Why popular music isn’t good music



Contributing Writer
Photo: Camuflagem Credit: Leonardo Barbosa

Photo: Camuflagem Credit: Leonardo Barbosa

I was listening to the band Sleigh Bells this weekend on Saturday Night Live and I couldn’t get into their songs.  I feel the same apathy for Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Drake, and the list goes on ad infinitum (or at least it seems that way).  Give me The Who singing “The Seeker,” Heart singing “Crazy on You,” or Ani DiFranco singing “Gravel” and I’m in heaven.  I may be a regrettable curmudgeon, but there is one thing that I know for certain:

Popular music today isn’t good music.  Only music within my narrow range of personal preference should be considered good.

Now substitute “content” for “music’ and you have the Cliff’s Notes version of a swarm of blog posts and tweets that I’ve read recently.  (There is a lot of helpful content out there as well – I’m just speaking of posts of a certain tone)

Point being, content quality should be measured by its appeal to a target audience.  If someone says a post or article is of greater or lesser quality than another – it is always their personal opinion. If a person is overly critical of content, it’s likely more telling of the person and their insecurity than an earnest critique of content.

One last insight to substantiate my point (courtesy of Katy Perry):

‘”Cause baby you’re a firework come on, show ‘em what you’re worth – make ‘em go “Oh, oh, oh” as you shoot across the sky-y-y
Baby, you’re a firework come on, let your colors burst – make ‘em go “Oh, oh, oh” you’re gonna leave ‘em all in awe, awe, awe”

If you can write content of equal or greater relevance to people than that passage, you could become a millionaire.

 

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Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

Writer and chief of miscellany at leaderswest.com

I aspire to give people something to think about rather than tell them what to do. My favorite Google Alert is “social media research,” I am increasingly compelled by Gen Z, and I appreciate good writers agnostic of where they write. At one time I was Kred’s 12th most influential social media blogger and Klout’s most influential person on the topic of David Hasselhoff. Transplant from Seattle living in Cincinnati. Haven’t entirely adopted the local sports teams yet.

Jim Dougherty

@jimdougherty

Writer about social media and tech at Leaders West, I also tweet as @leaderswest.

Instagram Account Deletions Caused By Temporary Glitch … – 4 hours ago

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

  • oldman

    Yeah yeah yeah…heard it all before…in my day things were so much better…

  • http://www.sexyfocusedambitious.com Lauryn Doll

    Haha!

    And I happen to love Drake in spite of everyone’s growing dislike of him.
    Aside of that, I’m very guilty of listening to songs I personally believe nobody likes or knows about, save for a select few people.

    Your point about good content only needing to resonate with its target audience is good too. Listening to other social media “whoo-whoos” (not gurus), you would think “excellent social media” sends no message to anyone but appeases all the social media gods themselves. Bah!

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