Men don’t really listen to pop music, or at least they shouldn’t. Males certainly do, but not men. Let me stall your devil’s advocate game and clarify that I mean relatively modern pop music, let’s say the last twenty odd years. If you want to say that the Beatles were pop music because they are not easily confined to a genre I won’t argue the point (though I could.) But since we’re in a new decade let’s focus on the 90’s and 00’s. So again, let me restate: men don’t listen to pop music.
The whole idea of a pop music as a genre is pretty absurd, since all it ought to mean is that a certain song is “popular.” But that’s not really the case anymore, is it? Pop music is formulaic and popular, and has become it’s own classification. But why do women enjoy pop music and men don’t?
It could be because pop music appeals to the lowest common denominator, and men won’t sink to that level. But that really can’t be it, since men obviously enjoy the lowest common denominator. Think action movies or posters of scantily clad women posing on sports cars or absurd nude scenes in movies that are irrelevant to the plot. We love all that shit; bread and butter, mother’s milk, whatever you want to call it. For further evidence see the career success of Bay, Michael.
Well, maybe it’s because pop music is built around male icons that don’t appeal to us. You have the boy bands of the 90’s, and there were a ton of them. You took a step too far into a back alley and you were bound to find some crap “band” without any semblance of rhythm or harmony practicing their Bye Bye Bye repertoire. But that can’t be right either, can it? The Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera’s of the world had plenty of sex appeal. Their music must be centered on appealing to men, why else would they imitate strippers with low self-esteem? Right? Of course not, that would make far too much sense. We got to live through a whole “girl power” movement of hot pants and Pokémon haircuts. There is no way that would appeal to men. My generation watched MTV on mute.
It has to be the theme of the music then, it’s the only thing left. Pop music talks about love and relationships, the kind of issues that only affect people of the female persuasion. And as we all know, men hate all issues that relate to any semblence of emotion… Wait, I think Bob Dylan had a few hits that touched on emotional issues. So did Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Who, Pink Floyd…hell, Guns N Roses could be downright softies from time to time. Real men know how to listen to the Blues. Point being all genres touch on the same types of themes, so that really can’t be it either. Can we really say the song “I kissed a girl” alienates men thematically?
I really am at a loss here on the whole pop music thing. Who listens to this crap and why? Get a teenage girl who can sweat a libido on a music video, a songwriter who specializes in catchy tripe, and a digital voice coach and you have a hit single. As a society we make millionaires out of these people, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. It’s even expanded over the years where we have pop rap (Eminem,) pop rock (Daughtry) pop crap (Black Eyed Peas, sorry, didn’t know where else to put them,) pop blues/jazz (Alicia Keyes,) pop country (Dixie Chicks,) pop punk (Green Day,) and so on through the genres.
I have no doubt that many if not most of these people are talented. But I’m still not sure how they make careers out of jingles fit for little more than a radio ad campaign. And men don’t listen to this stuff, so it must be the rest of ya’ll who are. Which brings me to a simple conclusion. The race of men is failing, and is being replaced by metrosexuals who can tell you who is winning Dancing with the Stars.
And people wonder why I drink myself to sleep…
