Has ‘Pop’ Music damaged music?: Revisited!
I was really taken aback by the previous two articles on this site about Pop music. When meandthestereo suggested this article, I thought I was going to have to be Pop music’s sole defender. But since everyone else has been so lenient on pop music, I get to play devil’s advocate and point out the many legitimate problems with the Pop music genre and the effect it has had on the music industry as a whole.
In the previous paragraph, I used the term “music industry” on purpose. While I look up to the ideal of music being judged solely on its merits and being a creative process completely free from the constraints of capitalism, we cannot ignore that music as an industry affects what we get to listen to and, on a long enough timeline, affects the kind of music put out. You can’t deny that many people who went into punk bands may not have done so had someone not put the music of The Ramones or The Sex Pistols on vinyl and sold it to aspiring musicians everywhere. In my opinion, this is where most of the problems with Pop music come from. In a perfect capitalist world, the top musical talent should float to the top, but if you believe in capitalism, I have some land in Florida I’d like to sell you. Read the rest of this entry →