I Love Pop Music (And That’s Okay)

Why Music-Shaming Needs To End

I love pop music. Deeply. Unconditionally.

I’m that obnoxious person who — when the new Gaga album leaked on Saturday evening — spent all evening studiously ignoring everyone in my house, only getting up for drinks and to pee, and ended up dancing like a lunatic in my kitchen for everyone to see.

Amazingly, though, the idea of being this passionate about something is not treated as being bad in of itself, but the minute people learn that it’s — shock horror! — pop music, I immediately get the Look.

The one that questions every taste or decision or personality quirk that I’ve ever expressed internally or externally. Like all of a sudden, liking pop music is correlated negatively to a decreasing IQ or ‘coolness’ or something else.

And don’t get me wrong — it is not everyone. It really is not and if you find yourself surrounded by friends who are at best supportive and worst ambivalent, that is AWESOME. Go, you.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case. My best friend, for example, is absolutely not a pop fan at all and a running joke amongst my friends is that I am not all anywhere near Spotify at a party, as if my pop music tastes and inclinations are either a) infectious, b) a sign of terrible taste in other aspects of my life, or c) invalid in the face of ‘proper’ music.

Seriously. Enough.

I get it if you don’t like pop — that is fine, that’s cool. I don’t listen to pop music all the time (point in fact I think everyone should listen to as many different kinds of music as they can). If I’m the only one at a party who likes pop — and I know it — then I’m absolutely fine with letting rock or R&B or whatever dominate the airwaves. Chances are I’ll like that too.

Still, the idea that a single genre noted for being mainstream should become the whipping boy for the whole of music is unfair and misguided. Point in fact, ALL music shaming should end because I promise you that even if you’re the biggest rock fan in the universe, you might find a pop song or a hip-hop song or an ambient song that you love. That you honest to goodness, head-to-heel just plain love.

Shaming stuff in the mainstream has become such a thrill for some purveyors of music — it’s so easy, so lazy, to make fun of the music of Britney Spears or Lady Gaga or Katy Perry, for no other reason that it is ‘pop’. If you have genuine critiques, then that’s great! Bring them on in a reasoned argument, rather than the disdainful dismissal pop fans are so used to hearing all the time.

There’s a song on the new Gaga album called ‘Gypsy’, which, despite the slightly-culturally-ignorant title, is an amazing pop song. It’s beautiful and has a great production and a euphoric rush that I love. I’m totally okay with maybe being the only one to love the song amongst my immediate friends, but I want it to not even be an issue. Everyone’s musical tastes are valid, folks, even those of us who would rather eschew the latest rock anthem and opt for the latest pop tune. Let’s all try and get along, shall we?