RE: Pop music and why we dispise it...

[Chris Yoder <engvax!CHRIS@csvax.caltech.edu>]

Now here's an interesting topic.  I've got to say that I do agree with the
reasons that Mitch brought up.

Overplay - If I hear the same song or album too often I get sick of it.  I 
	managed to upset my office-mate by suggesting that we listen to
	something other than Kate Bush for a while.  I like her music,
	but too much of even such a good thing kills my joy for it.  I
	guess what I'm saying is that even the best music looses it's
	appeal to me if I have to listen to it too often.  If you don't
	believe me, I dare you to listen to one album day in and day out
	for a month.  If you last more than a week of this kind of abuse
	I'd be amazed!

Lack of musical ability - To split hairs, I don't know if I quite agree with
	this one (here I step into dangerous territory!).  I don't think that
	it's technical musical ability that is lacking (though in some cases
	this is so).  I would say that in the majority of cases the bands that
	make it to the pop music arena have  technical musical ability of at
	least better than average.  I think what is  lacking is *ARTISTIC*
	ability, but even here some groups/musicians thought to be artistical
	have produced pop music.

Snobbishness - Now here's a big one.  Actually, I think that it could be a need
	to be different or just to be on the leading edge, but whatever it's
	feels good to know more than the next slob.

To add couple of reasons of my own:

Lack of intellectual stimulation - Pop music may be fun, but it typically lacks
	the ability to make you think about life in a new way.  "art" music
	takes work to understand, thus the masses won't try and won't enjoy the
	piece, and it always has something to catch every time that you listen
	to it.  Overplay of "art" music would tend to  dull it's intellectual
	stimulation.

Lack of variety - If you've heard one Madonna tune, you've heard them all.  The
	lyrics aren't that meaty, and the plot's always the same.  Bands
	tend to have a particular "sound", but some always seem to use
	the same cords, the same rythm for every song.

I do agree that it's probably a combination of all of the above.  But
there is probably a sliding scale that relates to all of them.
Something like Madonna is overplayed the first time you hear it, where
other artists would take longer for you to get sick of it.

-- Chris Yoder			UUCP -- {allegra|ihnp4}!scgvaxd!engvax!chris 
   Hughes Aircraft Company 	ARPA -- engvax!chris@csvax.caltech.edu