During the first week of History 390, we talked about the idea of modern music being compressed. When music is compressed, it fails to be anything more than background noise. It was argued that music is compressed because we tend to spend a lot of time listening to music while doing other tasks, and we can’t be bothered with adjusting the volume. Professor O’Malley argued that we shouldn’t be listening to music while multitasking, as it prevents us from doing a thoroughly good job, because all of our focus is not whatever assignment or task we’re supposed to do. Also, he argued the fact that music today is practically sub-par when compared to music of the 60’s, 70’s, etc.

The song he used to make that argument was “Havana” by Camila Cabello which, in my mind, is a terrible example of music today. Pop music today is terrible in comparison to pop music of the 50’s and 60’s and so forth. Popular pop music today is very basic and only really popular because of how catchy it is, which is why it is played so often.

Genres such: R & B, Blues, and even Hip-Hop & Rap consist of some compressed music but not as much as pop music. Genres like these are less compressed and very dependent of the vocalist and or lyricist. Even though some could argue that newer rap or “trap music” in the 2010’s is compressed, which it is, I believe the majority is not.

I believe that compressed music exists in most popularized, highly marketed music and/or musicians. Pop music and artists like, Taylor Swift and sometimes Beyoncé have compressed music, in which their vocals will lack dynamics.