Pop, is it corporate garbage or does it have it's merits?
 

Even the obsessivly 'nueteral' wikipedia says this as the opening statement for the pop music article:

Some of it is, some of it isn't......

I would contend that most of it is, and that the wiki definition pretty much hit it head on,
although while most pop music is uninspired, contrived b.s., some of it happens to be creative, catchy, and fun, and can't really help the fact that it falls into the category of pop music.

Something being only modern music is pretty contradicting for a genre isn't it? Because then what's pop today isn't going to be pop tomorrow (which makes it what?) Wikipedia is usually full of shit when it comes to music genres and that is the case here.

Well, if pop is defined by it's sound, then pop is a group of talentless 25 year olds with irritading nasaly voices. Who is the most talented pop musician ever? Michael Jackson? if MJ is the best pop can offer, I'll gladly pass.

If pop is defined by it's purpose, then pop is trend exploitation, corporate ran watered down plastic bull****.

Either way, I resent it.

You're looking at one small facet of pop (the backstreet boys, michael jackson and all that) and dismissing off the entire genre as well as making generalizations about it despite it being a very vast genre containing several talented acts like the Cure, Patrick Wolf, The Smiths, Los Campesinos!, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Magnetic Fields (Stephin Merritt in general is a pop genius), Guillemots etc. Which is a pretty ignorant thing to do.

Pop is more of an approach than a stylistic genre... the approach basically being "tried and true."

I think you and I both know that an enourmous facet of pop is those types of bands.

The only artist here I'm familiar enough with to comment on is the Beatles. The beatles are OK, back in the 60's and 70's when it took very little to be considered 'edgy', yeah the beatles were kinda cool. But we live in a much more liberal, open society now and it takes allot more more than being psychodelic to effect people. The Beatles now days, are 'lame', in the literal sense of the word. They don't really have allot of songs that invoke allot of meaningful emotion. That's always been and always will be the problem with pop music, it's designed to be catchy, it's designed to be played in the background while your playing solitiare, it's designed to be a ringtone. I preffer music that demands my full attention.

All of thier best songs were at least rock crossover. They weren't cut and paste 'pop' and all of thier glory and greatness cannot just simply be attributed to pop. They are much more of a rock band in my opinion anyway.

They weren't much more of a rock band than a pop band. For every rock song (Helter Skelter, Revolution 7) they had more Eleanor Rigbys and Here Comes the Sun. I don't really understand what your definition of pop is because your last post has me confused. If pop is designed to be catchy and background music than uh, well background music is kind of subjective. For instance I know post-rock fans who can be fully engaged while listening to Explosions in the Sky but I consider them background music, in fact I consider most post-rock background music except stuff like 65daysofstatic that tends to explode quickly. The ringtone comment is even more subjective seeing as I know people who have Converge or Metallica as their ringtone. So your definition basically amounts to it being catchy and alot of music, not just what is commonly called pop, is catchy.

About the ringtone comment. Any song can be converted into a ringtone, what I meant is that for pop music, that's it's purpose. You don't see commercials on TV selling Black Metal ringtones, do you? You only see pop, and rap.

The Beatles had a drummer/bassist/guitarist ensemble, they were very much a rock band with pop elements, not a pop band with rock elements.

Paris Hilton's album had some ska in it. Avirl Lavigns or however you spell her name is drums/bass/guitar pop. Maroon Five is considered pop and they're the same layout as you have described as rock w/ pop except they're pop with soft rock.


You also don't see commercials on TV selling porn grove ringtones, do you?

general statement is general