meandthestereo

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 →

Has Pop music negatively influenced the course of music in general?  I hope not, because I love Pop music.  I think I got my definition of using the term Pop music from a Michael Stipe interview that I have a vague memory of in the back of my mind.  I can’t find the interview (I just searched a bit), but I could’ve sworn that Michael Stipe said something about R.E.M. creating Pop songs, and R.E.M. being my all-time favorite band, it has given me positive connotations with the term.

I think Pop music is able to translate its message, whatever that may be, easily to many, many people.  You’re allowed to interpret.  You’re even allowed to sing the words wrong, guessing at unintelligible syllables and creating your own sentences that go along with the catchy melody, and then interpret this patchwork song with any meaning you really chose.  Maybe you think it’s about the songwriter’s own breakup, or maybe you personally identify with it.  Maybe, as Better Than Ezra lyricizes about in one song, a Pop song identifies with a particular memory or time period of your life. Read the rest of this entry →

The definition of music varies according to cultural and social context.  Music ranges from what are considered organized compositions through improvised styles of music to aleatoric (based on chance) forms. So, where in all of this does “Pop” music fall?  Short for “Popular”, pop music hasn’t been a genre for long, and it has always fallen under the “Rock” genre.  The Beatles first crossed the rock/pop line with hits like All You Need Is Love, Hey Jude, and Yesterday.  A lot of these songs were intentionally “poppy” in a sense that they were geared toward an audience that liked these songs: young people.  Paul McCartney knew this and continued to write songs of this nature (if you notice the poppy Beatles songs are mostly written by Paul, while the weirder songs are mostly written by John).

Looking further back, the Pop line was crossed in Elvis’ days when he was swinging his hips for the ladies whilst singing Jailhouse Rock.  But, we’ll stick to the Beatles since they made a slightly bigger impact on music (Elvis purists, we can discuss who made a bigger impact later).  In their later years, when they were experimenting, the Beatles discovered such skills as harmonization, guitar feedback, classical inspiration, artificial double tracking, close miking of acoustic instruments, sampling, direct injection, synchronization, and backward tapes.  Many of these same skills would then be adopted by popular musicians today. Although the reason why artists today should be criticized for techniques like sampling is because the way they use it is more of a lazy way. They sample an entire song and just put in their own lyrics, completely ripping off the original musician.

One more thing on the history of Pop Music: Read the rest of this entry →