Pop Music in General

well, I saw an elephant whistling dixie, but the young girl walking behind my computer whilst at work saw two nubile nymphets sitting atop a phallic symbol.
She then complained to compliance, who then demanded to see the elephant.
Unfortunately, the compliance manager agreed with the other worker, and then marched me to HR for a reprimand and reacquiantace with the company policy on acceptable use of IT facilities.
Hence now, looking at the inkblot I can see trouble!!!!! Which upon reflection is exactly what it is!!!!
 
well, I saw an elephant whistling dixie, but the young girl walking behind my computer whilst at work saw two nubile nymphets sitting atop a phallic symbol.
She then complained to compliance, who then demanded to see the elephant.
Unfortunately, the compliance manager agreed with the other worker, and then marched me to HR for a reprimand and reacquiantace with the company policy on acceptable use of IT facilities.
Hence now, looking at the inkblot I can see trouble!!!!! Which upon reflection is exactly what it is!!!!

For some reason your post reminds me of Fripp and Eno's "Baby's on Fire," but that song is anything but pop.
 
Oh, I didn't see the phallic symbol. Judging by your response it appears you have histrionic personality disorder (it's all those exclamation marks!!!) but it's ok cos you're a drummer and if it's good enough for Keith, who are we to quibble about being a tad mental? That's my excuse, anyway. The workmate who looked over your shoulder has issues too. :)

Don, Baby's On Fire is a pretty poppy number, really. Catchy, has a beat, decries media destructive sensationalism and/or the cult of celebrity. Replace the edgy backing with a cool drum machine beat and a few stae-of-the-art synth sounds and you have a pop song :)
 
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Oh, I didn't see the phallic symbol. Judging by your response it appears you have histrionic personality disorder (it's all those exclamation marks!!!) but it's ok cos you're a drummer and if it's good enough for Keith, who are we to quibble about being a tad mental? That's my excuse, anyway. The workmate who looked over your shoulder has issues too. :)

Don, Baby's On Fire is a pretty poppy number, really. Catchy, has a beat, decries media destructive sensationalism and/or the cult of celebrity. Replace the edgy backing with a cool drum machine beat and a few stae-of-the-art synth sounds and you have a pop song :)

This has been gone over, but to me pop is not top 40. Pop was easy listening with a back beat, ala Tony and Orlando and Dawn as you said, but a better example to me would be the likes of the Fifth Dimension. I'm not sure what a current example might be, maybe Celene Dion? Thank God for satellite radio. lol

Anyway, I never would have put Baby's on Fire in the pop catagory if for no other reason then it's too raw.
 
How about a pop song with a rock execution? Heh, I'm just kidding around of course but it does at least have a hook and catchy melody, almost simple enough to be a (very, very dark) nursery rhyme, even if there isn't a single other thing about it that's poppy :)
 
How about a pop song with a rock execution? Heh, I'm just kidding around of course but it does at least have a hook and catchy melody, almost simple enough to be a (very, very dark) nursery rhyme, even if there isn't a single other thing about it that's poppy :)

Nursery rhyme? lol Next time I read to my granddaughter before bed I'll tell her about laughing like a hefer to the slaughter and Juan dancing at Chico's! haha Right up there with burning airlines offer so much more! She'll sleep well I'm sure. 8^)
 
Nursery rhyme? lol Next time I read to my granddaughter before bed I'll tell her about laughing like a hefer to the slaughter and Juan dancing at Chico's! haha Right up there with burning airlines offer so much more! She'll sleep well I'm sure. 8^)

Just mumble the words, Don.

'What was does "slaughter' mean, Daddy?'

'It was "daughter", darling. Time for sleepy byes now.'

:)
 
Either there wasn't much to get out of my previous post or you would badly fail The Rorschach Test .... or maybe a combination of both :)

Tell me, what do you see here in this inkblot: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/52/158586077_1a6814b545_m.jpg

Oh that's bad.. haha.. no i didn't see the phallac symbol either... but it looks like the women have skulls hanging over their heads... what does THAT mean?! Should i be worried?
I think really though I was just in an "odd" (perverse?) mood yesterday morning... heh heh... Sorry about the crude response.
Anyway... i don't want to derail this thread again... just thought i'd write back about the "inkblot". And give my sympathy to John... poor guy... just looking at drummerworld and got in trouble... that's why my monitor faces AWAY from everyone else. :)
 
Anyway... i don't want to derail this thread again... just thought i'd write back about the "inkblot". And give my sympathy to John... poor guy... just looking at drummerworld and got in trouble... that's why my monitor faces AWAY from everyone else. :)

LOl..........As they say, always in the sh*t, merely the depth varies. I must admit, I didnt see a phallic symbol, but I regard the young girl who did in a different light now!!!
Getting back to the concept of pop music, what defines it?
Deltadrummer thinks that Bartok is not necessarily pop music. However, at a Bartok recital, the attendees are presumably Bartok fans, and hence Bartok is "popular" amongst that sample group. Is the Carmina Burina the classical equivalent of Pollyanna's example of "Tie a yellow ribbon"? I enjoy classical music, (wish that bloke at the front would sit down and stop waving the chopstick around. Cant see the bird with the small guitar under her chin. She's hot and I know she wants me!!!)
Is pop music characterised by poor musicianship? Would anyone suggest that the likes of YoYo Ma, Nigel Kennedy, Vanessa Mae, and others are poor musicians? Yet they are attempting to bring classical music to a wider audience.
Is pop music characterised by cheesy lyrics? Annie Lennox, Lilly Allen can chrurn out fairly adequate social commentary.

So pop music is difficult to classify. Do we need to? Enjoy it or not at ones own discretion.

Just my 2c worth.

Have a good day one and all.
 
OMG John, I thought you were kidding! I thought your tale of being hauled up before the powers that be was too absurd to be real. Wow, I'm sorry for that. Next time I'll put in a warning.

This says a great deal about your workmate, who has SPECTACULARLY failed the inkblot test (or passed it, depending on your worldview).

Yes, time lends a certain extra dignity to things. A junk pop song today will be seen in an entirely different light in 100 years' time, assuming our infrastructure survives all the stuff going on at the moment.
 
OMG John, I thought you were kidding! I thought your tale of being hauled up before the powers that be was too absurd to be real. Wow, I'm sorry for that. Next time I'll put in a warning.

This says a great deal about your workmate, who has SPECTACULARLY failed the inkblot test (or passed it, depending on your worldview).

Yes, time lends a certain extra dignity to things. A junk pop song today will be seen in an entirely different light in 100 years' time, assuming our infrastructure survives all the stuff going on at the moment.

lol............sad to say that my comment regarding the depth of my predicament at any given moment is entirely correct. However, as a position, I am comfortable with that. No need for any warnings......I rather like the idea of living dangerously at the work station..:)

Just as a matter of information, what should one have seen to be labelled anything other than a psycopath????
 
Unbelievable! That's insane. Being offended by that ink blot is like being afraid of being mugges by Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail.

The conplainant is probably not a psychopath, just neurotic and small-minded.
 
Yes, time lends a certain extra dignity to things. A junk pop song today will be seen in an entirely different light in 100 years' time, assuming our infrastructure survives all the stuff going on at the moment.

Or vice versa. I hear Elvis & the Beatles mostly in elevators thesedays.
 
Yes, it is still being played. I don't hear Gentle Giant much though.

Yes, some music, like GG, is very much of its time and once the era passes it's mostly forgotten unless there's a retro movement.

It wil be interesting to see what happens when the current crop of superstars who are in their 60s and still performing (at over $100 per ticket) get too old to play. What will fill the void?
 
Yes, some music, like GG, is very much of its time and once the era passes it's mostly forgotten unless there's a retro movement.

It wil be interesting to see what happens when the current crop of superstars who are in their 60s and still performing (at over $100 per ticket) get too old to play. What will fill the void?

I think that's the thing about current pop... well most pop... a lot of pop stars are one hit wonders or don't have that lasting characteristic so I don't know if i can see a lot of the pop stars lasting that long... There may be a few from each generation that last and they are not necessarily the BEST...
I think that the real discussion isn't on the merit of pop, or even the classification of pop, but on the concept of writing and performing music that you specifically gear towards a demographic for the purpose of making money (and this can be any genre). It all goes back to the sub-conversations of audience age and commercial art/music. Which means maybe we shouldn't be talking "pop" but "commercial music" instead.
The point is that pop artists create music for a specific demographic and are trying to make money instead of an artistic statement. While personally I don't use music to make money, as its a hobby for me, I do feel like a professional composer/songwriter needs to make money and the best way to do that is catering to what your audience will want. I don't think music is bad just because it is successful or intended for a particular audience. I think that's just good business... I also don't think music is good just because its artistic or different... a lot of experimental or "artistic" music written from the "heart" or "soul" can be complete crap.
others may feel that music should ALWAYS be an artistic expression of the soul and if they're successful with it then good for them if they aren't then they don't care because they're making their music from the heart.. I've always been more pragmatic then that which is why i "sold out" and became a commercial artist... and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

And yeah that girl at john's work is probably really uptight (obviously) but also she's probably got some weird kink going on in her head if she saw the women AND some phallus that none of us perverts saw.
 
The point is that pop artists create music for a specific demographic and are trying to make money instead of an artistic statement. While personally I don't use music to make money, as its a hobby for me, I do feel like a professional composer/songwriter needs to make money and the best way to do that is catering to what your audience will want. I don't think music is bad just because it is successful or intended for a particular audience. I think that's just good business... I also don't think music is good just because its artistic or different... a lot of experimental or "artistic" music written from the "heart" or "soul" can be complete crap.

Good observations, Matt.

Thing is, is it only about making money? Sting said that The Police was about making money so he could play what he liked, but was it ALL about making money? Invisible Sun? Demolition Man? Synchronicity? Did Stewie do that amazing sticking in Walking On The Moon to make money? We all know the answer to that. The difference between making music for money or for passion is often blurred IMO. Simply to be good enough standard to go pro suggests some level of passion, even if it's in the past.

Then there's the idea of making music to please yourself. Is that better than creating music with the intention of giving pleasure to a lot of people?

In business the idea is to work out what people want and give it to them, as you intimated. So we don't judge bar owners for doing that, so why judge musicians? Because music can also be ART. Expression of the soul. Scaling the hieights of human endeavour blah blah. Some people have very little time for anything that's not high art, kinda like only drinking Perrier and refusing to drink tap water. Connoisseurs. Whatever floats your boat, eh?

As someone who enjoys Gary Larson's Far Side to Monet and Rembrandt I admit my view of kulcha is a tad skewed :)
 
As someone who enjoys Gary Larson's Far Side to Monet and Rembrandt I admit my view of kulcha is a tad skewed :)
well I can say imo... the difference with the police vs many commercial minded musicians is that the police were incredible musicians :)
anyway... our different views on the whole music art/passion vs commercialism thing seem pretty ironic for 2 commercial artists.
I just feel like if you write music to make money that's fine and doesn't necessarily mean it will be bad (case in point with the police) but if you are a crappy musician who writes crappy music you can either write crappy commercial music and make $ or hide behind "artistic integrity" and not have any listeners.
 
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