I'm not really a fan of popular music these days. I mean, I get that there's really two things you can shoot for--story and tone--and that this generation is choosing to get story out. But first off the stories are not always that great and second off you're losing tone! And what's worse, you're telling impressionable minds that that's good, that you could make money off of that. It'd be like telling a computer programmer to just start googling things if you could do that and make money.

I'll still listen to it for the story and occasional hook though (e.g., the chromatic slides in the melody in the Minature Tigers' "Cannibal Queen"), but I find so much more joy out of a Bach chorale than any rap song. There's buildup, tension, release, conclusions--there's a reason it's classic.