I grew up in a home characterized by music. For as long as I can remember, a soundtrack played for whatever was going on in my house. From Coldplay to the Fray, the Killers to Hall & Oates, the Gin Blossoms to Zac Brown Band, my parents instilled in me a passion for music and all it encompasses.

The creation and production of music is a process requiring talent, passion and knowledge. It is, afterall, one of the most beautiful and complex forms of art. The foundation of a song requires creativity and a poetic flare to provide the song with meaning and life.

But the music landscape is changing, specifically in mainstream pop music. Music is art. It has the ability to be profound and individualistic, creating messages that mean something different to every listener. Now, these songs lack substance in their lyrics and composition. With similar lyrical themes and sounds through synthesized beats, pop songs are becoming reproductions of each other.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, synthesized music is created using an electronic machine that produces sound waves, usually accompanied by a digital computer. When music is completely synthesized, or created using technology rather than instruments, it takes the humanness out of something that otherwise unifies humans. Once you take away instruments, the art itself is lost. Anyone can produce music on their laptop, but the same cannot be said for talented musicians.

Synthesized music is not new by any means, but the idea of solely using synthetic sounds to create a song is something that is taking the industry by storm. The electronic sounds can be modified at the convenience of computer programs and then seamlessly uploaded to the internet.

This process takes away from not only the quality of the music but from the talent that music requires. Without instruments, most pop songs begin to sound the same. Song after song has the same layout: two or three short verses, base drops and mixed electronic choruses. People who once would’ve been called disc jockeys or mix engineers are now considered artists even though they just use electronic noises to mix their songs.

While there is nothing wrong with DJs, I think there is something to say for people like David Guetta who are outwardly professional DJs to people like Khalid, who use previously mixed tracks and sing over them. Khalid has a team of mix engineers, something very common with today’s music. None of the music he creates is his own besides the vocals he throws on top.

There’s a difference between using some electronic mixes in your songs along with real instruments and completely relying on synthetic noise. Synthesized sound was created to compliment instruments and add something unique to a song. Now, artists are leaning on synthetic sound and using it by itself in songs. While synthetically-made music is well-received in society, it should not be as highly admired as it is in today’s culture.

We have grown so accustomed to these types of songs that artists are afraid to work outside of that criteria. Artists don’t want to lose their fans or their money so they adopt this style of music. It was once considered electronic or dance music, but now it falls into the category of pop because people are infatuated with it. We need to take a look at what artists we are praising and why. We need to become better at recognizing hard work and talent when we see it.

A few years back, a band called The Chainsmokers was blasted for the repetitiveness of their music. People called them out for remixing the same sounds over and over to get slightly different outcomes. From “Roses” to “Closer” to “Something Just Like This,” the same exact layout and sound can be found in each one with different lyrics thrown on top.

Why is it that one band gets called out so profoundly in the media while other bands continue to produce average quality music using the same template?

This issue goes deeper than surface level music taste. If we don’t start to appreciate quality, talented musicians and the content they produce will fall victim to the music industry, which is dependent on money to support record labels. If musicians can’t succeed with unique, music that they pour thought-out lyrics into and accompany it with true instruments, they will be forced to succumb to the same techno-beat synthetic trend that has overcome the industry.

This past summer, I, along with 15,000 others, attended Khalid’s sold-out show at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Khalid’s music has a synthetic 80s-pop feel to it, but nevertheless, I was not prepared for the performance that I received.

Khalid lacked any kind of stage presence. Rather than singing to the audience, he felt disconnected and aloof, even from my close proximity in the pit. He hardly talked or interacted with the crowd, and the few instruments used were pushed to the far edges of the stage. His lack of stage presence is a direct correlation to the kind of music he creates. Khalid left himself no room for on-stage creativity because all of his songs were already mixed and recorded. Other artists might do guitar riffs or repeat an encore or blend songs together, but Khalid was incapable of doing this due to his synthesized songs.

Khalid has a beautiful voice and a unique set of vocals, but many times throughout the show, he fell back on his background track and relied on technology to keep him going. The performance was lackluster, and would not pay to see him again.

I truly believe that this performance, as well as many others in the pop genre, are a reflection of declining standards for musicians and their content. When artists begin to rely on artificial music rather than their own talents, the quality of their content and performances are reduced drastically.

As a society, we need to stop settling for below-average music. Artists releasing a single every week simply because they have the means to do so does not create thought-out, artistic music. We need to appreciate the combination of vocals, instruments and carefully scripted lyrics to create a poetic, musical piece.

Grace Hallen can be reached at hall2306@stthomas.edu.