You Say "Real" Music, I Say Buy a Dictionary

Recently, I saw this on somebody’s Facebook status;

“You say Taylor Swift, I say asking Nickelback

You say Lady Gaga, I say 30 Seconds To Mars

You say T-Pain, I say Three Days Grace

You say Eminem, I say Linkin Park

You say Jonas Brothers, I say Green Day

92% of teens have turned to pop and hip-hop. If you are part of the 8% that still listens to real music, copy and paste this message. DON’T LET ROCK N ROLL DIE!”

There are several things I take issue with here. The first being that ridiculous statistic, that “92%” of teens. If the author of this little dig can present me with the research into teens and their music preferences that led to this piece of data, I will hold my hand up to them. But let’s be honest, it was probably made up on the spot for dramatic effect, to try and add some authority to an otherwise limp statement.

The use of this “us and them” statistic also implies that teens cannot be fans of a range of music. They must pick which side they are on and hate everything else. Personally, I am a fan of six out of the eight bands mentioned, three from each side of the “you say I say”. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a range of music, from cheesy pop to hardcore metal. Diversifying your music taste allows you to enjoy it on a much bigger scale, and by restricting your music tastes based on what label they fall under is listener suicide. If you listen to the likes of the Jonas Brothers and find that you don’t enjoy them, you have grounds to say you don’t like them as a band. If you declare that you don’t like them because they’re a Disney boyband and therefore not worthy of your listening, you’re not being clever or cool. Just ignorant.

I myself am guilty of falling into this branding trap, with the pint-sized pop sensation Justin Bieber. The majority of my music tends to be alternative, oldies and 90s pop, so on hearing about Bieber’s background and style of music I instantly switched off to it. After actually listening to some of his tracks (apart from the odd “Baby, baby, baby oooh” I caught before changing the music channel) whilst I’m hardly suffering from “Bieber Fever” I realise that I actually quite enjoy listening to the little guy. It is possible for a person to enjoy Justin Bieber and the likes of Blink 182.

Still worth a listen, despite that ridiculous haircut

It also instructs the “8% that still listens to real music” to spam this ridiculous message to other people. Putting aside the fact that “copy-and-paste” messages are like Facebook herpes, this implies that music belonging to pop and hip hop genres are not real. Maybe no one told the author of this that the definition of “real” is something that physically exists. Is Lady Gaga a figment of our imaginations? Are the Taylor Swift tracks on my iPod all in my mind? No. Go buy a dictionary. Obviously, what is to be understood by this is that some people believe that mainstream music most people listen to has less value than bands that no one has heard of… such as the little known Linkin Park, and I have no idea what a Green Day is. Some kind of environmental holiday?

Some sort of strange dream?

The reason pop music is so, well, popular, is that lots of people like it. Surely something so well liked has value. I agree so far as that I think bands that write and play their own songs can produce more quality music than artists fresh off the X Factor conveyer belt or shiny and new from the boyband/girlband factory, however it is still possible for mainstream music to be enjoyable. Music is something to be enjoyed, and whether it’s a technically brilliant, deep and artistic legend from a rock band or a feel-good one hit wonder pop song, if people enjoy it then it has done its job. The more talented, well-crafted artists and songs will have the satisfaction of lasting longer, but that does not mean that in the here-and-now anything else cannot also be enjoyed for what it is.

Finally, a technicality. “Don’t let rock ‘n’ roll die”. I don’t know about you but I would class bands such as Green Day and Nickleback as punk/rock bands, and reserve the title of “rock ‘n’ roll” for the classics like The Who and Guns ‘n’ Roses. Look it up after you’ve finished reading up on “real”.

A "real" bit of Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll

What this spammed post is basically saying is, you like these bands and I like those bands. Congratulations, you’ve just defined “opinions”.