Pop music. It's like Almond Joys. You like the taste of chocolate, but the coconut ruins what is essentially junk food (I don't like coconut). Being of a sound guy who has listened to more music than I have with recent games and anime, I just can't seem to wrap my brain over the recent trend of pop music that has appeared in the last 5 or so years. By that I mean who listens to this crap?
Being in a drugged and coughing state of mind (I'm sick), I stumbled upon who people know on Thatguywiththeglasses as TITS. TITS, or Todd in The Shadows is a pop music reviewer, and one of those people who have as much bile and acid in their otherwise shadowy exterior as Simon Cowell did for being British. In his videos, he reviews and deconstructs pop songs that people otherwise get entranced by simply existing on the radio and the muzak in grocery stores. For one it's a double edged sword. On one end the song may become as Troperville calls earworms, songs that can't get out of your head until you start humming Those Who Fight from FF7 to combat the otherwise obnoxious beat, or maybe that's just me. However, it can also be a detriment to whats otherwise your mind going crazy hearing it over and over to the point of madness. Simply put, you love or hate it.
Now, I'm not exactly the guy that has been "in the loop" during the last 5 or 6 years. Mostly because I almost lost myself hearing Hollaback Girl 20,000 times a day working at a crappy pizza joint, and the only working radio which is covered in hardened flour and corn meal had no way to turn off. Even more so with Jenny From the Block being blasted 80,000 times a day at the amusement park. Listening to a bad song is one thing, but listening to a bad song you hate urges a man to commit suicide in the chemical poisonous chlorine waters below. So yeah, I don't like the pop music here.
The saving grace that is my sanity is that I turn to the eastern side of the music spectrum, by that of course I mean Jpop. What Jpop does is different from what western pop music does: it doesn't pierce your ears. Yet, because of this, I've been lured into listening to more Japanese music. Maybe it's because the lyrics are mostly of struggle and fighting against that struggle, or a symbolic family of pork dumplings represent what is happening in real time to an existing family. Meanwhile, the other side is listening about screwing, cheating, or being an obnoxious attention whore who can't sing for shit or some songwriter who's videos make Offensive on Encyclopedia Dramatica blush. For some strange reason, it sounds more pleasant. Canadian Punk is a different story as I either had to listen to a crappy sing along band of preachy baptists urging for everyone to sing to a broken raffi tape, or a band about how much they think their government sucks. I made my choice.
However, as I cough the days away to excess Flem and Earl, I can't seem to understand what attracts people to listen to the music they listen to. What is it about jpop that beings me back for more and stray away from what kids are calling it "music"? What is it that a Zoids fangirl who I have a crush on find fascinating about discovering Ke$ha on the store radio station? And unfortunately, it raises more questions than answers to why humans like to listen to attention whores who sing taunts and don't know how to write lyrics. To which I ask TITS this:
As a pop music reviewer, what part of our brains, in which the least common denominator is mentioned attracts people to listen to the music that defines their personality? What entrances those to listen to the music that they listen to? Why does pop music sound so bad now? Is it the junk food-esque that clutters what is essentially our perception to comprehend the "deep" meaning behind the lyrics to what is simply put, shitty pop music? Finally to add the jaywalking part to arson and murder, where the hell is my Beaver Fever?
Todd, if your reading this, I would like to get your perspective on what attracts people to the music that they listen to. Besides force from other means, what entices the listener to pick up that insert-shitty-attention-whore Single here and how does one define themselves to the genre that they are accustomed to?
The reason behind why I listen to Japanese is not that obvious. It's not because I grew up by it, it's more that I've become accustomed to it as the years went by. I started out a fan of anime, went to Otakon, bought T. M. Revolution, started singing to it as it is printed on the lyrics sheet. *Singalong with T.M. Revolution* Honestly, that's how it began.
Then I started seeking out more and more until it became clear: I like modern Japanese music. The discovery of a Ryoko Hirosue CD in a charter bus was sheer coincidence as it was next to a Counting Crows August and Everything After. Listening to both, I couldn't make it past Mr. Jones on Counting Crows and kept listening to Hirosue-san.
What makes Japanese music appealing is that it sounds more pleasant. The lyrics don't rhyme when translated, but it's more in that the lyrics in Japanese rhyme. For example, in TMR's song Invoke, the second line in the first verse goes like this:
samishisa ni yogore ta ude de daita
sore igai no nani ka wo shiranai kara
Ta and ra rhyme. That's how you can tell. But honestly, you don't have to really understand the language to know that the sound has more energy to it. Then again, that's just me liking jpop.
In the end, what really boils down to the reason what attracts me to Japanese pop and not my American counterpart is based on self discovery. Being an anime aficionado, gaining an interest in learning the language, teaching myself a bit, and seeking out more. The experience is what attracts me to it. That's ultimately my reason, what's yours?
