I have to admit I find most pop blogs these days totally boring. So many are just saying “Here’s a song I like”, or much worse, “Here’s the whole album of a famous artist”. For me it totally defeats the object of having a blog if it just becomes a list of songs to download. It might as well be a messageboard or a p2p file service. Some blogs, like my own MP3 blog Into The Groove, stick to the songs the blogger likes, and provide some information or opinions on the artist, and this can be very enjoyable if the blogger has good taste and writes well. However, I do often find myself thinking “Who are you and why should I care?” – I need to build up a relationship of trust in their tastes, or interest in their personality and opinions, before I can commit to reading the blog on a regular basis. As my life is much busier these days than it used to be, I have to prioritise, and my MP3 collection is already so huge that I have songs I haven’t even listened to yet, let alone familiarised myself with, and I certainly have no desire for more, however good their blogging devotee may tell me they are.
While I still check certain MP3 blogs religiously and download most of what they post (Arjan Writes and #1 Hits On Another Planet being 2 prime examples), my general tiredness with downloading song after song after song has led me to appreciate the blogs which aren’t just providing MP3s or YouTube links. The blogs I’m drawn to these days are the ones that just write about music and without you even hearing any of it, you gain a connection to the song or act being discussed and want to know more. Popjustice always had the power to do this, with other sites such as Poptext and Gaypop having similar appeal. In addition to this, the one thing that really interests me these days, and what I would like to see much more of on pop blogs (although sadly very few writers can actually do it well), is a proper pop discussion. I want my thoughts to be provoked, I want to be rushing to the end of a post so I can add my comments in the comments box, and I want to be inspired to write a post in response here on Dirrrty Pop.
This leads me to the reason I began this rather detoured post in the first place – I read an article on K-Punk about two things close to my heart (Nietzsche and Popism), and before I knew it I was here writing a post of my own. I didn’t know when I started it that this post was going to be about blogging, but that is what I love about writing this blog: every so often I get an idea for a post and suddenly my brain is whirring and my fingers are flying across the keyboard as the words just fall out onto the screen, without a thought of where they came from or what I’ll be writing next. These posts just seem to write themselves, and I only wish I could do the same with my coursework!
Now I’d better get back on track and write about this K-Punk post which inspired me in the first place. I was drawn in by the mention of my old favourite philosopher, Nietzsche, and pleasantly surprised when the post went on to discuss Popism, or Poptimism as it’s known to me. For those who aren’t familiar, Popism or Poptimism is a word used to describe the move for music critics (particularly those on the Internet) to appreciate pop music in an intellectual way. I’m sure others could describe it much better than me, as I’ve always been a bit fuzzy on the job description, but it seems pretty obvious that with my extreme dedication to pop music and lack of taste for much else, I must be a Popist. But I have often wondered if this is really true. I may be the most staunch supporter of pop music you’ll ever meet, but there’s something in the approach of Popists to pop music which doesn’t quite feel right to me.
I may not be a central member of the Popist movement, but I like to get involved in the discussions, polls and projects embarked on by the Poptimists LiveJournal group, and I’ve met some very interesting people through this. Still, I do feel like I am approaching pop music from an entirely different perspective to a lot of the Poptimist members, and I don’t know if this is due to my age or the fact that I’ve been a pop fan all my life, never having a rock or indie phase. I think it may be a mix of the two. Most Poptimists seem to have made a conscious decision to like pop music, to take a break from the more cultured, sophisticated music they usually listen to, but for me pop music is just music, and while I enjoy seeing people who think they’re above pop music be converted to its brilliant ways, I do find it patronising at times when people treat the music I love as a way to subvert expectations, a guilty pleasure or a method of rebellion.
I love that I can be different to my peers by liking the music that a lot of them (wrongfully) scorn, and I do enjoy the feeling of superiority this brings me. I am not so caught up in being cool or cultured that I cannot listen to the music I truly enjoy. At the same time I am careful not to rule out other styles of music without giving them a fair trial, although with my ingrained pop tendencies I do tend to believe that if I like a song it probably is pop music, just without knowing it.
In Mark K-Punk’s article, he mentions Paris Hilton and the way her album has been held up as some kind of masterpiece by a lot of Popists. This is something I too have failed to comprehend. I don’t hate Paris for being a celebrity-turned-popstar, for being fake or for being annoying, even though she is all those things. I actually quite enjoy following her in the media, as I do with all celebrities who have unusual, dramatic lives. When her music was revealed, I wasn’t particularly impressed, although I didn’t think it was awful either – just run of the mill American pop music, unable to compete with its brilliant European equivalents. I felt towards her as I do Hilary Duff or Ashlee Simpson – not bad, but couldn’t she afford better songs with all her millions? I guess it was because Paris is so high-profile and because she is American that her music was so widely discussed, but for me the discussion soon got boring and I tend to skip past anything about her these days. It may be the best music writing on the Internet but I just don’t care anymore – let’s talk about someone new!
My personal disinterest in Paris as a popstar aside, I was very pleased to see Mark K-Punk hitting on the feeling I too have towards Popism, which is exemplified by their treatment of her. The discussions just seemed to me far too in-depth and serious. I love to see discussion of pop music in an intelligent way, but there is a line that can be crossed, where intelligent discussion turns into taking jolly, carefree pop music way too seriously. I know this must seem to contradict what I was saying earlier in this post, that I don’t want pop music to be used as a rebellious slap in the face to the muso snobs, but what I really want is for pop music to be enjoyed and appreciated for exactly what it is – simple entertainment. I actually think that the people who generally go for indie or rock music but love a dance to Girls Aloud on a night out are more on the right track than those who use Girls Aloud as a statement. They’re just for fun, enjoy them!