I say I hate pop music but…

While I may be done with my first round of exploration into Kate Bush’s music, she provides the perfect chance to talk about my complicated relationship with pop music.

Pop music traditionally meant “popular music” but as trends evolve and music has become more democratized, it’s become obvious that pop refers to something more than just popular.

There is definetly a “pop” style. It varies from decade to decade and country to country but there are a few consistents. The most uniform being:

• catchy
• predictable
• repetitive

And then there are some optional traits that are common but not universal:

• smooth production
• genre blending
• commercial
• simple

I used to say I don’t like pop music, but my playlist would call me a liar.

What I really don’t like is a good chunk of commercial music which feels lazier than it could be or more about image than substance, or songs which blatently rip off other songs (sometimes their own) without any real attempt at being original or interesting, relying 100% on a hook, marketing and celebrity culture to carry them.

I’m gonna do my best not to name names or point fingers, but the first thing that comes to mind is a song telling me that they don’t need my money, while singing over the most generic chords that have ever existed.

In case you haven’t seen this before, this will give you a look into how a majority of commercial music sounds to me:

I’m not saying every single one of the songs played here is bad. I quite like”Under the Bridge”, “Let it Be” and “No Woman No Cry”, and I have respect for Lady Gaga. But once you see it, you can’t unsee it, and you start demanding more for your ears.

K-pop is really tricky because it is clearly a product more than it is art, but there is also a lot of thought put into it’s production and arrangement and presentstion. There is also art in it. Not enough for me to go wild over, I prefer fewer bells and lights.

I want music that lets us feel more than we have rver felt, that allows us to get out of our own patterns and discover sometjing new. . If you aren’t challenging yourself or your audience, I don’t think you deserve to be called an artist. You are a jingle maker, a marketer.

It’s ok to use cliches and the work of others if it’s used honestly. Playing with tropes is one way to write music and it’s not a particularly bad way to stumble upon something brilliant. But there are those who do it for a quick hit, and there are those it with self awareness and a desire to discover something new and create something powerful. This is what the Beatles did, time and time again.

Essentially what I don’t like is music that tries to keeps their listeners stupid by only feeding them the bare minimum. I can’t call it lazy because there is certain amount of effort that goes into it but the effort is for the sake of sales first and expression last. At the very least, expression and art need to be placed at the same level of priority as money. If you follow enough artists, you find that placing art first tends to lead to money anyway, at least when there is dedication and persistence.

As you can imagine, the pop I like tends to be on the complex side but it’s clearly pop music.

They have the term “intelligent dance music” now, right? IDM. I thought this was a silly term but maybe we need a term IPM, Intelligent Pop Music.

Last night I was reminded of Imogen Heap and she’s one version of everything I ask for from pop music. Great melody, great arrangement, great production:

It’s not the easiest of melodies but it definetly has it’s hooks. I can see how someone condtioned to simple and easy songs might not resonate with it, but listen to this on good headphones and tell me it’s not a beautiful piece.

Nevermind the fact that she does everything herself.

And the closest male equivelent I can think of is Cosmo Sheldrake:

Dense and challenging pop music but melodies that can easily fet stuck in your head. The real difference between this and the more bubble gum kind of pop is thet you can enjoy this song on more layers. The more you listen, the more you discover.

Another pop act who always delivers from China is DOUDOU, previously known as Floriit Show. This song has me bopping my head like a madman on the train:

And while his later albums didn’t do much for me, Moses Sumney’s self titled may be one of the best albums of the 2010’s.

It’s stretching it a little but here is one last song…

I randomly came across another artist, not exactly the opitamy of pop because she easily fits under the country folk umbrella (country is another genre I generaly don’t listen to much, but what an incredible soul). You could definetly fit this in the wider definition of pop music:

I am keeping my expectations low for this post after the last one but I hope somebody found something they like from it.

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