):
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_tragedy_song>

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eridius
What happens if you look at even earlier music?

~~~
marquis
As sad as it gets, from the 17th century:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMoRPxLdSQ0>

