Music

Mainstream music is a divisive issue, even for people who barely have a music taste to speak of. It evokes rage in some as if it were on par with war crimes or bad parking. In some, it causes greatly thought-provoking rhetoric, which often makes me feel that they haven't had much go wrong in their lives to have honed such a beautiful argument for such a frivolous topic. I, admittedly, am quite the music snob. I have the most extreme views on music. For instance, I don’t like The Beatles. They weren’t revolutionary. They were good at what they did, but they didn’t change the face of music. Someone else would have gotten around to producing the same dull crap that they did. Everyone knows that ‘Eight Days A Week’ was their best song, anyway.

I’m not trolling. I don’t like The Beatles. But the chances are that you don’t like my favourite bands. Music taste is based solely on opinion, and I love that. I love that people can have completely different music tastes but can have a favourite song in common. And this is often where mainstream music shows itself to be useful.

I like mainstream music. Mainstream music is not the enemy. Pop is not a dirty word. The two saddest songs that I’ve ever heard are ‘Hurt’ by Johnny Cash (the NIN version is bullshit) and ‘Better The Devil You Know’ by Kylie Minogue. The fact that one song is sung by an old man and piano whereas the other one is synthesised and was written by three balding men is irrelevant. I’m not comparing them, don’t get upset over that. They are two completely different songs but they both create the same emotion within me.

Just because the song is in the chart doesn’t take away its true value. Adele has just reclaimed the album top-spot for her twelfth week. Just because it’s popular doesn’t make it any less good. Fucking hipsters with your secret underground belief system. Put on some Britney and chill the fuck out.