Bashing Pop Music

The discussion in class on Friday about popular music, especially 90's, 00's bubble gum pop was interesting. Most people destroyed the merits of pop music as an art form. There was a hint of snobbery/elitism (for lack of better words) that we see in most music fans when it comes to mainstream music. I don't mean that negatively at all, most music fans have a specific genre (usually rock based) they like and generally these genres conform to the typical view of the musician. Usually they play instruments, write their own music. Pop is so devoid of that, it gets harped on for being musically inferior.

There are so many facets of a song that make it what it is, some times it is politically driven lyrics of a Dylan song, an enchanting melodic tone of a McCartney song, or the showmanship/dancing of a Jackson song. People generally judge music in the first 2; our perception of music as a popular art form has never evolved in the way that music has with the advent of television and internet. Music, quite clearly has taken a more hybrid role, especially pop music. It may be a kitsch genre to most but the fact that it is a "guilty pleasure" implies that it has some endearing features.

Pop music excels in ways outside of the traditionalist view of music and people, including I are so attached to a different idea of what a musician should be that Pop is thrown out as repetitive (as much so as any other genre), and musically inferior when in reality, it is just not completing what we want to see -- which is natural given the majority of the class is not fans in the first place.