Because I'm All About That Bass

For my second blog of the year, I am going to summarise this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApaGQGrGjr8) about pop music holding me hostage or not. It’s funny we have to write about this subject because I wrote my paper for our Music History class about this subject. Although my paper focussed more on Pharrell Williams and why he basically writes the same song over and over again and why he gets away with that.

In the video the guy, who is annoying, says that even if you don’t like a song, you are going to like it, because they keep repeating it over and over again on the radio, tv etc.
And that’s why you are going to unconsciously sing along with the latest Miley Cyrus song.
But it’s not just a random song that is played a thousand times a day. People with ‘golden ears’, so people who have influence and money, select which song that’s going to annoy you for the next year. (Right now for me, it’s that ‘I’m all about that bass’-song from Meghan Trainor)
And then the guy mentions payola. Payola is the bribe that a DJ or radio station takes from a plugger to play a song on repeat.

So now I’m going to explain ‘commodification in taste making’ that the guy mentions in his video. It means that how harder it is to state the economic value of a song, the easier it gets for people with influence to give a value to songs. So the point is that value is created by people of the industry and not by the artists and their qualities.

And what are the ways that pop music gains meaning?
Well, you have all kind of ways. First of all it gains meaning in order to how it is used and where it is played. Context and prevalence are both important factors as well. So the most annoying songs on the radio are a mix of skills of the artist and the right people pushing it.
Oh yes, and a good written song always gets attention right away.
As if.