Cleverness In Pop

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Do you appreciate what I'm going to call 'cleverness' - wordplay, allusion, non-standard structures, etc. - in pop music? Is it something you look for? Who does it well?

Do you think there's an opposition between cleverness and directness (in emotional or physical impact)? Should pop be cleverer?

(Qn arising from today's Popular entry)

Comments

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Heh, the thing with the Pixies was that it never even occurred to me to think of them as a clever band. They were silly and exciting and thrilling and weird and kind of dopey sometimes, but whatever cleverness there was going on didn't register as 'cleverness' at all.