Of Pop Music and All Things Popular

pop music (n. uncountable)

• a type of music, usually played on electronic instruments, that is popular with many people because it consists of short songs with a strong beat and simple tunes that are easy to remember. Pop music is often simply called pop. (Macmillan Dictionary) 

• the sound a dying mongoose makes from its anus as it dies; the only type of music known to man which features more scantily clad females in clips than meaningful words in the lyrics; the retarded form of song that offers no originality and is the result of corporation-backed, ‘singers’, and writers; basically, highly non-political\religious\profane because the people that make it have no balls (Urban Dictionary)

Image: Erik McLean / Unsplash

Introduction

For a diehard metalhead, pop is interesting for one and only one reason in Western music. It tells a lot about the zeitgeist. You cannot listen to Mozart or Mangka and understand the spirit of the time. Yet, you Spotify a few bands or musicians that can be categorised into this genre called pop, and you are never far from anything pop. Besides, you will also know what is or has been trendy and ever be able to catch up with the time. However, is it necessary to catch up, leave alone listen to this kind of music?

In so many ways, pop music is no less than a religion, be it the number of followers or their blind loyalty and its politics of sheer conformist tendencies. And it is like religion because you might be an atheist, but with the number of people who believe in gods in the surroundings, you need to understand them—and to understand them, you need to know what their issues are! Just as imaginary and heavenly people take care of them, in pop music, there is an equal number of people who will swear by the names of their favourite bands or entertainers.

This reminds me of one of the popular quotes by Voltaire: ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ Or consider this anonymous saying: ‘Remember, there are always two sides to every story. Understanding is a three-edged sword. Your side, their side and the truth in the middle.’ In this context, I offer all the space for pop fans to negate and argue but that does not necessarily mean the observations on pop music made here are not without reasons.

It is too obvious why pop music is called pop in the first place. It is simply because many people listen to this form of music; but in the rush we might miss the woods for the trees. For instance, something is costly does not imply it is of good quality. Also, the fact that many people listen to this genre, similarly, does not necessarily mean it is good.

A Single Case Against Anything Pop

Until twenty years ago, especially in western pop, we have the phenomena of boy bands. Tell me why / Ain’t nothin’ but a heartache. And nowadays, the so-called K-pop has completely taken over the pop territories in this part of the world just like it has in so many corners of the globe. The argument is still open to interpretations whether BTS is comparatively better or Ateez is. If we ever do a study, and not at the cost of myself being labelled as a sexist or ageist, we will find that the ARMY (Adorable Representative MC for Youth), which comprises the hardcore fans of BTS, are mostly teenagers in general, and girls in high and senior schools to be specific. 

Perhaps, the girls should ask their parents about the latter’s kind of pop stuffs. Before they reply, 99% of the time, they will see that their parents’ pop tastes of their heydays are awful, which is the same for all pop music once when a periodic zeitgeist is over. Consider the 1980s, for example, and you can picture the funny, fluffy and curly hair styles, loud graphic prints, shoulder pads, and the list goes on; and there is one word to describe it: cringey.    

Of course, this will be a case of urban reality but there are also non-Western people who live beyond this reality as well as who are completely oblivious of Fart (French art), Crap (Chinese rap) or Shits (Spanish hits). For that matter, especially in the case of this part of the world, those people listen to film songs or as they are exposed to, they are satisfied with the regional music. Different people and different tastes—still there are underlying and mutual currents between their kind of music and pop. In simple words, those are their pop!

So, if we go by the numbers, like the views on YouTube, this write-up on pop is already a lost cause. However, quantity never measures quality and vice versa. One of the simplest examples is the number of Bollywood films on IMDb that are always rated 8 and above, regardless of how substandard, sentimental and melodramatic those films are. The same thing can be applied to pop. Currently as of mid 2022, with 11.20 billion views, Baby Shark Dance is the most watched video on this platform. In fact, there are not only one but two (Johny Johny Yes Papa) among the most-watched top five videos. Numbers can help make conclusions or at least decisions in certain areas of our lives but when it comes to the social and political realities, these are simply too scarce and if not, just not enough. 

The numbers also bring to our attention about the rankings of those popular Top 10 Song Collections and Top of the Pop Chart; though unfortunately, these are a pseudo-framework to measure the goodness and beauty of a song or a style of music. More than the arbitrary measurement using merely numbers, we can focus on the very nature of pop music and the reason why, in a decent manner, it sucks big time.

Image: Markus Spiske / Unsplash

The More You Dig, the Shallower the Superficiality

On any normal day, there is nothing wrong with anything because we live in a relative world in which we have no clue why we exist in the universe. Anything goes!  As it is in design, anyway, there is never a work which is right or wrong but only how good or bad it is. You can never tell that a design is wrong! However, when it comes to pop music, there are just too many loopholes. 

We cannot simply categorise pop music as inherently good or bad. As many as colours are there in the world, there are as many tastes and preferences as there are different kinds of people. However, singing in your natural voice is completely different than doing it with Auto-tune. Cher popularised the use of Auto-tune with her all-time hit Believe in the Nineties but then her signature contralto vocal is one of a kind. On the other hand, so many pop artists are using it, so much to the extent that lip synching has become ubiquitous in the pop music industry—and this reflects very poorly on their music artistry. In fact, many singers are using it as their sole style. When Miley Cyrus can use it heavily, why not the people aka artistes can make up with Auto-tune for all the talents they don't have. Way back in 2010, Time magazine had listed Auto-tune among the 50 worst inventions of all time! It is a given that there will still be an audience, that’s beside the point.    

If they need pitch correction all the time, it merely brings them closer to a mechanical MIDI sound that is devoid of any warmth or emotion. If they are struggling to sing on-key, they should as well change their profession. While this is essentially a defect for pop bands, meantime, those in blues and jazz utilise off-key as a part of their creative creation. The more you dig, the shallower the superficiality becomes in pop music. The problem becomes even more critical when we see that technology is spoiling authenticity by neutralising quality music and skills as irrelevant. Ronnie James Dio, David Coverdale, Bruce Dickinson, Freddie Mercury, Ozzy Osbourne, Chris Cornell, Debbie Harry, Janis Joplin and their ilk are also popular musicians. However, the difference between them and those in pop is the fact that they rely solely on their brilliance. 

No Place to Hide

People say that imitation is the best form of flattery; so perhaps you can do it with your friends and partners. However, the amount of imitation in pop is beyond anyone’s understanding. The fact that you have a DSLR camera does not make you a photographer; and similarly, the fact that you have subscribed to Adobe Photoshop does not make you a designer. In this regard, Natalie Gadeikis writes in Modern Music Lacks Originality, Inspiration (The Pulse):

A Day in the Life (1967), which is considered the greatest song made by The Beatles (according to Rolling Stone), was unlike any other musical composition during its time. The piece included a vast array of over 23 instruments. When we compare that musical masterpiece to a song that was created in modern time (and recorded in...20 minutes) Mo Bamba, by Sheck Wes, features a sampled track created by a different producer, a four-note looped keyboard melody, overpowering distorted bass, and a substandard drum pattern, all produced by computer software. The song is a viral hit, and it is nothing more than pathetic.

In its one-track aspiration for appealing to the mass, the entire industry has been surviving in the most quantitative ways—from the number of views and likes to that of software programs and gadgets. The consequence is the creation of bland music that sounds generic and formulaic. It has also resulted in music being sold as a packaged commodity that you can use and discard, and often it is a one-time use. In a sense, pop music is no different from a bottle of Harpic toilet cleaner or an empty packet of condoms. You use it and throw it away. Coincidentally, materialism is one main factor that defines pop music with their nature, production process and consumption. This also augurs well with the fact that, among others, Puff Daddy, Rihanna and Beyoncé have been running multi-million-dollar enterprises along with their pop musical commitments.     

No wonder then that many people see no line between pop music and consumerism. In May 2022, a South Korean music promoter selected an Indian teenager Sriya Lenka as a member of the K-pop group, Blackswan. For that matter, the one and only BTS is also managed by an agency named Big Hit Entertainment, which has been successfully packaging and selling the Bangtan Boys, like never seen in the relatively short history of global pop music. Just to clarify, BTS is not a complete package but rather it is packaged and promoted like daily needs and commodities. Their package includes incessant PR works, social media publicity, image makeovers, an emphasis on fashion trendsetting and what not. The whole process is so very corporate in which the best music is determined solely by how much it sells. It is obviously not confined to K-pop but the nature of pop that is simple and repetitive brings in the concept of placelessness.         

Read Pop Pain on this blog

There is a term called placelessness in urban planning, architecture and geographical study. Precisely, it refers to a phenomenon of losing the sense of place, which is created by a cluster of identical houses in a particular housing colony. It’s a product of urban development in popular contemporary studies. They are so similar that it creates a sense of placelessness without any sense for essence and individuality. In art, that’s pop!

Check out Pop Music These Days: It All Sounds the Same, Survey Reveals by Sean Michaels on The Guardian

Pop music these days: it all sounds the same, survey reveals: Pop music is too loud, and melodies have become more similar, according to a study of songs from the past 50 years conducted by Spanish scientists.

As far as repetition is concerned, it is intentional as much as it is ephemeral and lasting only a decade at most. When the whole market is based on profit-and-loss factors, it is natural that corporates would only love to stick to an approach that works, albeit this is an anti-thesis to a creative discipline such as music. No wonder then the target audience is always teenagers. Yet this can be problematic as some YouTubers have revealed: one of these is the most prominent chord progression of I–V–vi–IV, which in the key of C Major is C–G–Am–F. You learn this and you have already mastered the art of playing a million of pop songs! (Watch The Four Chords That Killed POP Music! by Rick Beato on YouTube)    

In Why Pop Music Is So Bad These Days (The Imaginative Conservative) Jon Henschen explained: 

An astonishing amount of today’s popular music is written by two people: Lukasz Gottwald of the United States and Max Martin from Sweden, who are both responsible for dozens of songs in the top 100 charts. You can credit Max and Dr Luke for most the hits of these stars:

Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Jessie J., KE$HA, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Taio Cruz, Ellie Goulding, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake, Nick Minaj, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, Usher, Adam Lambert, Justin Bieber, Domino, Pink, Pitbull, One Direction, Flo Rida, Paris Hilton, The Veronicas, R. Kelly, Zebrahead

With only two people writing much of what we hear, is it any wonder music sounds the same, using the same hooks, riffs and electric drum effects?

Image: Hans Eiskonen / Unsplash

Conclusion

Elsewhere music researchers have been explaining that our preference for music depends on our gender, age, social class and income, cultural background and self-esteem, and even personality traits to a large extent. People who listen to pop are the same people who raised 100 million dollars to make Kylie Jenner a billionaire in 2018. A majority of them are also the same species who always swear as a fashion statement that they hate politics. One of the common traits is also their inclination to conformism and conformists are, by nature, the scariest people in the world. (Check: Who Are the Scariest People in the World?)

Obviously, it will be too reductionist an approach to label pop listeners to a single personality type; yet it does give us an idea of their identities. Individual differences matter a lot but sometimes it can become more than an earful, because by virtue of its very existence, pop is everywhere, and it intrudes into our space more often than we want it to be. Besides this defense, a little bit of musical literacy can also help enhance the quality of music all over. The ephemerality of pop is also a major factor behind its fragility that its many fans cannot see for varying reasons. 

Perhaps the transitory nature of art and beauty can be meaningful in philosophical aesthetics but not for a fad that is built on capitalism and so many artistic yet shaky foundations. If pop is bad, there is no guarantee that another genre could be better—and artistes will come and go, and more artistes will still come and go appealing to the baser instincts of human beings. What are important, ultimately, are our worldviews and how we see the purpose of art; though we have seen many reasons why pop is too profitless in this area.