pop music

i am tired of indie music.

i don't mean for this to make me sound like some salty old geezer, bent on destroying all that matters to people who most likely buy everything they can get their hands on that says "organic". i also don't want it to sounds like i'm a jaded hip kid trying to out-ironic the next guy who thinks it's cool to wear an iron maiden t-shirt and not be able to sing, or even name, one track of theirs. no, i just want to make a point.

so perhaps i should rephrase myself: i like disposable music.

having ended up in a country that really does take quite seriously celebrity culture, gossip mags, x-factor and take that i can't quite see what's wrong with pop music. unless, of course, it sounds like most of what is on x-factor or take that. but that is beside the point because there are plenty of decent top-40 bubble-pop club hits that don't sound like the backstreet boys but make you want to dance more than, say, elliott smith. comparing artists such as elliott smith to throwaway stars like rhianna is a bit like comparing your 4 year old nephew's recent finger painting to a 15 foot tall portrait of Charles I - you're not really supposed to do it. and i'm fine with this. except for that elliott smith can't make me dance like rhianna can. and, let's face it, sometimes finger painting is much more fun than stuffy portraits that are so old that if they touch air they catch fire.

no, i love disposable music. i love having this one song stuck in my brain, rattling around like the marble in a spray can. of all the groups in the world to remind me how fun it is to listen to a song that just, well, has fun with itself, sigur ros blew me away. "gobbledigook" is some loud, crashy, shouty 3 minute romp in a forest or a dance hall or an empty city street. it can be listened to through headphones or live in an arena but it should never be quiet. just like kings of leon's "sex on fire" or mgmt's "kids" or rhianna's "disturbia" it should be as loud as fucking possible. it should be so loud that if the family cat were to blunder in front of the speaker it would find itself suddenly confused and making sick on the new carpet uncontrollably for the next week. these songs should be played with friends around. or while you're alone. naked. and dancing.

i have my andrew birds, my m. wards, my band of horses...eses. but i don't necessarily want to listen to my favourite songs from each of these artists for fear that they will wear out (it should be noted, however, that i have been listening to post-war a few times a week for a couple years now and it has not wearied). but with this pop crap you can just listen to "black and gold" 85 times on repeat, throw it away and wait for the next one to come along. but this, and this is important, is the distinguishing factor: good music makes you dance, memorably good music has staying power. that is the difference between my sigur ros and sam sparro.

just because you listen to pop doesn't mean you like axe body spray or are a business major (i have yet to conclude my study on whether the inverse is true: does using axe body spray make you a business major?) - it just means that you probably like to have a good time. and most of the people i've met over here like to have a good time.

-e


sam sparro's black & gold


black & gold on bbc radio 1