Who needs Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, they're not our music, they're out of date

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Jaysis I'm ruined.

The pop quiz was somewhat of a triumph - £330 in the kitty for charity, pretty good result, bigger things expected of the auction on Friday tho. Nobody got the Bradford fire question; nobody got Chernenko; I think one team got Chumbawamba; nobody got I'd Rather Jack; almost nobody got ABBA; EVERYBODY got Busted, hurrah.

Does anyone want more bits and pieces questions?

Here is a question that's been floating around my brain a bit: is pop music a good medium for self-expression? When I think of records which have some kind of confessional or soul-baring component to them I tend to be thinking of records I think are a BIG BAG OF SH1TE. "Self-expression" isn't exactly the right words here, maybe with conversation I can work towards a better way of phrasing this...

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

No, viz Nobody wants to hear about your problems when they want to enjoy themselves. Pop music is about having fun.

However there are a few exceptions to above rule:

Madonna - Express Yourself
S-Express

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this becomes clearer if you rephrase it: pop music is rubbish when it is ONLY self-expression; pop music can be (but need not be) a powerful vehicle for self-expression (actually is that really the right word? But I think I know what you mean), but is only also effective as pop music when it the self-expression is mediated by e.g. tradition, genre, consideration for audience, commercial impositions -- i.e. all the other stuff. I think an aesthetic theory needs to have a place for expression in it (I didn't think this a few years ago) because it is an undeniable fact that some / many artists do see what they are doing in those terms. But, to draw a parallel, the people who are encouraged to write doggerel by their psychologists as a way of dealing with their emotional problems are not making art, because all the other factors are missing.

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

I think the self-expression thing is why I ONLY like upbeat pop songs and HATE ALL BALLADS (and therefore entire recorded output of Westlife).

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Yes, in the right hands. See my updated post today on Kevin Blechdom and Millie Jackson. They filter their self-expression through characters that may or may not be them, or are exaggerated versions of themselves, but still counts I think.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

While I'm figuring out my own very important views on this question, could we have some more bits & pieces questions?

(I think my views are "how are you supposed to be able to tell?")

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

Sorry, no time to read this YET, BUT I have a few initial questions:

1. What is "the self"? In the context of a pop song? Esp re: band dynamic? The singer? Boy band? The singers?

2. What is being expressed? Need it be misery/loathing? Might not any "I" = expression of a self? ie. "I wanna dance ect"

Sorry if these have been asked/answered already, I just want to log my thoughts for when I come back from work.