8.28.11 Adam News & Info

Love your story. The same thing happened to me except we were the honeymoon couple.

NoAngel



Q3, to me Pop has always meant Popular. That's the original meaning. And back a few centuries decades ago, that's how radio was. Music wasn't so compartmentalized. I can remember there being Country stations and then everything else. I pretty much hate the way radio has made so many stations that focus on genre. It has to be complicated for the labels too, "Should we release this song to HAC, AC, hope for CHR, Rock!" ... etc!

The pop question goes back to something that has long baffled me ... Do we drive media trends or does media dictate to us what we want by spoonfeeding us what the "gatekeepers" believe will be popular?

IMO, gatekeepers are program directors for radio and TV, magazine editors, radio/TV/film producers, and those who choose what to cover on news, entertainment news and talk shows (also producers).

Primary case in point: The Kardashian wedding. I do not know a single person who cared about that circus one iota, yet we had every news outlet, entertainment news show and even ABC telling us it was the "event of the decade" or whateverthefuck. (On GMA, they actually had the nerve to say it was the American equivalent to the Royal Wedding. ??? : Lightning really should have struck the studio at that moment.)

Magazine covers, twitter updates, gratuitous coverage ... WHY??? Why did all these people get together in a group conspiracy to shove this down our throats? Was it merely a massive marketing clusterfuck?

In the same vein, I don't know about anyone who can stand one second of "Jersey Shore," (other than to mock it), yet it's everywhere.

My question is where does supply start and demand end? Or vice versa. When media outlets don't go for the sensational, they cry that they don't have the same ratings, so they dive down deeper into the sewers to provide "what we want."

I just don't buy this. Sure, we all rubber-neck at a train wreck. I think that is largely human nature, but I think many of us aspire to consume something of beauty and quality, that evokes deep thought and feeling. That is a product not of the lowest-common-denominator, but the highest.

I want my artists to be an inspiration and represent my ultimate aspiration, not be someone I have no respect for.

So, is Pop music what we are told it is or what we want it to be? I truly do not know. I think there are many breakthrough songs that despite scoffing from the gatekeepers, the populace pushes though, but unfortunately they seem to be the exception and not the rule.