Pop music relies on several different factors in order to survive. Namely, it has to be catchy. The song has to seize your ears and ask the question, “What is this?” After hearing the answer uttered by a record store clerk or radio announcer you’ll say to yourself, “Of course! I should have known.” Now, it’s time to be honest with yourself. Should you really have known who did that track? Do you benefit? Does the song benefit? Is the artist important to your decision to like or dislike a song?
In his essay, “Death of the Author” Roland Barthes states, “To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text, to furnish it with a final signified to close the writing.” Taking these ideas into account when looking at pop music allows for the over-the-top lives of most of America’s pop stars to be removed from the listener’s perception of a song. Acceptability is important to the success of pop music; the genre’s significance comes from its overarching appeal. By removing the artist the listener enables him or herself to truly understand the implications of a song. The signified is no longer implied by authorship, it is handled by the listener.
Pop music isn’t well known for its originality, but is often lauded for its ability to create a representation of society. “We know now that a text is not a line of words releasing a single theological meaning,” says Barthes, “but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writing, none of them original, blend and clash.” In this respect, pop music functions as a combination of influences the world over. All of which, without the star, can be heard and understood by a large nation and reflected upon differently. The listener can accept a star and their persona of the moment, hearing a song in various ways– even if a song remains consistent to the one moment of creation. Removing the artist it increases the longevity of a song and enhances the listening experience.
One of the most interesting aspects of pop music is its universal appeal to listeners. It operates in each and every moment differently, and can often transcend time. This is an important fact to consider when removing the pop star. If a song can be looked at individually, without the spectacle that surrounds a star, it can be deciphered and decoded much more accurately. This is helpful when considering that pop music often functions as a reflection of society’s ideals. Consider that after the September 11 attacks, John Lennon’s “Imagine” was one of the most widely requested songs at radio stations. At the time of its original release in 1971, the song’s meaning was drastically different than it was after September 11. The lyrics, “Imagine there’s no heaven / it’s easy if you try… imagine there’s no country/ it isn’t hard to do / nothing to kill or die for / and no religion too” once symbolized a singers ideals and have more recently become an anthem for a nation in mourning. This was a case in which the listener was able to relinquish the star in order to apply their own feelings to a text, and exemplifies why the removal of pop-stardom is essential for a listener’s understanding both of their society as well a song.
Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” is another example of the death of authorship allowing for a new way to experience and understand a song. Regardless of his intentions, the song has become an Independence Day tradition. According to several interviews, the effect was unintentional on Springsteen’s part, but the fact remains that the collective listening public has decided that Springsteen’s intentions aren’t important. What is important is what the listener takes away from the listening experience, and in the case of “Born in the U.S.A.” it’s a sense of pride.
The two above examples came years after the songs were originally released. It may be difficult to imagine “Womanizer,” Britney Spears newest single being anything more than a sugar-coated pop footnote, but by removing Spears’ the performer and accepting the songs steady beat and simple message one may find oneself more open to the song down the road. By removing the stigma that is Spears, the song’s already universal appeal can be broadened even further, effectively selling more records and garnering a better following. There are pop icons who will argue that they are just as important as their creations, that these two things are inseparable. It is that egoism that keeps pop culture from being transcendent and from being truly universally appealing.
When a listener can remove a star’s identity, it allows for the music to speak for itself. With pop music it creates an experience that is shared with a large collective of people. The song is given the capacity to change meaning according to a societies need and the collective listeners are allowed to have their own signified.
In the end, the birth of the listener must be at the cost of the death of the star.
As the Democratic National Convention starts really sticking its claws into the city, mixtapes and protest songs are popping up everywhere. But what are those of us on the “meh” side of the political spectrum supposed to do? Especially all of us being forced into it by our work or home’s proximity to downtown. What are we going to listen while New York Times journalists blog away their days at Starbucks?
Abba – “Another Town, Another Train”
Taking a trip on the train will be a new occurrence to many, as parking will be impossible in downtown. “I guess (you’ll) be spending life in railway stations.” But at least you can look back on the DNC and remember that “Nothing lost and nothing gained.”
Cee-Lo/Goodie Mob – “Cell Therapy”
While you’re walking home or taking the bus, you might come across some protest pens filled with grizzled Braveheart-looking youngsters looking ready for action. But don’t worry, they’re in their cells, but Cee-Lo still asks the question, “Who’s that peeking in my window?” Don’t worry, it’s just a reporter from Slate.com.
Dismemberment Plan – “Come Home”
The opening line, “Called in sick to work today, couldn’t have gotten a damn thing done,” sounds like your life eh? Too bad you couldn’t call in sick since all the smart people took the week of the DNC off months ago. Sucker.
I’m from Barcelona – “Chicken Pox”
There are a lot of songs in this world that just need a few changes and all the sudden they are about something else. All you really need to do is change the title of this song to “DNC,” and the line, “As a kid I had the chicken pox… and I don’t ever want to go through that again,” to “As a kid I was at the DNC…” It’s a good thing you can’t have it once you had it, right?
Elton John – “Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word”
If you happen to be caught in between any of the “shit” then you might find yourself searching for an apology, either from the officer who nabbed you with a gelatinous spider web (they have those right?) or from the protestor who accidently covered your pearl white power suit in a urine bomb… just remember, it might never come, after all, “sorry seems to be the hardest word.”
George Harrison – “All Things Must Pass”
Are smoke bombs, long lines at Jamba Juice and traffic jams getting you down? Fret not, George Harrison has your mantra, “it’s not always going to be this way, all things must pass, all things must pass away.” The Pinups – “Lookin’ For Boys”
You know what a lot of journalists and politicians are? Boys! So get on you bikini and “go lookin’ around, east side, west side, all over town.” Girls, now is your time – take those rich gonzo boys for all they got, fries and burgers galore!
Bruce Haack – “National Anthem to the Moon”
So the U.S. is where you live, but that doesn’t mean you have to sing that silly national anthem and be proud during the convention. Nope, you can sing along to Bruce Haack’s own anthem with lines like, “Love me now, before you have to go away… Nothing stays the same and things are changing every day, make it now while we have time to make it all the way.” Now if that isn’t a definition of “change” I don’t know what is.
Justice – “D.A.N.C.E.”
You ever notice that if you were to try to pronounce DNC it would come out “dance?” Yeah, that’s right, maybe it’s just the media coverage seeping into by water-blogged brain, but I’m pretty sure this song says, “Easy as ABC, do the DNC.” Just remember, “black or white it doesn’t matter… whatever happens, do the DNC.”
Tom Waits – “What’s He Building?”
Many of us haven’t had a chance to see what’s going on inside the Pepsi Center, which leaves us begging the question, “What the hell is he building in there? He has subscriptions to those magazines, he’s hiding things from the rest of us… what about all those packages he send?” So Obama, what are you building in there? Not a playhouse for the children that’s for sure, “change,” perhaps?
I’m not one to generally go about internet-Bush-bashing, but this was one of more funny clips from our president’s legacy, and sounds too much like something King Thor might have said. Perhaps that’s were he’s run off to than? Into Bush’s body? Only time will tell.
In celebration of the birth of Woody Guthrie, we here in Thoronia thought we’d kick out some of our favorite Guthrie/Guthrie inspired jams. It’s no mistake that we follow many of the same rules as Woody, in particular his thoughts on copyright, which have influenced us greatly:
“This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin’ it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”
Thanks Woody, your complete distaste for “song ownership” has made the copyfight a far more interesting battle — if all musicians and artists would simply accept the fact that fans will be bigger fans with freedom, perhaps the music industry can learn to expand and change. Until then, here are some songs, some rare, and a video of Springsteen performing “I Ain’t Got No Home.”
