Pop is dead!
We live in a pop world.
It’s everywhere- drowning us out in a sea of pop culture.
Back in the seventies pop life was relatively simple.
Everything was communicated with the 7 inch single. That was the moment. The A side was the message the b side a cool variation.
In the glam record period the 7-inch was everything, the communication from the gods and every month one of these would appear like pieces of magic that would change your life.
In punk this accelerated when there seemed to be 7 inch singles every day- each one a total classic. Punk was the last great moment of the 7-inch single. The great sleeves, the brief flurry of noise that made you feel so alive.
Pop is dead!
As the marketing men took over in the eighties and the CD was hustled in- more money could be made and pop lost its focus and that sense of excitement that used to grip everyone when a single was about to come out was snuffed out.
Pop used to be s specialist world that you went into, a freak show, a riot of our own but now its everywhere. But now everyone is pop…every footballer is groomed to look like a boy band member and politicians attempt the pop swagger. The ones that fail like Gordon Brown are derided…Brown is the chunky beefy bass player who wanted to be the frontman and was caught looking terrified in the spotlight whilst David Cameron with his stage school skills knows how to play the pop media game- smiling demurely whilst thinking hateful thoughts. Perhaps the politicians could claim to have invented this – way back in the thirties Adolf Hitler puffed himself up with mass media hysteria and the distortion of the everyday to become the first modern celluloid star- the first rock star of them all.
Pop is dead!
No-one gives a toss what’s in the charts because pop is everywhere. Everyone is a Facebook star and anyone can make music.
That communal sense of pop excitement only occurs now when Apple announce a new product..a new iphone a new piece of tech gear that will change everything.
In the 21st century Apple are the Beatles and each new tech twist in the plot is the equivalent of those signpost Beatles singles that tell you the history of the sixties and music has become the background sound track.
Pop is dead!
Johnrobb's Blog 
Interesting take on Adolph Hitler.
I was brought up with top of the pops, and that was the place for the single.
These days it’s all down to No.1, the mass radio playing of a track for three weeks before release in the hope that it make no.1 in its first week. No one wants a No.2 or No 3, but there have been classic records that never made No.1
I remember trying to educate people in school of the importance of records and their superior quality over cds. No really listened though. They just followed along with everyone else and bought into the consumerist hype. I was turned off the mainstream world from an early age and thus most of my life has been spent in dusty shops off side streets trying to find the next piece of vinyl pleasure, and ignoring the saying, “never judge a book by it’s cover”.
i think it was the idea of the song being everything that i was trying to say…the pop song as the moment…on the other hand i love the avalanche of digital culture…
I for one hanker after the more innocent days of the ’70s.
My fondest memory is of the hidden bonus track on the B side of The Carpenters’ Goodbye to Love, a backwards recording of Karen barfing a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel.
A sonic masterpiece.
i only have the out takes of legendary session
I’d say pop is in stasis. There’s always a place for it but of late, everything in the charts is fucking hateful. And it all began with Pop Idol and X-Factor, which just showed the nation that any cunt who can or cannot hold a note can make a mint from any dickhead who earns minimum wage.
And, of course, we have to look at technology’s part in all this. The ease of access to music, and the ease that music can be created with. We’re in a period of immense change – a telescoping of evolution – and it’s frozen the capacity of the charts to reflect good music. It’d be fair to argue that the underground stays underground, but, for me, there’s been nothing antaganostic in the charts since Nirvana.
[…] John Robb, whom Wifey and I recently had the immense pleasure of meeting, posted an article today on his blog postulating that Pop is Dead. I agree with him, but for completely different reasons. […]
John , did you read my article last Spring? I agree…and more…
http://www.eyho-blog.com/2009/07/01/alec-empire-article-about-pirate-bay-music-industry-philosophy-2nd-world-war/
check it out and hopefully see you soon!
Alec
off to read it now Alec…