Quote:
Originally Posted by Hellacia
This is not really that true. What you described in parentheses is a pretty nice formula in which the entire thing doesn't actually repeat from the beginning to end - you have verse~chorus which repeats once (although with some very minor differences) and then goes to solo~chorus. This means the two instances of verse~chorus sort of build up to something new - the solo - and then rather than going back to verse, goes straight to chorus (of course not all songs are like this, but this is one example). That entire whole is the song. When you repeat a VGM song, you literally repeat the entire whole of it.
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I don't agree with this characterization because it's leaving out the variation within the loop of VGM. While they don't have lyrics to change the next time it comes around or a bridge or solo after the loop point, there's frequently more musical development within the loop than in popular music to mitigate that repetition or a shorter running time if not. The entire whole that makes up a mainstream song often has less music in it despite the extra solo or bridge. I prefer to listen to something good for longer provided it isn't too much, and looping once is not too much to me for probably greater than 90% of all the VGM I have, and of the VGM I have that doesn't loop I think for probably 90% it would have been better if it had.
In popular music I've observed a trend lately where the music will have very little development at all. Take Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" for example. It loops the same short A - B minor - E chord sequence throughout literally the entire thing. The melody changes between verses and choruses and instruments are added or taken away, but the chords all the music is built on remain the same. Same deal with Taylor Swift's "Take It Off" and other songs. Pop music has historically often been fairly simple, but usually not
that simple! Incidentally, I like both songs I named surprisingly well for modern pop music, but I think they would have been better with more harmonic change in them. The issues of musical predictably and sameness are part of what attracted me to VGM in the first place, where things tend to be much more varied within the loop. I know it too has archetypes that persist, I just tend to have heard them a lot less than the ones in popular music.