Hating Pop Music Isn't a Personality Trait
Art by Yelizaveta Rogulina
Picture this: you are sitting in a room full of teenagers discussing their favorite genres of music. When you say pop music, that kid who always wears Nirvana shirts and looks like he hasn’t showered in a hot minute sighs as loud as he possibly can. You give him a nonchalant shrug back. On the inside, you are shrieking.
Why is pop music always discredited? Is mainstream culture really that devalued in our society? “Pop music gets discredited because it is dominated by women and popularity,” Bailey Kasprzyk ‘23 says. “Lots of people like to decide that they do not like something just because it is popular because they want to be ‘different.’”
Women dominate the pop music industry, and because people are so quick to discredit women for their accomplishments, pop music remains highly scrutinized. For example, people love to denigrate Taylor Swift’s music into one-dimensional, surface-level music that only teenage girls listen to, which is erroneous. Her music has a plethora of in-depth themes that emphasize necessary conversations on a wide platform. Her song “The Man,” highlights the double bind that most women get stuck in, encapsulated in a 3-minute pop song. However, just because she is a female pop star, some deem her songwriting unworthy of discussion.
Another gigantic aspect that contributes to the discredit of pop music is that anything significant can be diluted solely on its mainstream popularity. There seems to be a negative connotation, almost a dark cloud, that hangs above the world “popular.” In a society where everyone is trying to be as distinctive and quirky as possible, it can be easy to shrug off pop music as something very conformist and unoriginal when that just isn't the case.
According to Tim Riley, an Emerson Professor and music journalist, “People like to discredit pop because of its long history of seeming fleeting and disposable. Most of what the radio played one week gets displaced more and more as the weeks move on, and even the hits start to sound nostalgic after a couple of months.”
This fast-paced environment of constantly changing chart-toppers can easily discredit the value of songs that hit number one; people forget about the last hit because of how quickly the industry releases new music. “As a mass consumer item,” Riley says, “the ‘hit song’ takes the form of something unvalued, and easily forgotten.” For instance, think back to when Despacito was so widely played. Now, it’s in the back of everyone’s minds.
However, Riley says “when pop music began to display ambition and aesthetic finery, it had to push back hard against this prejudice. It comes and goes over the years, but it always confronts a certain bias.” It almost seems that no matter what, pop music will only be seen to some as something disposable. No matter how fine the artistry of the album, these biases are still a large weight that cannot seem to be detached from the genre.
Alternatively, there has been a plethora of pop records carrying so much unexpected weight, shaping the music industry in nuanced ways. The pop album Melodrama by Lorde is a work of pure art. She was the only female artist nominated at the 2017 Grammys for Album of the Year. Melodrama is filled with in-depth lyrics that go against the standard pop formula, representing the ever-changing pop scene. This is one of many records carrying power and depth in the genre.
Pop music also represents often underrepresented communities to millions of listeners. “Whenever I listen to pop music, I feel free. Pop music allows me to express my queerness in a way other music doesn't really allow. Pop allows queer artists such as Troye Sivan, Kim Petras, Lady Gaga, and Hailey Kiyoko to express their queerness openly which is something I feel most genres still condemn,” said David Shird ‘23. “It was through pop that I shaped my sexual identity and that's why it holds such a dear place in my heart.” This empowerment allows groups of strangers to meet in one place, a pop concert, and feel accepted. It can be hard carrying the burdens of unacceptance, but pop music lightens those burdens and validates its listeners in a transformative way.
The beauty of music is its emotional connection to the listener, and pop is no exception. As for how it affects the culture at large, Riley says, “It reflects how we think and behave, something sometimes lagging behind human action. But we only pay attention so far as it rewards our listening, and nobody wants to spend time with stories they don’t hear themselves in.” There have been many instances where pop records helped elucidate valuable subjects that are not always talked about. Let's stop the notion that hating on pop music is supposed to make you any better of a listener; it simply doesn't.