White pop music lost me in the late 80s and never got me back. Hip-hop to some degree was able to hold my interest in the 90s, and the 90s were also a golden age for pop while I was in Japan.
When I came back from Japan to attend grad school in '98, I found it hard to believe that this crappy, crappy music was popular. Grunge, indie, whatever it was (and still is). Just the most boring, gawdawful stuff imaginiable.
Don’t get me wrong: There were exceptions. I think that Sheryl Crow album with “Change” on it is simply a masterpiece. There was a song or two that grabbed me. And all the while there was pop that did not fit the category I’m describing here.
I’m talking about the brang-y music. “Brang,” there go the chords. It’s got guitars with chunky, monotonous chords that are always the same (musicologically speaking, what are those? Minor 6ths? It’s the most distinctively borning sound possible).
There is also something affected about the vocals that stands out immediately yet puts one to sleep. It is a certain faux tension in the voice. The singers never seem just to be “singing.”
I guess a big part of this whole style comes from Nirvana, a band that never made its way into my brain, despite my being in the target demo at the time.
Obviously, I am not writing as an expert on the matter. In grad school my friends would play these bands–they all sounded the same, a vast litany of them. The bargain bins are full of these bands, and, IMO, you can listen for hours and find nothing of distinction whatever.
So, fill me in. How this brang sound come into being? What gives it that distinctive dullness, chord-wise? Where is this kind of pop evolving too? (I was in a coffee house recently, and a very talented guy was playing this type of brang-pop, and it was very unfortunate.)
Fill me in.