Pop music is not evil
Good music should be acknowledged no matter the genre
Mick Moore
Issue date: 9/16/09 Section: The Edge
If you walked into a new restaurant, sat down in the booth and opened the menu to find only six choices available, you'd get up, walk out and tell everyone you know to avoid the place. Clearly the method to ensure success in American business is availability of choice.
Wal-Mart has shoddy unabsorbent towels sewn by children in third world sweatshops, but because you can get them with your favorite Nascar driver or Jonas Brother on them, they'll sell a squared gross. The same can be applied to the music industry, and in this article I must emphasize that second word because people seem to often forget that is in fact an
industry. Don't get me wrong, I've been popping tapes and putting needles to vinyl as long as I could walk, but to go about critiquing not only an entire genre of music but new music altogether while offering no advice other than "it sucks" and it should "get better" is like strolling into an emergency room and saying, "I hurt."
The list of genres one could be categorized under these days seems to grow exponentially, from "_____"-cores to electro-"_____" there's almost no way to be an "undefinable" artist. Coupled with the advent of online music sharing and independent musicians having the ability to play and cater their music to just about anyone on the planet, the ease of finding the "good" music out there (and I assure you it is out there) is practically effortless. But what makes that music "good" relies entirely on the personal taste of the listener, again something I must strongly emphasize, as it's a point I see lost and often unknown.
To completely write off a genre of music as no longer having any quality because of its modern techniques of production, the behavior of its performers or the marketing style at which it is pitched is perfectly fine and anyone's right as a listener. But I must warn those of you who feel they're expressing some bold new and revolutionary point by claiming that "the new way is crap" and "things were better back in the day" are beating the deadest horse who ever got beat. Am I a fan of auto-tune? Do I think that female pop stars are talented songwriters and singers? That would be a big fat no, but that doesn't mean I think all pop is crap. I know all the words to every song on the Beastie Boys' "Hello Nasty" album, but at the same time I also know all the words to Gwen Stefani's "What you waiting for?" I've seen Nine Inch Nails twice, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs thrice, and I'd kill to see the Pixies this December, yet I'll gladly defend my copy of Justin Timberlake's "FutureSex/LoveSounds."
Wal-Mart has shoddy unabsorbent towels sewn by children in third world sweatshops, but because you can get them with your favorite Nascar driver or Jonas Brother on them, they'll sell a squared gross. The same can be applied to the music industry, and in this article I must emphasize that second word because people seem to often forget that is in fact an
industry. Don't get me wrong, I've been popping tapes and putting needles to vinyl as long as I could walk, but to go about critiquing not only an entire genre of music but new music altogether while offering no advice other than "it sucks" and it should "get better" is like strolling into an emergency room and saying, "I hurt."
The list of genres one could be categorized under these days seems to grow exponentially, from "_____"-cores to electro-"_____" there's almost no way to be an "undefinable" artist. Coupled with the advent of online music sharing and independent musicians having the ability to play and cater their music to just about anyone on the planet, the ease of finding the "good" music out there (and I assure you it is out there) is practically effortless. But what makes that music "good" relies entirely on the personal taste of the listener, again something I must strongly emphasize, as it's a point I see lost and often unknown.
To completely write off a genre of music as no longer having any quality because of its modern techniques of production, the behavior of its performers or the marketing style at which it is pitched is perfectly fine and anyone's right as a listener. But I must warn those of you who feel they're expressing some bold new and revolutionary point by claiming that "the new way is crap" and "things were better back in the day" are beating the deadest horse who ever got beat. Am I a fan of auto-tune? Do I think that female pop stars are talented songwriters and singers? That would be a big fat no, but that doesn't mean I think all pop is crap. I know all the words to every song on the Beastie Boys' "Hello Nasty" album, but at the same time I also know all the words to Gwen Stefani's "What you waiting for?" I've seen Nine Inch Nails twice, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs thrice, and I'd kill to see the Pixies this December, yet I'll gladly defend my copy of Justin Timberlake's "FutureSex/LoveSounds."
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