Responding: Same Old Song

    Why does the “vacuous” pop music exist in society? Because these songs are composed by the common language that people speak in their daily life anytime and anywhere even though some are bad language. The language that people always use will become more relative to their daily life and will be easier for people to understand and accept. In general, when people are talking, they always use simple and direct language, but not use complex and indirect language. For example, when people quarrel, they usually say the “F” word because this word can direct reflect their emotion, indignation. If they do not say this word, what the other language they can say when they are very angry? Can’t they say, “I’m unhappy, crazy, and angry”, to express their emotion? Of course no one will do like that. Sometimes, the bad language, like the “F” word, is the best vocabulary to vent the emotion. Therefore, for a song which has some bad language that relate to sex and violence, they sometime are the simplest and the most direct language to show people’s real desire, pursuing, and thoughts, and they are the words that sometime cannot be expressed by the “good” language.

       In addition, the target audiences of pop music are for common people. Not everyone has a professor degree and graduates from the great educational institution. Common people may not have very high level of language skill or art appreciation to understand the classical music, abstract painting, and literary writings, and these are always defined as the “good” and “high” culture even thought they sometime use the “beautiful” words to describe the “dirty” things. I believe that even for some people who have doctor degree cannot completely understand the meanings of Chopin’s piano music, Van Gogh’s paintings, and Shakespeare’s works. Therefore, pop music, which may be used the “low” and “dirty” works to describe the certain events, beliefs, and thoughts, is just using the most “correct” words to explain their the most real thinking, but not using the most “pretty” words to cover their “bad” thinking.

       Some pop music is composed by the “bad” lyrics, such as sex, violence, and gangster, but in contrast, the successful drama and movie always have these bad factors which have already become the formula of success, and they not only have the sense of hearing, but also have the sense of vision. As the result, if people need to focus on the “bad” culture, pop music should not be the first sufferer, and the first victim is the movie.

       People, especially the children and the youths, always receive the “positive” and “absolutely correct” thoughts from textbooks, great people, and education. They are bored with listening the “good” words again and again, so they begin to be interested in the “bad” words. However, people should not say that the “bad” productions, like the pop music, are vacuous just because they will be short-brilliant. In fact, for music, common people think the classical music, which is certainly a good culture, is much more vacuous because most of them think those music is boring, and they do not understand. As the result, does it mean that people can define the classical music is a “bad” or “useless” culture?

Why pop music is pop music? That is because it uses the common language to talk about common people’s thoughts and lives even though some thoughts are antisocial and against political correctness. Therefore, pop music should be composed by public language which includes the “bad” language.

       Actually, I do not agree that pop music can break the limits because they are not good for the people who do not have enough understanding, judgment, and independent thinking.