{"id":13327,"date":"2023-01-25T08:36:24","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T08:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=13327"},"modified":"2023-01-25T08:36:24","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T08:36:24","slug":"everybody-talk-about-pop-muzik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2023\/01\/25\/everybody-talk-about-pop-muzik\/","title":{"rendered":"EVERYBODY TALK ABOUT POP MUZIK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

after reading Geoffrey Himes, in Paste Magazine on-line<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman Warwick suggests<\/strong>,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

EVERYBODY TALK ABOUT POP MUZIK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPop music\u201d is a term with several shades of meaning. In its broadest sense it refers to all of popular music\u2014everything that operates in the free-for-all marketplace, everything that isn\u2019t a subsidized, high-culture art form like jazz or classical music, everything that isn\u2019t meant for a local community, as traditional folk is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In a slightly narrower sense, it means any music that lands on\u00a0Billboard<\/em>\u2019s best-seller charts\u2014or aspires to. More narrowly still, it refers to a particular slice of popular hits\u2014those that emphasize earworm melodies, dance beats, highly polished production and big emotions. The beats and the production will evolve with each era. Tony Bennett\u2019s (left)<\/em><\/strong> strings and horns may sound different than Taylor Swift\u2019s synthesizers and drum programs, but the basic approach is the same: make the music as accessible as possible to each era\u2019s audience and reward those listeners with hummable tunes and universal feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to understand these shades of meaning, because shorthand phrases such as \u201cpop music\u201d lubricate our conversation. Almost as much fun as listening to music is talking about it\u2014in the pages of publications, on social media or in actual, in-person conversations. To get the most enjoyment out of such conversations, it\u2019s important that we share a common vocabulary and know how to use it in different contexts. Those who criticize such phrases are trying to short-circuit our dialogue. Like all enemies of pleasure, they are puritans at heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When we say that Taylor Swift\u2019s new album,\u00a0Midnights<\/em>, is a return to her \u201cpop music\u201d past, we\u2019re using the narrowest definition. She\u2019s always tried to be as popular as possible; even her debut country album and her two recent folk-rock albums,\u00a0Folklore<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Evermore<\/em>, earned multiple platinum discs. But those three records didn\u2019t lean on the repeating hooks and glossy sound of pure \u201cpop\u201d the way her biggest projects (Fearless<\/em>,\u00a0Red<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a01989<\/em>) did. The way\u00a0Midnights\u00a0<\/em>does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to keep in mind that this definition of \u201cpop\u201d describes the sound of the music, not its quality. Sure, some people will insist that only best-selling music has any real value, and others will insist that anyone leaning so heavily on hooks and beats can\u2019t possibly have any substance. Both views are so often and so easily refuted that I won\u2019t even bother doing so here. As much as any other genre\u2014hip hop, Americana, punk or blues\u2014\u201cpop\u201d can be good or bad. Every genre provides a few masterpieces, a lot of pretty-good efforts and a lot of mediocrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Midnights<\/em> proves just how masterful and substantial the best \u201cpop music\u201d can be. Its power comes not from Swift\u2019s modest but likable singing. It comes from her underrated song-writing and Jack Antonoff\u2019s glistening pop production. The seductive sound pulls us in, and once we\u2019re inside the song, the sharpened hooks and skillful language holds us there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sure, Swift\u2019s subject matter is the same as ever: the ups and downs of a young woman\u2019s feelings as she copes with romance and her peer group. Sure, that\u2019s limited, and you might want her songwriting to take on other concerns as the Beatles and Stevie Wonder (left<\/em><\/strong>) did after their early hits. But romance and friendship are the core subjects of pure \u201cpop,\u201d and as long as Swift chooses to work in that arena, those will be her subjects. Or, maybe, as long as those are her subjects, she will work in that arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Midnights<\/em> opens with the throbbing, watery synth bass of \u201cLavender Haze,\u201d a song that explores the foggy territory between love without trust and love without doubt, between one-night stands and marriage, between 21st century hook-ups and \u201cthe 1950s shit they want from me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swift sings that she wants to stay in that no man\u2019s land, that \u201clavender haze,\u201d that \u201cpurple rain,\u201d that blend of romance and freedom. Unlike most pop songs that try to reduce the world to binary outcomes\u2014love forever or devastating break-up\u2014this one offers something more nuanced, something mistier. And Antonoff\u2019s damp, digital bloops and bleeps create the appropriate weather conditions for the lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song defines what\u2019s at stake for the rest of the album. Love is often disappointing, but it\u2019s hard to give up on. But how much should you compromise to get it? How much of your independence can you sacrifice to get the affection you crave? This question is especially acute for the young women who are Swift\u2019s core audience, who are still subject to expectations of wifehood, that \u201c1950s shit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swift addresses this dilemma explicitly on \u201cMidnight Rain,\u201d where she looks back through \u201ca deep portal, time travel\u201d at a teenage boyfriend who \u201cwanted a bride. I wanted my own name\u2026. He stayed the same; all of me changed.\u201d Antonoff\u2019s eerie waves of sound reinforce the Twilight Zone<\/em> atmosphere. Swift\u2019s vocal bounces along soothingly when she sings, \u201cHe wanted it comfortable,\u201d but twists out of the harmony when she adds, \u201cI wanted that pain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On songs such as \u201cKarma,\u201d \u201cBejeweled\u201d and \u201cVengeance Shit,\u201d she returns to her old gambit of getting back at old lovers who tried to fence her into a role or dump her and forget her. Other songs such as \u201cSnow on the Beach\u201d and \u201cSweet Nothing\u201d celebrate love that\u2019s flourishing. She\u2019s an expert at both \u201cpop music\u201d strategies, but this album is most interesting when tries to make sense of the space in between. These more nuanced numbers push her songwriting forward, even as she\u2019s returned to Antonoff\u2019s synth-pop minimalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good example is \u201cMaroon,\u201d which juxtaposes the best days in a relationship against the worst\u2014\u201cDancing with you in New York with our shoes off\u201d one day and \u201cHollow-eyed in the hallway\u201d the next. Tying the highs and lows together\u2014and suggesting how inseparable they really are\u2014is a series of crimson images: a burgundy wine stain on a T-shirt, a blush in the cheekbones, a hickey on the neck, lipstick on a telephone, sunset on the horizon. The vocal may be fluid and easy, but the chittering beats are agitated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When Swift occupied all 10 slots on\u00a0Billboard<\/em>\u2019s top-10 singles chart for October 21-27, the #1 song was \u201cAnti-Hero,\u201d a track that uses the big thump and all-conquering hook of \u201cpop music\u201d to undermine the genre\u2019s theology of certainty. \u201cI\u2019m the problem,\u201d she sings over a descending melody that falls like a surrender. Just as Chuck Berry (right)<\/em><\/strong> once boasted of \u201ccampaign shouting like a Southern diplomat,\u201d Swift is confessing, \u201cMy narcissism I disguised as altruism like some kind of congressman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She strings together rhymes (\u201cdevices,\u201d \u201cprices,\u201d \u201cvices,\u201d \u201ccrisis\u201d) like a hip-hop emcee to suggest that things are spinning out of control, and she can no longer paper over the problem. \u201cI\u2019ll stare at the sun,\u201d she sings, \u201cbut never in the mirror.\u201d But now she does look in the glass and delivers a catharsis that pop too rarely provides. It\u2019s her songwriting that makes the difference: both in the lyrics\u2019 details and in the melodies\u2019 left turns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2022 pop album that shared Swift\u2019s songwriting ambition was Lizzo\u2019s Special<\/em> the follow-up to her 2019 breakthrough Cuz I Love You. The new project retains the anthemic hooks and party beats of its predecessor but adds more psychological depth to the lyrics. She\u2019s no longer content to merely trumpet her desires, bemoan their frustration and celebrate their fulfillment. Now she\u2019s questioning those desires: How much can she put up with to find love? How can she balance her friendships with her lover? How can she stop sabotaging her own efforts with doubts about her body image and celebrity?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like Swift, Melissa \u201cLizzo\u201d Jefferson loves language. When it\u2019s time to put the pressure behind her and cut loose, she declares, \u201cIt\u2019s bad bitch o\u2019clock, yeah, it\u2019s thick-thirty.\u201d When she and her pals want to balance work and fun, she sings of \u201cCEOs\u201d who become \u201cC-E-Ho\u2019s.\u201d When she celebrates bisexuality, she sings of \u201cMona Lisa moaning in the room.\u201d But beyond mere wordplay, she allows the listener to eavesdrop on her internal dialogues as she tries to convince herself that she\u2019s worthy of all the love she craves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is all irresistible, because Lizzo\u2019s vocals seem so guileless, as if she were your good friend who lacks a filter. Her big soprano has a rubbery joyfulness that invites everyone to join the dance. She comes out of the hip-hop world, but her embrace of melody is whole-hearted, and her borrowings from old-school soul acts such as William Bell and Kool & the Gang give her songs a reach beyond the current moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If Lizzo is seasoning her \u201cpop\u201d with hip-hop and R&B, Maggie Rogers (right)<\/em><\/strong> is employing the flavors of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll. She spoke openly about this recently\u00a0 to The Independent, see photo xxx).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Her latest album, Surrender,<\/em> opens with an electric guitar riff from her producer Thomas \u201cKid Harpoon\u201d Hull, followed by an ear-grabbing vocal loop that goes, \u201cOoh-wow, ooh-wow, ooh-wow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the dance-floor synthesizers come crashing in, and we know we\u2019re in the land of pure \u201cpop.\u201d Soon we\u2019re swept along by the momentum as the guitars, synths, vocals and Hull\u2019s live drums push each other forward, justifying the song\u2019s title, \u201cOverdrive.\u201d When the synths drop out to leave the guitars naked, it\u2019s like the eye of a hurricane, because we know the oasis of calm will soon be shattered again by the wall of sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogers\u2019 lyrics aren\u2019t much, just fragmented phrases that hint at the nature of the drama in the music. But her vocals are astonishing, and not just because they\u2019re so muscular and percussive. She has a smooth version of her voice, where the bell-like tone expresses her most vulnerable desires on the verses. But she also has a rough version, where the furry tone on the choruses reveals her impatience with any delay is satisfying those desires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can hear this most clearly on \u201cWant Want,\u201d where the verses offer a sweet prayer that her newest romance \u201cwon\u2019t be a mess.\u201d But on the chorus, the gloves come off and she\u2019s barking at her new lover about the urgency of her \u201cwant, want.\u201d Once again, the words don\u2019t say much, but everything you need to know is in the juxtaposition of her two voices and in the shifting from one to the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These three albums are proof that \u201cpop\u201d has more going on than it\u2019s usually given credit for. Artists don\u2019t have to move beyond \u201cpop\u201d to achieve loftier ambitions. There\u2019s plenty of room for nuance and drama amid the hooks and beats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cpop\u201d has more going on than it\u2019s usually given credit for. Artists don\u2019t have to move beyond \u201cpop\u201d to achieve loftier ambitions. There\u2019s plenty of room for nuance and drama amid the hooks and beats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[139],"class_list":["post-13327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-artists-pop-americana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13335,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13327\/revisions\/13335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}