I don't think people give pop music enough credit.
While the industry is, like any other business on the planet, fueled by the all-powerful dollar, I contend that there are just as many authentic artists expressing themselves just as creatively in the pop music scene as any underground neo-soul electro house indie alternarock setting.
Just because something is popular doesn't mean it doesn't have depth.
Michael Jackson. The Rolling Stones. Cher. Stevie Wonder. Eminem. Bono. Alicia Keys. The Beatles. David Bowie. Enya. Foo Fighters. Ke$ha. No matter how you feel about any of these artists, it's impossible to deny that, at one point or another, they've all been considered popular music. Why? Because they were so damn.... popular.
But why were they popular? Rock & Roll Hall of Fame aficionados, step down now; I'm no expert. One could argue that people like Ke$ha become famous merely by chance and good looks and don't deserve stardom at all, while others, say, John Mayer, who have "worked" for their fame fully deserve it. The bottom line is, you don't become famous by doing nothing, unless you happen to be born with your legs fused together like Mermaid Baby on the Discovery Channel. You have to DO something in order to earn success.
Ke$ha actually wrote songs for musicians like Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, The Veronicas, and Miley Cyrus before any casual radio listener knew who she was.
I'm not saying that pop music doesn't have its bad eggs. In fact, the entire shiny golden scale of the music industry is full of them, constantly weighing bad egg against good egg trying to find the hottest and most popular sound for mainstream listeners. I'm not trying to convince anyone that "Drop It Like It's Hot" will go down in history for its exceptional contributions toward society, nor am I saying that Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" is about anything more than laying in bed, hungover, shuffling through the leftover fragments of one helluva party the night before.
What I'm saying is that everything and everyone deserves a fighting chance. Arguably, one of the trickiest tasks a consumer can complete is to judge each and every bit of music, literature, art, fashion, film, controversy, or all of the above for him/herself, as independently as possible.
The world is quick to judge and even quicker to move on, which leaves social figures in the same sinking boat of trying to please the masses. Pop culture, if nothing else, represents a sort-of "fun house mirror" outlook on society. Throw progressive movements, trend-setting fashion, front page news, nationally syndicated television programs, public controversies, and chart-topping pop songs into one giant blender, and you'll gain unedited insight into not only your own life, but the lives of everyone in your neighborhood, school, state, and country, a vivid picture of who we are collectively, because we truly are the same from sea to shining sea.
What catches our attention is what evokes our emotion... good, bad, or strange. If something fails to do that, then it isn't pop.
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