Does Popular Music Remain Popular?

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When anyone says the words 'pop music' today, he or she is bound to be a subject of ridicule. Pop music has taken on a whole lot of affiliated meanings. Prominent names such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and a whole universe of names from the times of Madonna and Lil John have become subject of caricatures by 'serious music' enthusiasts who think that the music these people make are inferior and dumbing. This is not to include concerned parents and groups who think that most of popular music concerns itself with inane subjects such as sex, drugs and general decadence. Popular music has become connected with excess and cultural decay.
However, the question remains: why, despite of all these accusation and belittling, does popular music remain 'popular'? Why does pop music still gain multitudes of listeners while producers of serious music such as classical and jazz labor so much to even get past the thousand mark? Pop music is still a relevant form of music today. Through tracing its history and the development of the music industry and analyzing its forms, this paper will attempt to defend the relevance as an index of ideology and culture today. Rather than as a defense or apology, we will try to make sense of pop music as a legitimate musical phenomenon that is worthy of academic analysis and appreciation.

History
Popular music is a very vague, if not inconvenient, not only because it is not derived from a particular musical form (genre), but it is reliant on the 'popularity.' This is precisely the reason why some musicologists separate it from the term 'pop music', which is used to define a more specific form of music which is characterized by catchy hooks, a verse-chorus format, simple and generally danceable rhy...

... middle of paper ...

...ake new music, it doesn't mean that we simply ridicule popular music and its artists. These artists are popular and we are not because of something that they know (or have) that we do know or have.
Conclusion
Popular music has its roots since the development of music industry in the 1900s. It has taken on formulas that are sure to sell to the consumers. However, this doesn't make it an illegitimate musical form, because it still warrants academic analysis.

Works Cited

J. Kotarba, B. Merrill, J. P. Williams, & P. Vannini Understanding Society through Popular Music. 2003, NY: Routledge. Print.
Robinson, Bradford. “The jazz essays of Theodor Adorno: some thoughts on jazz reception in Weimar Germany.” Popular Music / Volume 13 / Issue 01 / January 1994, pp 1-25. Print.
Storey, John. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader, 1996. London: Routledge. Print.

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