Many of us on Hacker News dislike pop music. And there are good reasons to do so, but its popularity alone should not be one. I like to remind myself some of the greatest music in the world was once pop music. For example, J. S. Bach used to perform at the Café Zimmerman in Leipzig[1]. Could you imagine going into a coffeehouse and listening to Bach playing a Teleman concerto? Or a flute concerto of his own?
Now, I'm not saying that the Backstreet Boys have the musical genius of Bach. But neither should you discard their music because it is popular and overplayed. Would the world be better off had they never sung?
"The [Café Zimmerman] was destroyed during an air raid on Leipzig in December 1943." [1] I would have loved to stand inside it.
And there are good reasons to do so, but its popularity alone should not be one.
It's its popularity, alone, that forces me to have to listen to it. Sometimes.
I don't believe that people can have "bad taste in music", or that pop music is bad. But I'd rather listen to what I like, which I guess is why I shun the radio.
Comments
Many of us on Hacker News dislike pop music. And there are good reasons to do so, but its popularity alone should not be one. I like to remind myself some of the greatest music in the world was once pop music. For example, J. S. Bach used to perform at the Café Zimmerman in Leipzig[1]. Could you imagine going into a coffeehouse and listening to Bach playing a Teleman concerto? Or a flute concerto of his own?
Now, I'm not saying that the Backstreet Boys have the musical genius of Bach. But neither should you discard their music because it is popular and overplayed. Would the world be better off had they never sung?
"The [Café Zimmerman] was destroyed during an air raid on Leipzig in December 1943." [1] I would have loved to stand inside it.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_Zimmermann
It's its popularity, alone, that forces me to have to listen to it. Sometimes.
I don't believe that people can have "bad taste in music", or that pop music is bad. But I'd rather listen to what I like, which I guess is why I shun the radio.
Well, I do hate -- Max Martin and other slimy pop makes it embarrassing to be Swedish. :-)
At least there is Meshuggah and other good Swedish stuff to be proud of. And yes, some of that is pop.