\u201cHere\u2019s the important thing to remember: people throw around the term pop music and it has various meanings now. I think it\u2019s really a misnomer. It\u2019s a critical trap. Pop music, is from the term popular music and the term came up in what was called the golden era of songwriting, which was Gershwin and Berlin and Porter and those people. And that was extraordinarily popular music \u2013 they were writing the hit songs of the day. It was also acknowledged that the best songwriters were writing the best songs of the day. Everyone knew this. George Gershwin was as gifted a musician as has ever walked the earth and as good a songwriter as has ever walked the earth. So that was popular music. It got shortened to pop in the \u201860s with the whole quote unquote pop art revolution and the Beatles being the ultimate expression of what was popular and also clearly considered one of the great artistic events of the last half of the twentieth century. So fine, you\u2019ve got this melding of things and things like Motown – these guys were sitting around trying to write hits. The Beatles were trying to outdo each other to see who would have the single. There was infighting about this stuff. And the winner would get something like \u201c We Can Work It Out\u201d in the process. It\u2019s kind of amazing, and the song is unlike anything made before or since, in truth. Think about what an odd piece of unique business that is. And it was hugely successful. So that\u2019s what it was and then it became pop music. But then ever since the punk movement, with power pop \u2013 those bands weren\u2019t necessarily popular but they were all sort of blown out of the Beatles mode but some sort of modification of that \u2013 in that case it was amped up tempo-wise, people started, within the underground music community, referring to pop as anything that had the \u201860s brightness and attention to melody. And that\u2019s now what it means when people say things like, \u201cOh, it\u2019s sort of a pop band.\u201d It means it\u2019s melodic and upbeat. And that is not pop music currently. Pop music right now would be Britney Spears. That\u2019s popular music. Now to what extent that music actually has great melodies\u2026 not too much. I think her records \u2026 the song \u201cToxic\u201d has a very very clear melodic hook and to me that\u2019s good pop music, it\u2019s good ear candy \u2013 it super glossy but it\u2019s glossy that pays off. They\u2019re being creative in their glossiness. It\u2019s like the top of the Chrysler building \u2013 very bright. It is a glittery object and it works. The other popular music I\u2019m not hearing a lot. It\u2019s great when I hear something like the White Stripes kicking through, I\u2019m happy for the humanity it represents. There\u2019s not a lot to admire on the charts currently. And I\u2019m a total lover of popular music and popular culture and soak it all up and think there\u2019s interesting stuff to be had in our time that wasn\u2019t possible before. But I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good time for melody or song craft. And also records increasingly became just about a drum loop and nothing else. And to me, if the drum loop is always two bars and is always just loosely to some extent based on the great discovery that James Brown made 40 years ago, I don\u2019t know\u2026 I\u2019d rather listen tot that moment of invention. And it\u2019s still, generally at least, funk as the modern thing that\u2019s doing that. If not more so. So I see this as a quagmire\u2026we could go further and further. Is it a good moment for melody? No. Is it a good moment for song structure? No. Does that mean it\u2019s dead? No. When you hear a record that\u2019s really something different – a lot of those things that the Neptunes have done – there\u2019s some real inventiveness there and they\u2019re also popular. To me that\u2019s like a good version of, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re trying to make a version of This Year\u2019s Model. We\u2019re trying to make something slick that pays off.\u2019 Hip-hop\u2019s been the most interesting thing to watch for 20 years. It\u2019s not a new phenomenon. Since the \u201880s, overground popular music has been pretty shitty except for that moment in the early \u201990s when the gatekeepers let a few people through. And hip-hop has at least had various eras of amazing invention. If you take all the great Run DMC records with all the great juxtapositions there. It\u2019s hard and it was funny and it was pure hip-hop and also rock and it was underground and popular. There was so much duality running through that. Same with the moment that Public Enemy arrived and it was like, \u2018This is the motherfucking future. Rock!\u2019 Chuck D was so on his game so on point and so fucking smart. Hip-hop has offered the most invention although I actually feel in the past decade it was really lumbering in its own clich\u00e9s to the extent that I was disappointed heartily and that\u2019s part of the reason why I feel Outkast is such a blessing. To come out and go, \u2018Guess what? Our attitude is so completely different and we don\u2019t care if you agree with it.\u2019 It\u2019s all great, the whole history of that band is just great, and the fact that somebody like Andre is a hip-hop icon but, in truth, is just this crazed creative pop musician\u2026 Outkast represent very much what I love each guy has their own thing is both a totally beautiful respected cool individualist thing and it\u2019s widely popular. To me that\u2019s just the coolest that the song \u2018Hey Ya\u2019 is this weird creative burst of energy that it is and that it was the hugest song of the year\u2026 To me, I feel like when I hear that, I hear the great feeling of when you hear the early Beck stuff being successful and think that he can be on the radio or the great moment in the \u201880s when everything was sucking and suddenly Prince becomes massively successful and a song like \u2018When the Doves Cry\u2019 was the inescapable song of the year but you look at it and go, \u2018Wait a minute, this song has no bass on it, he is singing like a complete madman, there\u2019s these weird electronic noises\u2026\u2019 There was a period of four or five Prince records in a row that were the most artistic records being made at the moment and the most popular. The fact that that is a complete circuit is bewilderingly beautiful to me.\u201d
\n\t-Jon Brion on the current use of the word \u201cpop\u201d<\/p>\n
Note: the exact date I conducted this interview isn’t entirely clear. However, based on the recent references, I suspect this was from 4 or 5 years ago, pre-shaved head\/nutso Britney.<\/p>\n