I listen to a lot of instrumental music. I also am studying a lot, and not having vocals is nice when writing an essay (or a blog post). But there comes a time in which vocals are welcome.
I don’t think it’s fair to just listen to classical music without giving other forms a try. But I do understand there is a time and place for everything.
Generally the music I listen to with vocals are rather simple
and the instrumentals are rather complex.
I like minimalism.
Minimalism in music is very intriguing. It can mean a lot of things. Songs can be sonically minimalist with lots of silence, timbrely minimalist with little sound variation, rhythmically minimalist without much rhythmic deviation, or musically minimalist with only a few chords or such.
Complex does not equal good, but it is complicated to do minimalism well.
Is easier for a song to not be minimal, but be lacking, when they have the crutch of language. Vocals, even though laden with metaphor, can be used as a crutch for a lackluster composition.
One song that comes to mind is Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter. Such a song relies on nonsense lyrics over a sample chord progression. The producer did use a prerecorded sample pack for the chord progression, and there isn’t anything inherently wrong with this, but it takes away a huge part of the creative process, especially when the it can be prominently heard in the mix throughout the song. Regardless of the vocals, it is clear that the backing track is lacking.
I’m not denying any commercial success, but I am arguing that the trickle down influence of the vocals in such a piece made it unable to articulate a cogent argument unique to it’s form, thus not making this a complete artistic expression in my opinion.
This probably comes off pretentious but that’s fine, such isn’t my intention.
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