I'm not taking sides.
Pop albums have always blurred the line between collection of singles and consistent album; people forget that pop is short for popular and it's the music that's designed for mass appeal like soft rock and lyrics that are often bright and deal with common issues. Rarely does pop ever deviate from that formula even with the recent focus on partying and drinking.
It's always been designed to appeal to the masses but one thing I appreciate Pop for is the creative liberties that artists often take, using their popularity to force change or different issues on the radio thus making people think. Many artists that have divided fanbases (Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, pre-Blackout Britney Spears, The Beatles to name a few) have often utilized those creative liberties to create new sounds. It's been recently that consistency and themes have infiltrated pop projects; Katy Perry's Teenage Dream is her best sorely because it has that consistency and a certain persona to it. It's not just a collection of singles, it's a consistent album.
I don't pick sides based on which era was better; I pick sides based on who can innovate pop the most and influence a generation. (politics, styles, way of thinking, you name it.) Just imagine if nothing influenced anything, we wouldn't have society or anything that was different. it would be all conformity.
Anybody claiming to be born in the wrong generation is delusional. There is no such thing as a wrong generation; every generation has it's sound but each generation has it's downsides. You wouldn't want to be living in a segregated 50's or a treacherous 80's would you. Despite it's lack of appealing music, we have come so far in technological advancements that it's impossible to live without them.
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