So on the Hits 1 Discord server, one of the most common debates is over whether or not a certain song is boring (typically when talking about Dean Lewis). But there isn't really a clear definition of what makes a song "boring" per se. Is it having generic lyrics? Is it being really slow and plodding? Is it having a singer who uses very little of their range? What "boring" means varies from person to person, but today I'll be talking about how I define boring, but also ways lots of people define boring that don't feel super boring to me.
Boring: Lack of Creativity
This is my definition of boring when it comes to music. If a song just has nothing special about it, I find it boring. One recent example of this is Grip by Seeb and Bastille. The song just doesn't have anything to it. The drop is barely a drop, Dan Smith sounds fine but he has no personality on the song, the lyrics are generic as all hell, and overall the song just ends up feeling extremely boring.
Another way a lack of creativity could make a song feel boring is if it's extremely derivative of another song from the artist. One example of this is Ava Max's recent single, So Am I. It's literally Sweet But Psycho again. I don't mind Sweet But Psycho at all, but I didn't need it AGAIN. The beat is copy/pasted, and her vocals are super similar. The only real difference are the lyrics where she decides to make a generic self empowerment anthem instead of whatever she was going for with Sweet But Psycho.
One other example is like 90% of trap rappers. Go back and read my Future review for more on this one.
The final example I'll bring up here is Fight Song by Rachel Platten. First of all, Rachel Platten has absolutely no vocal charisma or personality. She's just disposable pop singer #2937. On top of that, the lyrics of the song are.....complete nothing. Honestly just read them for yourself. They're all cliches I've heard in a thousand other songs.
Acoustic Guitars: Not Always Boring
Acoustic music is often called boing by many people (not just by the pastry). I completely understand where people are coming from with this. Often, acoustic music is pretty bland, and white guys with acoustic guitars don't always have the best track record. However, I don't think its fair to basically write off the whole genre. There are some artists who mainly use acoustic guitar, but can use it very well and come up with creative chord structures and lyrics, which prevent their songs from being boring.
There are two examples of this that immediately come to mind for me. The first is Ed Sheeran. Ed can often come up with pretty unique chord structures and solid lyrical themes. The A Team and Lego House come to mind as some of the best examples of this.
The other example I have is Dean Lewis. I listened to his most recent album today and I did like it for the most part, but there were also flaws. I do think that Dean Lewis has the ability to come up with really well written lyrics and some solid chords, but he also struggles in a couple big ways. The first is his good intentions sometimes not coming out well, such as in 7 Minutes where the god damn chorus of the song is about how he realized that his girl left him because he forgot to love her. His other big problem is choruses. Often times his choruses sound way overdone, especially compared to the verses. But those nitpicks aside, I still like Dean and A Place We Knew is a really good album.
Genres I Do Find Boring
There's not one genre that I find completely boring. But there are some that have mostly boring songs. The first of these is R&B. There are certainly great R&B songs and great R&B artists, but for me at least, most of R&B kinda blurs together into the same forgettable stuff. The other genre I tend to find boring is Christian or Gospel music. I'm not religious at all, so these songs tend to blur together. Like Lauren Daigle's album just felt like the same exact song for like an hour to me. Its cool if you like these genres, they're just not for me.
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