Pop With a Capital ‘P’: Defining ‘Pop’ – A Study in Futility

Mark Lieberman

It‰’s not country. It‰’s not rock. It‰’s not punk. It‰’s POP.

Pop. An entire musical genre built around three letters. Those three letters could not be less specific.

Before we can understand what “pop‰” might mean in 2013, though, we have to understand that pop music is constantly evolving. In the 1940s and 1950‰’s, cast recordings from hit Broadway musicals occupied the upper reaches of the Billboard charts. Today, such songs are relegated to theater fanatics‰’ Spotify playlists. In the ‰70s and ‰80s, ballads were in vogue. Now, songs like Adele‰’s “Someone Like You‰” and Rihanna‰’s “Stay‰” are outliers in an era of rhythm-driven radio. Even as recently as five years ago, artists like Daughtry and Nickelback straddled the pop-rock divide. Now, they‰’re trapped on rock-specific radio stations and in danger of cultural irrelevance.

Pop music is undoubtedly a business enterprise, run by enormous record companies with hundreds of metaphorical cooks in the kitchen. The best pop songs transcend their commercially motivated origins, finding rich meaning and sonic bliss amid a sea of lookalikes and copycats. Pop music isn‰’t like it used to be, sure, but it‰’s reductive to say that “all pop songs sound the same.‰” They don‰’t. It‰’s even reductive to say “All current pop songs sound the same.‰” THEY DON‰’T.

Which is not to say that none of them do. Indeed, pop music coalesces around trends. The rise of songs by relative unknowns Gotye, fun. and Carly Rae Jepsen last year arose from rising digital methods for obtaining music and shows no signs of slowing down if “Harlem Shake‰” is any indication. On the other hand, the whistle epidemic of 2011 (“Moves Like Jagger,‰” “Pumped Up Kicks,‰” etc.) was a fairly meaningless fad. While one could argue that the whistle provided a desirable nostalgia, the more likely story is that one artist liked this nifty aural trick and others followed.


A YouTube mashup: “Moves Like Jagger‰” “Pumped Up Kicks‰” = double the whistle!

In other ways, though, pop music creates trends and then asks the songs within those trends to break loose. Gotye‰’s “Somebody That I Used to Know‰” eschews carefree for contemplative, mayhem for melancholy. Carly Rae Jepsen‰’s “Call Me Maybe‰” is that rare gem, unapologetically catchy while completely aware of its immaturity. fun.‰’s “We Are Young‰” and “Some Nights‰” nod to legends like Queen and Michael Jackson while experimenting with an updated pop rock sound that feels genuinely modern.

Many of this year‰’s biggest hits nod to the artists‰’ influences. Bruno Mars channels Sting with “Locked Out of Heaven‰” and Elton John with “When I Was Your Man,‰” in both cases incorporating tinges of 21st century melody into a retro pop construct. Justin Timberlake‰’s “Suit and Tie‰” evokes memories of the swanky ‰60s, a time when smoking cigarettes onstage was glamorous, not rebellious. Even Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, a fairly progressive rap duo, can‰’t let go of the past: What is a “Thrift Stop‰” if not a nostalgia trip? We constantly want pop music to remind us that the past is a vast wonderland of treasures, and that if we evoke the past in our music, we can take ourselves back to a simpler time. These records showcase the best of the past, an optimistic collage of where we are now, but mostly where we‰’ve been.


Bruno Mars goes retro in “When I Was Your Man‰Û

There‰’s a danger in recycling the past, though, and most pop music lies on the line of that danger. Looking back with an eye towards the future? We like that. Looking back for the sake of looking back? Not so much. Mariah Carey has fallen into this trap quite a bit lately. Her alleged comeback single “Triumphant (Get ‰Em)‰” made all sorts of mistakes, sidelining Carey‰’s vocals in favor of uninspired rap verses from Meek Mill and Rick Ross, but its biggest blunder was its lack of personality. The song didn‰’t feel indicative of triumph in 2013, but it didn‰’t feel like a revitalized version of ‰90s Carey either. Instead, it felt tired, clichÌ©d, rote.

Even the recent obsession with boy bands seems to have experienced this phenomenon. In the early months of 2013, The Wanted and One Direction were leading a boy band renaissance. A year later, The Wanted has had one single and a couple of duds, and One Direction, while extremely popular with its established tween fanbase, has yet to really break out with a massively appealing record. In fact, despite robust album sales and endless tabloid coverage, One Direction hasn‰’t had a big chart hit since its first, “What Makes You Beautiful.‰” It was nice to be reminded that boy bands exist, but now we want the 2013 Boy Band Renaissance, not the 1990s Boy Band Throwback.


One Direction‰’s only huge hit, “What Makes You Beautiful‰Û

How do all of these examples answer the central question of pop music? They don‰’t, not definitively anyway. Pop music is a mystery, but we wouldn‰’t have it any other way. People who listen to music are fickle in the same way that their emotions are fickle. The times, they are ALWAYS a-changin‰’. What is pop music? Pop music is right now.


DJ Earworm‰’s mashup of 2012‰’s biggest hits