In Defense of Pop Music Analysis

Pop Music is consistently underrated and underanalyzed when it comes to people actually seriously interpreting its meaning. And it’s a huge shame too because for many years now, a number of pop stars have been increasingly using layers of meaning in their lyrics, in addition to also telling stories with their music videos, stage visuals, outfit and costume choices, and even with PR narratives.

You have The Chick's, whose use of consistent visual “branding” inspired Taylors album design and “Eras” then our current gen of pop stars have been inspired by Taylor. The legions of young performers who were inspired by her learned from her use of deep, layered lyrics, and have been inspired to write the same.

And obviously Beyonce is the blueprint for what a performer should be. And I don't necessarily mean that every performer is going to do every single thing as well as Beyonce… everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, but Beyonce knows how to use her concerts

And we know so many of these performers are smart, well read, well experienced in media culture. It frustrates me how much analysis of pop music often is treated as a waste of time. I get comments of “it's not that deep” far more when I'm analyzing pop music than I do anything else.

But it is that deep and it is worth discussing, so let’s have a chat about why Pop Music Analysis is important, especially now.

00:00 Introduction
01:07 The State of Pop
03:19 Music Has Power
07:31 Art is Meant to be Interpreted
17:55 On Misogyny
20:53 Fandom Culture
21:33 In Conclusion


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KEYWORDS:
pop music analysis,analyzing pop music,media literacy,interpreting pop music,pop music is art,art is meant to be interpreted,music analysis,Taylor Swift analysis,lyrical analysis