pop songs
Pop culture and its value to society: I’ve finally figured out the machine. I always wondered “wow these songs suck why are they popular? Ya they’re catchy and all blab la bla but why?” and I suppose I wouldn’t have minded if it was the music I listened to that surged through the radio. But always I wondered… I found that the more times u listen to a song the easier it is to project your own story onto it. You can hear the words and know the meaning they’re supposed to have and still not know what the voice at the other end of the microphone means. Pop songs succeed for three reasons
1. Chorus- you can dance it sing it scream it or cry it doesn’t matter you feel like its for you and no one else could ever feel the same as you do in the middle of that third verse.
2. Trick is- other people, millions of them, feel the same. The experience explored in the song is not unique in itself only in the listener’s opinion. That’s why its pop people identify with; they feed off of that subliminal shared consciousness.
3. The music is simple and fills you with a feeling. It’s always a specific feeling that manifests in thousands of ways, specific simplified and encompassing. There is no question as to what you’re supposed to feel you just do….
Now the methods used to implement the birth of a pop song are extensive and varied and I wish not to examine them further, but these few reflections on pop solidify this one thought in my head: people like pop because they don’t want to be alone. They need the feeling of belonging and identity that comes so easily in the notes of music. Everyone whether they acknowledge it or not, wants to be that certain lyric that embodies perfect togetherness.
So pop culture helps society by spreading that feeling of belonging and identification, it allows people who have nothing in common the same experiences and a platform upon which to…. I dunno…. Relate, yes relate is the proper word. Till very recently I didn’t relate to the world in a sense since I chalked up all pop as ignorant tripe and all people who listened to it as twee little morons. But then I one day it hits me maybe that’s ok. Not everything is as serious as I consider it. And not everything is quite as simple as I had imagined it. Certain songs only gain meaning when you know the feeling they strive to convey. Only when one has been the girl in a bad romance does lady gaga make any sense at all. Until you are the girl that can break a heart/ that someone’s waiting for/ can you really appreciate the nuances and intricacies of reliant K. and of course the college song needs no explaining to anyone who’s ever sat in a smoky apartment playing beer pong at three in the morning before a test. Group identity is the point and the method, which leads to so many other interesting topics of discussion… another day perhaps…
1. Chorus- you can dance it sing it scream it or cry it doesn’t matter you feel like its for you and no one else could ever feel the same as you do in the middle of that third verse.
2. Trick is- other people, millions of them, feel the same. The experience explored in the song is not unique in itself only in the listener’s opinion. That’s why its pop people identify with; they feed off of that subliminal shared consciousness.
3. The music is simple and fills you with a feeling. It’s always a specific feeling that manifests in thousands of ways, specific simplified and encompassing. There is no question as to what you’re supposed to feel you just do….
Now the methods used to implement the birth of a pop song are extensive and varied and I wish not to examine them further, but these few reflections on pop solidify this one thought in my head: people like pop because they don’t want to be alone. They need the feeling of belonging and identity that comes so easily in the notes of music. Everyone whether they acknowledge it or not, wants to be that certain lyric that embodies perfect togetherness.
So pop culture helps society by spreading that feeling of belonging and identification, it allows people who have nothing in common the same experiences and a platform upon which to…. I dunno…. Relate, yes relate is the proper word. Till very recently I didn’t relate to the world in a sense since I chalked up all pop as ignorant tripe and all people who listened to it as twee little morons. But then I one day it hits me maybe that’s ok. Not everything is as serious as I consider it. And not everything is quite as simple as I had imagined it. Certain songs only gain meaning when you know the feeling they strive to convey. Only when one has been the girl in a bad romance does lady gaga make any sense at all. Until you are the girl that can break a heart/ that someone’s waiting for/ can you really appreciate the nuances and intricacies of reliant K. and of course the college song needs no explaining to anyone who’s ever sat in a smoky apartment playing beer pong at three in the morning before a test. Group identity is the point and the method, which leads to so many other interesting topics of discussion… another day perhaps…