All About Britney Spears

what is pop music?

first of all, don't just say that POP MUSIC = CRAP or POP MUSIC IS TALENTLESS, because that's untrue and completely pointless, and if you're going put some thought into this, please don't even answer. "pop" hardly stands for "popular" music anymore. there are TONS of indie pop and twee pop bands out there, and most of them are no where near popular by any standards. so, how do you think pop music should be defined exactly? jake, i agree that pop music is often catchy, and has a hook, but does it always mean mainstream? what about indie pop bands like belle & sebastian or stars? i mean, they're quite popular in the "indie" scene, but they're not mainstream. or, is indie pop a completely separate genre from pop?

Public Comments

1. Pop mostly means mainstream; popular. It also means catchy; it has a hook. Almost all mainstream bands have this. Edit: True, but they have the sound that would be easily translated to the mainstream.
2. The Beatles are the original pop band.....
3. I think pop music is usually very upbeat, and upbeat music seems to be very mainstream-friendly, but I think pop and mainstream aren't necessarily completely synonymous. According to Wikipedia, "pop music is an ample and imprecise category of modern music not defined by artistic considerations but by its potential audience or prospective market. Pop is music composed with deliberate intent to appeal to the majority of its contemporaries." I think that's true for many mainstream bands (though not all), but that doesn't seem to apply to indie pop or twee pop bands. Take Conor Oberst's old band Park Ave, for example. They were pretty much bubblegum pop, but they were relatively mainstream, and though I like them a lot, I don't think they had the potential to become mainstream if they hadn't broken up. Like, you can find a band that sounds exactly like The Pussycat Dolls (or whoever) that isn't anywhere near as famous, but I don't know if you would be able to classify them as indie pop. Indie and pop and indie pop are all different, I guess. It's all relative. =P
4. stuff top 40 radio stations play so that everyone can call their own music
5. Originally "Pop" music is what the radio stations played to create the Billboard top 40...In the beginning most "Rock" bands did not receive air time with their music...Live concerts were the way for people to get to know their favorite bands, and subsequently buy their music.