OK, I had this written once and completely erased it so let's see if I can do it again...
Next to some self-mutilating Manson freak, I'm probably one of the least likely people to be writing this. My tolerance level of pop music has been rising lately. I'm not talking about Celine Dion, Mariah Carey-type crap. I still can't stand that. I'm talking about stuff like the Spice Girls and Ricky Martin. Happy, fun stuff.
Let's see if I can straighten out my thoughts here (it's actually harder the second time around)...
Believe it or not, I think people are trying to take pop music to seriously. It's not made to be meaningful and make a statement. It's made to make people smile and have fun for a few minutes. Does everything really have to have a meaning? Do we have to take ourselves and everything else so seriously? Dear lord, if we did that, I don't think I'd want to see what the world would look like. It's like the carnival. Nothing is real and you don't have to eat your broccoli.
I'd like to see a show of hands of who's NEVER danced to a disco song. I'm not talking about getting down on the dancefloor. Just, oh, let's say, "We Are Family" comes on the radio while your in the car or something. Of course you've probably started doing a little dance in the car seat. Cos that's the point. Disco was not created to say something profound, just to make you dance and forget anything serious for a few minutes.
Y'know, Mozart, Bach, and all those stiffs wrote many of their greatest hits for the entertainment of nobles. These pieces were played during balls for the purpose of dancing not getting down to the business of if the border between the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires should be tweaked a little. No, I'm not saying that the Spice Girls are today's Beethoven (that would just be frightening) but that no one bugs Haydn when all he was writing was a bunch of pop music.
This brings me to the question of talent - of course a lot of pop musicians can't sing or write. BUT NEITHER CAN YOU! Before you complain about their voice or songs, remember that you probably couldn't do much better. I certainly couldn't. Of course this excludes those of us who do actually have a bit of musical talent.
I'm definitely not saying that you should go out and buy every pop record. I sure haven't. And there's still stuff I can't tolerate but the point is that things don't need to have a point all the time.
Sunday, May 16, 1999