I Hate Pop (culture)

I hate pop (culture).

I generally hate pop. Pop as in popular, you know the in thing. Not the thing itself but what happens to the thing when it gets to pop status.

Hmmm… this is kinda iffy and I may end up putting my foot in my mouth, but whatever, let’s roll.

Let’s start with the effects of pop that I hate, super saturation. I hate that. In chemistry that’s when your solvent can no longer normally take in the solute and you force it to take in more by like say, applying heat to it so that it takes in more. That’s the difference between syrup and sugar water. Sugar water when you put sugar into it and stir, stir, stir, until sugar stops dissolving and you see granules drop out. That’s saturated. It’s full of sugar. Now apply heat to it and it boils and then you can add even more sugar. When that thing cools down it becomes sticky and overly sweet, syrup. That’s super saturated. You may like a drop, or two or an entire spoonful, but chugging it down wouldn’t be the little taste of heaven that you thought it would be. You’ll be sick of it or if not you’ll be sick because of it.

Nothing kills a concept, a song, or an art from faster than super saturation. (If there is one and I’m wrong be sure to let me know). Take a hit any TV series. Take CSI for example. Now that was a great show, it’s geeky and cool and riveting all at the same time. But I don’t know after three seasons of smash cuts into someone’s guts, underwater audio and zillions of scenes of the crime lab processing prints and gun shot residue later, it became old, fast. I didn’t even bother following Miami and New York, because each team looks like a Japanese Sentai Team. With leader and subordinates in parallel with each other, minus the costumes and the mecha (giant robots).

Songs are even more irritating when they supersaturate. Why? Everyone listens to the same stuff on what ever radio station. K-Pop, J-Pop, Craig Davis sounding like K-Pop, whiny boys singing, all the other Mariah, Celine, Whitney copy cats, dudes that just picked up guitars and decided to go for a record label but can’t jam anything else so they make one hit wonders or no hit blunders, and cutsey, sexy bombshell recording artists (not singers mind you) that can’t write their own songs. Thank goodness for MP3 players and noise cancelling earphones, now there’s no need to hear all that if you don’t want to.

Fashion is even more unbearable, senseless accessorizing (guy liners, bling, piercings), badly done copycat hair, poser tough guy prints. Copying their supersaturated no hit blunder idols. Trying to shock with their “uniqueness” but since they supersaturate they end up being dull and boring. Funny thing is after 3 months it’s out of style, new song, new craze, new fashion. And craze is right crazey!

Me? What do I think about pop? Pop is not refreshing, it’s old. Pop is a pattern of follow the leader. Me, I make my own choices. Funny thing is, sometimes there are cool ideas in pop that I take (told you this would be iffy). But difference between you and me; if I find it cool I stick to it, pop or not. So yeah I might enjoy a pop song but I don’t become a fan (not immediately). I enjoy it for what ever reason that made me like it, but not because it happens to be playing at the moment or the singer was last season’s American Idol (who cares about that?)

One example, Manny Pacquiao, I like him so does every other Filipino. But I’ve watched Manny since he was a runt with nothing more than a walloping left and nothing else. He used to win with sheer strength, no defense and no endurance. I’ve seen him develop and grow. To those that tuned in late he wasn’t that great of a boxer. I’m a fan but I’m not a Manny worshipper.

Another is the late Filipino Master Rapper FrancisM. I’ve been listening to him since the 90s. And he’d have a hit here and there but many fans have since moved on. He died in March of 2009. And all of a sudden there was a FrancisM surge of fanboys in the bandwagon. The man had more than 7 albums to his name a lot of songs with nice pithy messages, pre-dating the likes of Eminem.

But what burns me up is that the new “fans” jump in to learn "Kaleidoscope World"*. Oh sure it’s a song about unity and brotherhood. But what I really think is that the new people that took notice just picked it up because it’s the easiest to follow. Why? It’s a song where he doesn’t rap. It’s a spoken word song. That saddens me because FrancisM was first and foremost a rapper. So I believe one would be a FrancisM fan if they love rap and love the Philippines because that is what he stood for. Wearing 3 stars and the Sun don’t mean a thing if you don’t actually love the Philippines with a passion. It’s just a cool shirt. Like tribal tattoos on a spoiled pampered brat. Doesn’t make you any tougher

It’s like saying you’re a Queen fan and the only song you know is Princes of the Universe because it was such a cool Highlander soundtrack. “You’re a Queen fan? Do you know Bohemian Rhapsody?” Nope “We Will Rock You?” Nope “Another One Bites the Dust?” Nope “We are the Champions?” Nope. Then heck, you’re a Highlander fan not a Queen fan. (I’m both by the way).

I have an allergic reaction to hype. The more the hype the more I hate it. Twilight comes to mind. I’ve never watched Slumdog Millionaire, or 2012 or High School Musical or follow Lost or watch Glee or listen to Charice Pempemco nor do I give a hoot what’s on Oprah’s book list. Nor do I feel that I’ve been missing out. Because, again supersaturation.  Thank goodness for complete season DVDs I can watch a season of something that I like to blot out a season of something that I don’t like. “Have you seen this show?” “Nope too busy marathoning this one.”

Don’t think that all I watch are high brow artsy fartsy stuff. I have my own “It’s so bad it’s good list.” Things that don’t seem to make sense why I like it. It maybe the worst and most wooden acting but I could like it. It could be the most irritating singing voice but I could like it.

So what’s my criteria for liking something? I just need to like it, on my own. Oh if something really is good, 10 years down the line if it’s good enough to stay noticed I’ll probably pick it up. If, if, if it really is good.

If it’s a flash in the pan, goes out of print and gets sold in a second hand store and priced next to nothing then I’d be really happy we never met. Like all those books on Y2K.

Hail counter-culture.

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* Kaleidoscope World - Hit song of late Filipino Rapper Francis Magalona who used the nickname FrancisM. It's the easiest song to sing among FrancisM's hits because it's mostly spoken word and just a few short lines of refrain are sung in a not so vocally challenging melody.