by LaChaise » Mon May 26, 2014 10:20 am
Okay, I've had my french pop music moment, sorry about that.
Now back to the definitions! (although mine come from french, so my apologies for the mistranslations and errors)
I've always wondered if pop music, and how bad it's supposed to be, weren't coming from context and instead of content.
Let me explain: people tend to decry the lack of originality, commercial aspect dictating music's direction and lack of "talent", whatever that means, when they're talking about pop music.
But look at it this way: the exact same thing can be said about Musique de Chambre. Good musique de chambre needs a perfect, scientific even, understanding of harmonies, polyphony, counterpoint, organology and so on and so forth. Among musique de chambre compositors, you can find Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, and many others.
Where does musique de chambre come from though? From rich aristocrats who threw lots of money at artists to make them play in their room. Many composition techniques like variations and harmonies come from simple "economy of creativity": you have to play for hours every night for a rich dude paying you lots of money, but you can't possibly create new compositions at this rhythm. What do you do? Include recurrent themes and repeat them while adding a couple minor variations. BAM, hours of music!
Do you recognize the lack of originality, the commercial aspect dictating music's direction? Would you say Mozart and Schubert made recyclable garbage though?
Let's take this the other way. This time I won't even say anything, just watch this handy little video:
Can't really say it's garbage pop music when it's presented this way now, can we?
So yeah. I don't think pop music is good or bad, if only because deciding an entire genre, especially one as varied as pop music, sucks (or rules) would be quite a lack of perspective. Also, I really do think music doesn't stand in a void, as it is. Music comes with a form and a context, both of which can make your experience wildly different with just a little change.
"Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody’s gonna die. Come watch TV?"
"I'll die soon. But the last twenty minutes have been the best years of my life."