Life is tough, and that's why millions if not billions of people seek refuge in the sweet, occasionally transcendent relief of music. Whether listening, compiling, performing or obsessing over the art form, there's consistently a lot to get out of it. There's also a bunch of B.S. involved, however, and the negative sides continue to find new ways to annoy us each year.
Here are a handful of musical trends from 2013 that we've had just about enough of. For more of our year end coverage, click over to our 2013 in Lists section.
Top 10 2013 Trends We Could Live Without:
10. "Get Lucky" Covers:
Yes, there's no denying that Daft Punk's Pharrell-assisted disco pop smash was the song of the year. The invincible single was 2013's most overplayed, but it's still a damn pleasurable listen when it pops up. You know what's not quite as charming, however? The covers. So. Many. Covers.
Whether clinging for relevance, vying for blog attention or just killing a Sunday afternoon, "Get Lucky" was given the cover treatment by half of the music industry. Desperate, aging do-gooders U2 gave the song a drunk Baby Boomer spin with their version, while Tom Jones gave it a horrendous Vegas sheen with Jessie J and will.i.am. Honestly, a bunch of atonal Russian police had one of the better covers of "Get Lucky," which is a surefire sign that it just wasn't working, guys.
9. Kanye West Interviews
First things first: no matter how divisive it may be, Yeezus is one of the strongest, most ambitious records of Kanye West's career, and started a worldwide, year-long conversation as soon as it dropped. The other, less enjoyable conversation, however, was the one Kanye started having with anyone and everyone in the media for the second half of the year. It started off okay, with a fairly fascinating interview with the BBC's Zane Lowe. Then Jimmy Kimmel made fun of that, then Kanye got mega pissed and had a tell-all ratings grab of an interview on Kimmel's show. Since then, it feels like every day finds a new Kanye interview popping up where he yells at someone about how they don't understand him (#prayforSway) and what historical pop culture figure he's comparable to. We get it, Kanye — you're the next Orville Redenbacher. The next Jim Davis. The next No Fear T-shirt sloganeer. The next Alf.
8. Complaining about Spotify
Fair enough that y'all want to get paid for your art, musicians, but it's never going to be the same as it was back in the day. Regardless, the new thing to do is whine about how little streaming services like Spotify and Rdio pay per play. Johnny Marr told NME that he "can't think of anything more opposite to punk rock than Spotify." Billy Bragg said he thought it was okay. The biggest sign that it's a conversation suited for '90s nerds, however, is the fact that it caused a spat between late '90s alt hobbits Moby and Thom Yorke. The latter said he wasn't down with Spotify, which caused Moby to call him "an old guy yelling at fast trains." Actually, they both sound like old guys mumbling over old Fruity Loops samples.
7. Public Record Label Fighting
Yes, it's probably annoying to have a completed album collecting dust on the proverbial shelf at your record label, but can't musicians stick it to their bosses in private? There's something weirdly passive aggressive about griping about release dates on Twitter, but that didn't stop Jeezy, Danny Brown and M.I.A. from threatening to leak their releases if they didn't get a release date. Then, Angel Haze actually did leak her album after her label broke their promise to release it in 2013. As a result, they bumped the date up, releasing the record on December 30. Congratulations, Angel Haze — your album came out on probably the worst date of the year, when everyone's broke, all the year-end releases are finalized, and most people are sleeping off a week of munching on turkey and Toffifee.
6. The '90s
Look, we get it — pop culture is cyclical, and after so many years of brilliant new ideas, it's nearly impossible to offer up new ideas without referencing the past in one way or another. But the '90s aesthetic is going a little too far, making the jump from obscure Tumblrs to the smiley-face-and-John-Lennon glasses aesthetic of everyone from underground music imprints to arena-filling performers like Miley Cyrus. No one's gonna argue with how fun it is, but shit's getting a little bit tired. Plus, if we don't stop the trend of lifting an entire decade, that means the early '00s are up next — do we really want to live in a world where mainstream pop stars are wearing zip-off cargo pants, tearaways, Adidas shower sandals and faux Oakleys? Actually, that might be hilarious.
5. Fake Onion Sites
There's a reason The Onion gets so much attention. It's because they hire some of the funniest people in the world, work them mercilessly to produce top-tier content, and routinely pull of hilarious, larger than life stories. Unfortunately, 2013 has seen a rise in Onion knock-off sites that are less clear about their intentions. It's not exactly a viable long-term plan — they might have one article go viral with people thinking its real, but where can they go from there? Equalizer is one of the more annoying sites, having spread the irritating rumour that mysterious dubstep performer Burial was in fact an alter-ego of Four Tet. Then some site called Wunderground posted a story about how party-rocking ex-punk Steve Aoki had a wake-up call about his bad music and apologized to the public for pretending to be a real DJ when it was instead a long-running performance art project and a joke. We wanted both of things to be true, but they weren't. So screw those sites.
4. Racism
It's hard to believe that we still have to make this request in 2013, but can we chill out on the racism? From that one old rockabilly dude who wore blackface to raise controversy, and in turn draw attention to a concert, to Mastodon's questionable Thanksgiving shirt, a lot of white dudes were grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons. Kanye West got in trouble for his Confederate flag shirt, as well as his alleged anti-Semitism. Lorde's breakthrough hit "Royals" was interpreted as a critique of black culture, as was Lily Allen's "Hard Out Here." A lot of gross conversations were had ("Racism's over! Haven't you seen White Chicks?") that could've been avoided if people would have just thought before they spoke or designed "controversial" T-shirts. And especially before they reached for the dark face paint.
3. "Authenticity"
What does it mean to be "authentic"? What does it mean to be real? From "real rock'n'roll" (think the Black Keys) to "real hip-hop" (fast-rapping performers continue to fuel a "return to lyricism" narrative from gangsta-hating critics) to "real Amish banjo feel-good music with lots of shouting" (Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers, other dudes in suspenders playing rinky-dink folk music), there are still legions of artists who are offering something "real" and "authentic," and turning music into a Portlandia sketch in the process. No matter the intention, the whole "return to authenticity" thing needs to go. If your whole persona hinges on you being the opposite of someone else, you're not offering much substance at all.
2. Gimmicky Album Roll-Outs
It's tough to get attention in the vast cesspool that is the internet, but the way artists are getting attention for their new records is quickly playing itself out. Shrouding their releases in mystery, artists like Daft Punk revealed their albums through slow, calculated information leaks. Boards of Canada went a step further, releasing one-off 12-inches and insanely nerdy web codes to announce their album, while Arcade Fire tagged the entire world and wore sneaky costumes to announce Reflektor. Vampire Weekend announced their LP in the New York Times crossword section. Jay Z's entire album campaign was just a giant ad campaign for those enormous fake iPhones, while Beyoncé's self-titled album release was gimmicky because it had no gimmick — it just hit iTunes with no forewarning.
All of that was fine, we guess, but let's leave this trend as a relic of 2013. Otherwise, artists will keep trying to outdo each other to the point where we'll have to go through our lives with a new level of music-fan paranoia. If we put this free Cialis spam email into Google Translate, will it announce the new Broken Social Scene album? Did that crosswalk sign just flash a QR code to stream a new Fucked Up single? Should we spend hours watching the Weather Channel just in case there are details about a secret new Outkast LP? What if your dog is sniffing at that patch of mud because someone buried a brand new Burial 12-inch in there? What if someone implanted a microchip with a new U2 release date under your skin? Dig it out! Dig it out!
1. So Much Whining
Life's not always the greatest, and most people aren't navigating their day-to-day existence with optimal satisfaction levels. Try as they might to find sweet solace in the music world and its surrounding culture, things still tend to come up short. Music fans whine about how things used to be better, before the Miley Cyruses and Kanye Wests of the world came along (easily two of the year's most hated artists, despite both releasing solid albums — Bangerz haterz back off). Small-time musicians whine about being excluded from the industry's elite, while those in the industry complain about the industry they're in. Music writers complain about everything they can come up with in curmudgeonly thinkpieces and bitchy lists (guilty as charged), then get at each other's throats on Twitter. Nameless poseurs utilize comment sections to trash everyone and everything. The music fan's internet has turned into a long, painful family road trip: we're all crammed in here together, and getting sicker and sicker of each other by the minute. If we don't calm down and smarten up, Dad's gonna turn around and it'll all be ruined. Here's hoping for a butthurt-free 2014.
Here are a handful of musical trends from 2013 that we've had just about enough of. For more of our year end coverage, click over to our 2013 in Lists section.
Top 10 2013 Trends We Could Live Without:
10. "Get Lucky" Covers:
Yes, there's no denying that Daft Punk's Pharrell-assisted disco pop smash was the song of the year. The invincible single was 2013's most overplayed, but it's still a damn pleasurable listen when it pops up. You know what's not quite as charming, however? The covers. So. Many. Covers.
Whether clinging for relevance, vying for blog attention or just killing a Sunday afternoon, "Get Lucky" was given the cover treatment by half of the music industry. Desperate, aging do-gooders U2 gave the song a drunk Baby Boomer spin with their version, while Tom Jones gave it a horrendous Vegas sheen with Jessie J and will.i.am. Honestly, a bunch of atonal Russian police had one of the better covers of "Get Lucky," which is a surefire sign that it just wasn't working, guys.
9. Kanye West Interviews
First things first: no matter how divisive it may be, Yeezus is one of the strongest, most ambitious records of Kanye West's career, and started a worldwide, year-long conversation as soon as it dropped. The other, less enjoyable conversation, however, was the one Kanye started having with anyone and everyone in the media for the second half of the year. It started off okay, with a fairly fascinating interview with the BBC's Zane Lowe. Then Jimmy Kimmel made fun of that, then Kanye got mega pissed and had a tell-all ratings grab of an interview on Kimmel's show. Since then, it feels like every day finds a new Kanye interview popping up where he yells at someone about how they don't understand him (#prayforSway) and what historical pop culture figure he's comparable to. We get it, Kanye — you're the next Orville Redenbacher. The next Jim Davis. The next No Fear T-shirt sloganeer. The next Alf.
8. Complaining about Spotify
Fair enough that y'all want to get paid for your art, musicians, but it's never going to be the same as it was back in the day. Regardless, the new thing to do is whine about how little streaming services like Spotify and Rdio pay per play. Johnny Marr told NME that he "can't think of anything more opposite to punk rock than Spotify." Billy Bragg said he thought it was okay. The biggest sign that it's a conversation suited for '90s nerds, however, is the fact that it caused a spat between late '90s alt hobbits Moby and Thom Yorke. The latter said he wasn't down with Spotify, which caused Moby to call him "an old guy yelling at fast trains." Actually, they both sound like old guys mumbling over old Fruity Loops samples.
7. Public Record Label Fighting
Yes, it's probably annoying to have a completed album collecting dust on the proverbial shelf at your record label, but can't musicians stick it to their bosses in private? There's something weirdly passive aggressive about griping about release dates on Twitter, but that didn't stop Jeezy, Danny Brown and M.I.A. from threatening to leak their releases if they didn't get a release date. Then, Angel Haze actually did leak her album after her label broke their promise to release it in 2013. As a result, they bumped the date up, releasing the record on December 30. Congratulations, Angel Haze — your album came out on probably the worst date of the year, when everyone's broke, all the year-end releases are finalized, and most people are sleeping off a week of munching on turkey and Toffifee.
6. The '90s
Look, we get it — pop culture is cyclical, and after so many years of brilliant new ideas, it's nearly impossible to offer up new ideas without referencing the past in one way or another. But the '90s aesthetic is going a little too far, making the jump from obscure Tumblrs to the smiley-face-and-John-Lennon glasses aesthetic of everyone from underground music imprints to arena-filling performers like Miley Cyrus. No one's gonna argue with how fun it is, but shit's getting a little bit tired. Plus, if we don't stop the trend of lifting an entire decade, that means the early '00s are up next — do we really want to live in a world where mainstream pop stars are wearing zip-off cargo pants, tearaways, Adidas shower sandals and faux Oakleys? Actually, that might be hilarious.
5. Fake Onion Sites
There's a reason The Onion gets so much attention. It's because they hire some of the funniest people in the world, work them mercilessly to produce top-tier content, and routinely pull of hilarious, larger than life stories. Unfortunately, 2013 has seen a rise in Onion knock-off sites that are less clear about their intentions. It's not exactly a viable long-term plan — they might have one article go viral with people thinking its real, but where can they go from there? Equalizer is one of the more annoying sites, having spread the irritating rumour that mysterious dubstep performer Burial was in fact an alter-ego of Four Tet. Then some site called Wunderground posted a story about how party-rocking ex-punk Steve Aoki had a wake-up call about his bad music and apologized to the public for pretending to be a real DJ when it was instead a long-running performance art project and a joke. We wanted both of things to be true, but they weren't. So screw those sites.
4. Racism
It's hard to believe that we still have to make this request in 2013, but can we chill out on the racism? From that one old rockabilly dude who wore blackface to raise controversy, and in turn draw attention to a concert, to Mastodon's questionable Thanksgiving shirt, a lot of white dudes were grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons. Kanye West got in trouble for his Confederate flag shirt, as well as his alleged anti-Semitism. Lorde's breakthrough hit "Royals" was interpreted as a critique of black culture, as was Lily Allen's "Hard Out Here." A lot of gross conversations were had ("Racism's over! Haven't you seen White Chicks?") that could've been avoided if people would have just thought before they spoke or designed "controversial" T-shirts. And especially before they reached for the dark face paint.
3. "Authenticity"
What does it mean to be "authentic"? What does it mean to be real? From "real rock'n'roll" (think the Black Keys) to "real hip-hop" (fast-rapping performers continue to fuel a "return to lyricism" narrative from gangsta-hating critics) to "real Amish banjo feel-good music with lots of shouting" (Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers, other dudes in suspenders playing rinky-dink folk music), there are still legions of artists who are offering something "real" and "authentic," and turning music into a Portlandia sketch in the process. No matter the intention, the whole "return to authenticity" thing needs to go. If your whole persona hinges on you being the opposite of someone else, you're not offering much substance at all.
2. Gimmicky Album Roll-Outs
It's tough to get attention in the vast cesspool that is the internet, but the way artists are getting attention for their new records is quickly playing itself out. Shrouding their releases in mystery, artists like Daft Punk revealed their albums through slow, calculated information leaks. Boards of Canada went a step further, releasing one-off 12-inches and insanely nerdy web codes to announce their album, while Arcade Fire tagged the entire world and wore sneaky costumes to announce Reflektor. Vampire Weekend announced their LP in the New York Times crossword section. Jay Z's entire album campaign was just a giant ad campaign for those enormous fake iPhones, while Beyoncé's self-titled album release was gimmicky because it had no gimmick — it just hit iTunes with no forewarning.
All of that was fine, we guess, but let's leave this trend as a relic of 2013. Otherwise, artists will keep trying to outdo each other to the point where we'll have to go through our lives with a new level of music-fan paranoia. If we put this free Cialis spam email into Google Translate, will it announce the new Broken Social Scene album? Did that crosswalk sign just flash a QR code to stream a new Fucked Up single? Should we spend hours watching the Weather Channel just in case there are details about a secret new Outkast LP? What if your dog is sniffing at that patch of mud because someone buried a brand new Burial 12-inch in there? What if someone implanted a microchip with a new U2 release date under your skin? Dig it out! Dig it out!
1. So Much Whining
Life's not always the greatest, and most people aren't navigating their day-to-day existence with optimal satisfaction levels. Try as they might to find sweet solace in the music world and its surrounding culture, things still tend to come up short. Music fans whine about how things used to be better, before the Miley Cyruses and Kanye Wests of the world came along (easily two of the year's most hated artists, despite both releasing solid albums — Bangerz haterz back off). Small-time musicians whine about being excluded from the industry's elite, while those in the industry complain about the industry they're in. Music writers complain about everything they can come up with in curmudgeonly thinkpieces and bitchy lists (guilty as charged), then get at each other's throats on Twitter. Nameless poseurs utilize comment sections to trash everyone and everything. The music fan's internet has turned into a long, painful family road trip: we're all crammed in here together, and getting sicker and sicker of each other by the minute. If we don't calm down and smarten up, Dad's gonna turn around and it'll all be ruined. Here's hoping for a butthurt-free 2014.