"Pop music is tricky..."

"...because we've been trained not to expect much meaning in it. I love big melodies, but I also love songs with a strong, lasting message. The truly great songs somehow marry the two. Lennon was great at it. Marvin Gaye, Paul Westerberg, Burt Bacharach. They all wrote super catchy songs with lyrics that struck a nerve. Those songs make you want to dance but also make you think."
- Val Emmich

I used to feel guilty listening to pop music sometimes. I'd sit there listening to these terrible songs I'd heard a million times already and think, "This is ridiculous. I should be listening to something good. Something new. Something different." Yet I have to remind myself: you like what you like, and like your feelings, it's pretty much not something to be ashamed of. It's not like I'm walking around pretending BBMak is brilliant or that Jesse McCartney is comparable to Paul McCartney or something blasphemous like that. But a decent pop song is a decent pop song. Sometimes something light, shallow, sugary, and disposable suits your mood exactly.

Plus, like Val Emmich says, not all pop music is dispensable bubblegum crap. If you wanna get technical, the Beatles early stuff was pop music. John Mayer, Kelly Clarkson, Gavin DeGraw--they all put out great music, much of which definitely has a pop feel. Fall Out Boy, Dashboard--yeah, almost all their stuff sounds trite and unoriginal, like everything else they've done, but they don't pretend it's anything more than what it is. Alanis Morissette, the Goo Goo Dolls, Counting Crows, U2, Maroon 5--solid stuff. Sarah Bareilles, Anna Nalick, recent Mandy Moore, Missy Higgins, Ingrid Michaelson--kind of alternative, kind of pop, kind of folksy, even, and it's all mostly great. There are some fabulous women singer/songwriters circulating these days with strong piano or guitar-driven melodies and stronger lyrics.

I was reading a Q&A with the men of Keane today. They were discussing their new album Perfect Symmetry with EW.

EW: Much of Symmetry has an '80s feel. One fan even called it a Top Gun sound. Compliment or insult?
Tom Chaplin, vocals: Top Gun was actually the first record I ever bought, so I'm okay with that. But the funky, upbeat, flamboyant '80s vibe of Thriller may have been an indirect influence. I worshipped Michael Jackson as a kid.
Tim Rice-Oxley, keyboards: Our decision not to restrict ourselves by good taste was liberating.

It kind of goes along with the Marc Jacobs art-world-intimidation thing: when you stop thinking about what is "good" and what is "bad", and just like what you like and feel what you feel, it can work out just fine, and produce something that may not be a masterpiece, but still something meaningful.

On a side note, I love that EW doesn't put an apostrophe between the decade and the "s", and I love that they spell "worshipped" with two P's. They know what they're doin'.

On another separate note, I made a playlist of songs that just kind of hit a nerve, and I've been listening to it a lot lately, just for the hell of it. James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" is on it, Ingrid Michaelson's "Glass," Billy Joel's "This is the Time," Ryan Adams and the Cardinals' "Come Pick Me Up," Remy Zero's "Fair," Howie Day's "Standing in the Sun." Also is the Carole King song I'm listening to right now, "It's Too Late."

Every time I listen to it, I'm struck by how wonderful a song it is. She's a great songwriter in general, but this particular song--the intonation of her voice, combined with the lyrics, make for this beautiful song that starts out melancholy and doleful and ends...well, melancholy and doleful, but also more...brave. Soulful. So intense yet mellow. Gets me every time. I highly recommend it.

----------------
Now playing: Carole King - It's Too Late