Pop Music as a demographic audience

I have to say it, I really do, a lot of pop songs lock me out of enjoying them because I've never been in the situations described therein. There's a bit of music about cheating on your girlfriend by Enrique, but I can't relate to this musical product because I neither have a girlfriend or want to cheat on them, in addition to this I cannot understand the appeal of Adele because I have never been through an angsty breakup, on account of my never having gotten to step one of acquiring a girlfriend to begin with.

In contrast, Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go Go is somehow accessible to everybody who has problems waking up in the morning, and needs somebody to wake you up because of chronic sleep cycle disorders. In fact, everything outside of the dancing tonight part is totally relatable to me.

What I'm trying to say is, I'm trying to figure out why pop music as an artform baffles me in trying to relate/wanting to understand it compared to something like books or films which are about far more wide varieties of things that are outlandish sometimes that nobody's literally been in that situation or gritty and realistic enough that you wouldn't want to be in that situation yourself, but you read or watch it to entertain yourself.

I'm just not getting that from pop music because it just never seems to be ABOUT things that I feel I'm ever going to experience at this rate, or have previously experienced at all. When Woody Allen's films about a menage a trois relationship between Scarlett Johanson and Penelope Cruz is easier for my brain to comprehend and understand/relate to on a narrative and artistic level, I've got problems. Because from what I understand most people think it's the other way round.

Hell Hasn't Earned My Tears

Pop music isn't necessarily about the lyrics. It's about how pleasing it sounds and the feeling you get when you hear it. It's not logical, it's emotional, and the emotion doesn't necessarily have to come from the lyrics. Good or relatable lyrics are just a bonus if they are either.

For example, Enrique isn't making music for cheating boyfriends to relate to—he's making it to make money for people to dance to. It's not about the narrative, but about how catchy it is.

edited 29th Oct '12 3:49:24 PM by 0dd1

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

Pop music is more about the sound and the feeling it creates than the lyrics. If the lyrics are important to the song, they are meant to appeal to the demographic that the musician makes music for (their primary audience - remember, market is different from the audience) - Katy Perry will appeal to college aged females, Lady Gaga will appeal to gay men, recent Britney Spears will appeal to women in their mid to late twenties, Rihanna has the largest audience with straight males and females 18 to 30.

If you are not liking the lyrics to a certain musician, it's likely because you're not that musician's pop niche.

Pop music's main demographic are those 18 to 30 - not teenagers 13 to 16 as is commonly thought; 18 to 30 young adults are the ones who can afford the concert tickets and who, as a demographic, regularly goes to bars and clubs to dance. Teen pop is marketed in a completely different fashion than standard pop music.

edited 14th Nov '12 6:31:04 PM by Completion

And is, almost as a rule, more annoying.

But continuing that train of thought, the OP really does put forward a legit complaint. The problem however, as I see it, is that radio can't truly play the music of the people, as radio has to appeal to everyone, even the mentally deficient, the ignorant, and white collar workers with no musical taste. I would argue that the three real "pop" genres, to people who actually listen to contemporary music are Hip Hop, Country, and Metal, judging by the amount of fans genres really have. Notice how each genre has it's own distinctive culture, and sense of storytelling? Notice how each genre goes way beyond love songs to actually deliver narratives? Notice how these three genres are probably more suited for concept albums than singles? I would argue that outside of the "pop" acts inside these genres, that they for the most part settle the "relatable" bit quite nicely, or the "escapism" equally easy. Just a thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIaHnNw5k0o&feature=g-upl My first video!

Electropop is a genre that has fans and a culture. It's currently influencing the current slate of pop like hip-hop was 2001-2008, or rock 1995-2000, or metal 1985-1990, or R&B 1991-1994, grunge at the same time as R&B, or like electropop's sister-genre synthpop 1980-1984. but it is a genre unto itself. Pop is a chameleon genre that takes what is popular "underground" and takes off its rough edges so that people can enjoy the music for what it is.

Also, the rockism/music elitism is strong within you. Pop isn't bad. It's just a streamlined version of the current "cool" genre. Sometimes it manages to not even be streamlined.

Also, pop is the music of the people. Pop is culture. It the zeitgeist of that time's music. You may not think it is tasteful, but it is the most acceptable music for the largest majority of people at that point in the culture.

Pop isn't is a single genre. Nirvana was pop. Tupac was pop. The Beatles were pop. Anything that is widely adopted by the culture is pop.

What you are confusing culture of, or "of the people", is actually subculture.

edited 15th Nov '12 1:02:36 AM by Completion

I think I should have mentioned that autotune/club beats are a large problem I have with modern pop music, not for reasons of taste, but for reasons of "GET ME OUT OF THIS AWFUL CLUB NOW MY BIORHYTHMS ARE BEING MADE PHYSICALLY UNCOMFORTABLE BY DUBSTEP THAT SOUNDS LIKE EAR POISON TO ME".

As for rockism, context is sorely needed. I recently bought The Best of a-ha and Wham! on CD recently to give my iPod some more variety and they seem to be pretty good as far as pop music goes. It's likely my main problem seems to be with love songs I have no reference level to deal with because I haven't dated anybody past the twenty minute coffee meet up yet, and most of the time I don't even get that far. Hearing songs about bad breakups are a bit weird to me as a result since I feel like I need to have been through one of those before I understand Adele's music.

Then again, I tried listening to it again, and I can safely say if I remember my bad experiences on internet forums I no longer post on, I suddenly get more understanding of why somebody would want to set fire to the rain if you get my drift.

Hell Hasn't Earned My Tears

Didn't mean you when I said rockist.

edited 14th Nov '12 10:40:07 PM by Completion

I hate these sorts of snipes that seem to imply that, when it comes to music, Sturgeon's Law only applies to pop music.

You don't have to completely understand the position of a pop song in order to enjoy it. Let's take, for example, George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"—this is one of his all-time greatest hits (and indeed one of the most successful songs from the Beatles as solo artists period), becoming internationally well-known and well liked. And I'll bet you that exceedingly few of the people who have listened to it can truly comprehend the spiritual devotion that George put forth in the song; relatively few probably even have any devotion to a higher power beyond something like "I'm Christian because that's how I was raised." (Or insert whatever religion you want here.) Despite this, it's still a song that caught on like wildfire, admittedly probably largely because of the name attached to it, but also because people were receptive to the feeling the song gave off, even if they couldn't intellectually rationalize what its lyrical content is.

To maybe take a less grandiose example, how about, to pick a more recent song, Lady Gaga's "Born This Way"? The song is explicitly an anthem for people of a sexual orientation different from the norm in most societies, a song saying that it is okay to be gay, transgender, bi, etc. because that's how God made you, and don't let anyone tell you different. Very nice sentiment that the majority of people cannot actually empathize with due to the majority of people being straight. And yet, it still became a hit all over the world, largely due to the general positive feeling the song promotes (not necessarily due to anything specific in the lyrics, but certainly its anthemic nature helps—so, to add on here, being sing-along-y—as well as its very catchy, danceable beat).

Hmm, not as "less grandiose" as I'd thought...okay, Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally"! Have most people ever caught their uncle cheating on his wife by sneaking around with a mistress? I sincerely doubt it. But people like it anyway because it rocks.

tl;dr: You don't have to empathize with a song's lyrical content to like it.

edited 15th Nov '12 12:58:03 AM by 0dd1

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

Dislike of pop irks me. It's a genre that breaks down other genres to their core. It's music meant to be enjoyable.

In a way, it's more pure than any other form of music.

edited 15th Nov '12 1:05:41 AM by Completion

A-frickin'-men.

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

That was less of an intentional snipe as much as "Gee, George Michael sure is catchy, I could have some more of that please, with some a-ha too!".

Also, as far as Born This Way, I'm starting to see your point where I am a straight man who is into music that is unfairly characterised as only for gay people, like George Michael for example.

Only yesterday was I slammed with a "What are you gay?" from a female friend who spotted the CD next to my computer.

Hell Hasn't Earned My Tears

Born This Way certainly hits on themes that resonate outside of the LGBT community, not to mention the many allies that exist among straight people. Fitting in is a pretty universal feeling.

I would disagree, pop doesn't streamline genres at all. I would say in order to become a pop genre act you need to have a simplistic, catchy, sound that looses/loses (that was a punne, or a play on words) nothing being compressed for radio play. The sort of genres I brought up are subcultures, yes, but they are music cultures, punk, metal, hip hop, country, they all have a large following for the music.

However pop music is not a culture, outside of a generic global culture, and pop music loses a lot of it's individual appeal when country or rap speaks to you more directly, even bad country or rap. Most pop songs are heterosexual long songs, because that's the most universal thing that most people could think of that actually has emotion behind it. Pop music is best when you could safely put it in another genre instead. Frank Ocean, my favorite pop star of the moment, is strongly part of the hip hop culture and is part of Odd Future, and his hip hop influence shows. On the other hand, an ostentatiously country artist, Taylor Swift, is basically generic pop with a country accent (with a few exceptions).

Pop music is just "popular" and not truly a genre, and when it is, it tends to be mass marketed, three-and-a-half minute, compression friendly, four chord, 4/4, boring, and catchy, which are separately subjectively good qualities, but together far to homogeneous to be interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIaHnNw5k0o&feature=g-upl My first video!