The concept of complexity in music and what makes different music appeal to me than others is something I occasionally think about, but have never managed to come up with a solid criteria or hypothesis for...
For me, lyrics more important than music, but I can still enjoy good music with simple lyrics and even great lyrics can be ruined by music that does nothing for me. I don’t think I need a lot of complexity either lyrically or musically to enjoy a song (I’ve listed to prog rock and while I don’t hate it, the complexity aspect of it really does nothing for me). I try to keep an open mind to different types of music, but recent popular/mainstream music here in the states does little to nothing for me emotionally.
I liked a lot of the pop music that eMpTyV played in the 80s, and even some of the what was popular in the 90s, but it seems to have gone downhill rapidly in the last decade or so. Lyrically, I can understand that my age and being disconnected from current youth culture may be a factor, but there is no good reason that age and culture should matter for the music itself and that’s where I feel like the modern stuff is weakest – I listen to it and wonder what the people that like it see in and if they feel the music or not and if they do, then why do I feel nothing when I listen to the same thing?
Fortunately, I don’t feel like I have any shortage of good music to listen to, and a lot of what I listen to is recent releases, but I have had to go out of my way to explore less popular genres and a lot of what I listen to is from other countries, so I would say that music in the states simply took evolutionary turns that were not to my liking (and by this thread not to the liking of a lot of people).
My general bias is for hard rock, symphonic rock/metal, and electronic music, but I listen to lots of different genres and as far as 80s pop goes, the stuff remember most from back then was The Eurythmics, Thomas Dolby, Petshop Boys, Journey, Kansas and stuff similar to those.
Although they may not have the same feel as 80s music, two recent finds that enjoy and recommend giving a listen to are…
Indica (from Finland)
“in 2003, they signed their first recording contract and began work on their debut album, "Ikuinen Virta", which spent 30 weeks in the Finnish charts and reached platinum sales. Like going from zero to 60 in three seconds, they’ve taken their country by storm with their contemporary mix of pop, rock, exotic instruments, Finnish melancholy and mystical, nature-inspired lyrics. The press promptly coined a neat description: mystic romantic pop.â€
and
Ashbury Heights (from Sweden)
“Our intent is to continue where the 80's left off, to develop our sound with the same love of experimentation and futurism that fuelled bands like Kraftwerk, New Order and Depeche Mode and just like them we wont look back but ever forward. Thus our music is intended to share the spirit of synth pop music, but we will never aspire to replicate what has since long come to pass.â€
Although I would not call them pop, I also do like VNV Nation and The Cruxshadows and they both seem to have a fairly high level of popularity (but not enough that I've ever heard either on a radio station).
