Four Pop Music Trends I'd like to See Retired

So here is a list of worn-out pop music trends I'd like to see retired.

1. Tribute albums by various artists: This was a good idea at first: artists of all types (and sometimes from different genres) pay tribute to a famous artist by recording a CD of cover versions of his or her songs. There have been a number of worthy tribute CDs recorded to great artists: Bob Dylan, Hank Wiliams, and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few.

But the concept has just been done to death. Some artists now have two or more tribute records devoted to them, and the results can be very uneven. Some of the pop music tribute CDs are homages to artists that aren't all that legendary. Can't we just give well-loved pop music icons a gold watch or a tribute concert instead of recording yet another tribute CD?

2. Genre-mixing tribute albums: Yeah, you've probably chuckled at some of these: a bluegrass tribute to AC/DC, a reggae version of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," a smooth-jazz tribute to Bob Marley. Some of these-such as a bluegrass tribute to the Eagles-can actually be a good mix of styles, and entertaining pop music to boot. (The Eagles were a great country rock band in their early days, and even had a banjo player on their first couple of albums.) But some of the genres that are being combined in these CDs (like the ones mentioned above) are so bizarre that they sound like parody CDs that you'd give as a gag gift at your company's Secret Santa party. They're a pop music train wreck, plain and simple.

3. Duets albums: I'm not sure I ever liked this concept to begin with. Take a pop music legend and have him or her do an album of duets with contemporary artists to get the old master to appeal to a new (read: younger) audience. Listening to Frank Sinatra's duet with Bono on "I've Got You Under My Skin" really grated on my ear. Bono is fine as a pop/rock singer, but having him sing this old Sinatra classic-and hearing him sing it with The Voice-just shows how ill suited Bono is to sing this type of tune. Stick to arena rock anthems and pop music ballads, Bono.

And speaking of rockers singing in the wrong genre...

4. Rod Stewart standards albums: Rod the Mod's raspy voice is even more distinctive than Bono's, and it hurts my head to hear him croaking though a set of American popular standards. I thought it was bad enough when he came out with his first American Standards CD, but he has now done four-count 'em, four!-albums of this material. To paraphrase one of his best known albums, "Don't sing it again, Rod-please!"