I know I've been bad with blogging this summer, but I promise I'll be back in full force this September. Not that I'm making excuses again, but between time off and filling in for others taking their time off, the summer is NUTTY busy!
Anyway, this is a bit of a stray from the usual "sharing music" blog... and more of a rant.
It stems from on-going complaints I hear about pop-music and Top-40 radio. Let's start with pop-music. I want to start by pointing out that there's VERY little pop I turn on at home- I listen to a lot of blues, metal/hard-rock, hip-hop, and some electronica. I was also one of these Pop-music haters for many years before I decided to try and shed my self-righteous music snobbery and try to be more open minded.
The "Pop music sucks" statement gets tossed around so much, and frankly, while you certainly have a right to your opinion; know that it only demonstrates that you have very narrow taste in music. Just because you don’t like it, doesn’t mean it isn’t good music or lacking in talent. Pop is short for POPULAR, and in case you haven't figured it out yet, it's THE MOST POPULAR genre of music. Exponentially more people listen to it than your rock and hip-hop audiences. Simply put, while you might not like pop music, the rest of the world does.
The attack on the actual songwriting is something I find almost comical. A quick story on that: The artist Lights was visiting the Virgin Radio Factory to do a couple songs acoustically, and we have a rule here- the artist must play a cover-tune, preferably from a genre outside their comfort zone. Lights said something that I've quoted many times... that you know a song is really amazing when you strip it down to a singer and a guitar (or piano) and it's still an amazing song. Then she played Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way". I suddenly had instant respect and appreciation for this song and could envision it being done by Billie Joel, Elton John, or even Johnny Cash! It truly is a well written song. My point is that it's often in the arrangement and production that causes the negative reaction, or because it's recorded by a pop-star whose image you don't relate to... NOT because it's actually a bad song.
Also, there's often the "no talent" attack I hear out of Pop-haters mouths. Regardless of your opinion, you don't need to sing like Robert Plant or play like Eddie Van Halen to be considered talented... and if you think that even the most laughed-about pop singers don't have talent, then wake up and get your head out of your ass. Open your mind, because there's a reason they've gained the opportunities they have, and there's a reason they've sold thousands, if not millions of records. Although some may not be "as talented", they all have something unique about them that gives them appeal.
Back to the radio game, another statement that gives me a kick is the "pop stations just force-feed you this music". Not true... and maybe you should do some investigating before making a statement that just outs you for knowing absolutely nothing about how a pop station works. In case you're one of those people (or maybe just curious), here's the basics on how music comes to pop radio. A label representative from each of the 4 major labels (as well as some smaller labels and indies) come to us every week with a list of songs they're working. For the most part, labels are fantastic at picking the best song to go to radio. We make changes on our playlist, which are made- 1) on the programmers gut feelings, and 2) based on information like charts and weekly research... and guess where that research data comes from. Yup, YOU, the listener. Just as all radio stations do, we invite our listeners to join our music survey club. Every week an email goes out to those who have signed up and so we can get their feedback on the tunes. It's this data that allows us to know what to stop playing ('cause YOU don't like the song), or what to play more of. Lady Gaga isn't getting played 10 times a day because we want to. It's because YOU want us to.
...and then we come to the "pop stations play the same thing over and over again". Ask yourself how much time you spend listening to the radio. Most people are going to tell you it's for 10-20 minutes in the car on the way to/from work. Why are you tuning in? So you can hear a bunch of music you've never heard before? Nope, if you wanted that you'd go to a Triple-A station (ie The Peak or the Shore in Vancouver). People punch into pop stations to hear their favorite tune from Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry etc. If we don't play the biggest records every 3 hours (which is approximately how often the biggest songs play), then you will have to listen all day just to hear it once. Get it? Pop radio (and a most modern rock stations) can't be successful if they're playing everything off the latest album from X artist. It just doesn't work.
I often get emails like "could you guys please play something else from Adam Lambert's album other than If I Had You, like song X, or song Y... they're SO good". Well right off the bat I know this person is an Adam Lambert fan. Second, we reflect what's popular. If Adam is performing If I Had You on late night TV shows and it's the number 1 song on iTunes download, why on earth am I going to play song X that NOBODY KNOWS OR CARES ABOUT. Pop radio stations are a reflection of pop culture, and what is "pop"? It's what's POPULAR.
Do you like The Beatles? Guess what guys... yup, POP music!
I guess what I'm saying with all this is just open your mind. If you like any kind of music, you should be open to all types of music. I don't like everything, but I like some music from all genres. Lose the music-genre snobbery and embrace what's out there.
That's all I got. Send your hate mail to jeffwinskell@gmail.com
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