I Really Really Really Really Don't Like Pop Music, But I Don't Hate Carly Rae Jepsen

Now that I’ve really gotten into the nitty gritty of this semester, I’ve been having trouble trying to decide what genre to tear apart. Like I don’t hate THAT much music I’m not THAT evil. So now I’m kind of moving into some stuff that I’ve obviously heard before but I still can’t stand. Because I still can’t really stand pop, but it’s hard NOT to hear pop. Like it’s short for “popular music”. It’s literally everywhere.
Pop music was the genre when I was in middle school that I blindly pretended NOT to listen to. I was too indie for pop music!!! Give me some FOB or Panic! or MCR, but if you would have dare shoved Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez or Justin Bieber under my nose at that time in my life, you would have swiftly been punched.

                But times have changed. I’m mature enough now to at least analyze the music before hating it. Like if there’s a purpose to music existing, I’m cool with it. Let’s see if pop music even falls into that category. I think music can be validated if it has had an impact to society or its history has shaped culture in some way, so I’ll be trying to show how pop music has shaped the culture everyone knows and loves today. The weary be warned: this might make you really hate me if I end up really hating on pop music. If I haven’t made a sorority girl cry yet, this is the post to do that. Continue reading if you dare.

                I’m a good little Sociology 101 student, so I know that culture is pretty much just anything that makes a group of people feel like they belong together. So, for example, literally everyone in Pennsylvania loves this gas station called Sheetz, it’s a thing. Therefore, Sheetz is a part of our culture. (I’m pretty sure the only thing some of my fellow Pennsylvanians and I agree on is Sheetz.)

                Sheetz would technically be a part of the popular culture of Pennsylvania. Popular culture is anything that the general majority of the public is really into, and pop music falls into this category. Everyone flocks to pop music because it is generally really easy to listen to and everyone can get it. It’s like country music but for people who don’t think they’re cowboys – songs about love, life with 1^st world problems, and everything in between that will make everyone feel like they can relate to the song.

                Carly Rae Jepsen is the new artist that is sort of the definition of pop music - every one of her songs have a repetitive electronic beat in the background that supports her bubble gum-sweet voice singing about those really “important” issues like loving someone who doesn’t love you and partying with the gals. Carly Rae Jepsen, with her new album Emotion, kept up this same style that she used on previous albums gathered even more fame from the whole ordeal.

                Emotion was released during the summer of 2015, and the album itself almost screams summer. The first upbeat song of the album, “Run Away With Me”, is followed again and again (AND AGAIN, screams my inner monologue, tired of listening to the same thing over and over again) for the remaining 14 songs of the album. Carly at least knew what kind of demographic she was singing toward, because all of her songs hit that stereotypical beach song, perfect for a summer day. The pop music that people usually like of today is happy-go-lucky, high tempo and heavy on the bass, and Carly includes this in every single one of her songs on her newest album, Emotion.

                Because Emotion was released pretty recently, Carly no longer had to compete with other artists that used to be in the same category as her like Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez or Demi Lovato. Those original Disney good girls have broken the mold that they were placed into and turned into something different that is still pop but more grown up and inappropriate. Like Carly’s songs could play at any event and not offend anyone – your grandma’s 90^th birthday party, your cousin’s 5^th birthday, an R rated movie during a fun party scene – literally anywhere. Carly has put herself into our culture as the person who can fit into any mold which is kind of cool. For example, her biggest song on Emotion is easily “I Really Like You”. The catchy, appropriate and repetitive lyrics are easy to remember (and also get in your head haha kill me!!!) so they are perfect for the younger generations, yet they have that relatable factor for the people in their 20s and 30s that kind of includes almost half of the population. And she put Tom Hanks in the music video?? That gives people over 30 a reason to at least see the music video and get attached.

Rather than fitting herself into a certain culture like some artists do (Taylor Swift with mid-20s awkward-in-love gals, Beyoncé with strong, empowered women, Justin with girls that want to have sex with him), Carly created an image that places her literally anywhere, and I found that really cool as I started listening to her music.

Carly, and along with a myriad of other behind the scenes people, wrote Emotion because they knew it worked. Like I love avant-garde music as much as anyone else, but why mess with something that you know works? I guess I can’t say that I exactly love Carly’s music, but I can see why she continues again and again to release the same kind of music every couple of years – it never goes out of style. Maybe in a few years she’ll pull a Miley and go totally berserk on us, but I don’t think that will happen. She knows her audience, she knows what her audiences feels strongly connected to, and so she sings what they want. I guess if I was an internationally known artist with millions in my bank account rather than .23 cents, I’d do the same thing.