What Is It About Music That We Actually Judge?

When comparing songs from the fifties to now the lyrics or what we believe to be the heart of the song, are almost unimportant because they have stayed for the most part steady. However, the extra textual things that surround the song and the artist affect judgments most. Ultimately here, what is it that affects our ways to judge a song and an artist and the genre it is in? Are extra textual aspects of the culture we live in highly representative of the nature we believe to be behind the song?

Take pop for example, a very well known genre of music created in the 1950s soon after changing a little bit into R&B as well. For a long time pop songs have been affiliated with a very wide group of listeners. It was introduced as a type of music that all listeners would enjoy. Something that was catchy and even made you repeat it in your head after it was done playing. Parents liked this music because it wasn’t really vulgar and if something was being hinted at the music and beats hid any bad connotation.   

Not that pop has changed since then because in a lot of ways it hasn’t at all. But has our world changed to a more dangerous one since then or did they just do a good job of hiding it before? Drugs, alcohol, and sex have forever been associated with the music industry and this is known. Take for example these two different videos, one of of a huge pop song from the 1950s and one of a huge pop song now. Try to see the differences I’m getting at. See the body language of the people in the video and watch what they are doing. See if the lyrics seem pretty similar but all of the other things we sometimes forget about are not. Notice how different they are. Notice how similar they are.

The first video is the song "Save The Last Dance For Me" from The Drifters, a band back in the 1960’s that was known as one of the many groups to change the boring music industry into something enjoyable. Essentially this song is about how a man doesn’t care if his woman is indecisive at the moment but he wants to be able to have the last dance with her. He wants to be able to take her home. The underlying hint of him wanting to sleep with her doesn’t matter here because music videos were not popular yet, and just through the innocent performance you can't really tell. The men in the group are dressed nicely and look parent presentable per say. There are very few extra textual aspects here; all I really notice is a sense of upper class or a wealthier vibe. This song is being performed on stage to only people that can afford it. Because the upper class rich, and white people were the ones listening here, they were the ones who decide what the nature was that was behind the song and group. The Drifters were labeled from their listeners then and now as a very an influential group leaving a positive mark on Pop and R&B culture.

The second video is Justin Bieber's new song "What Do You Mean?". When Justin Bieber first came out as a new Pop artist in 2009 with his first album, I would definitely argue he was innocent and for all listeners. However he is currently in balls deep with fame and somehow it has gotten to him. He has now fit himself into the stereotypical group of Pop/R&B singers that let the extra textual things get to them and changes their style of music. Now his new music makes him seem like a bad boy. This particular music video starts off with some type of exchange for money, he is covered in tattoos and the scene around him and his friends seem scary. This is not the type of music that families would listen to, however one of his first songs "Baby" would be. The extra textual aspects in Justin's new video and the Pop culture now have definitely changed over the years. Not in terms of how the words come across or the actual lyrics but everything else around it. 

We don't realize how we judge music; we ignore some things and focus heavily on others often missing the aspects that are actually important. Listening to a certain artist or genre is often affiliated with what morals you have, what you think is right, or just. My argument here is, has the culture behind Pop music changed? Does it still aim to target and resonate with lots of listeners, or is it not so many at all now?

Works Cited

"Justin Bieber- What Do You Mean? (1 Hour Loop)." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

"The Drifters - Save The Last Dance For Me." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

""Save The Last Dance For Me" Lyrics." THE DRIFTERS LYRICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

"The Drifters - Save The Last Dance For Me." The Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone, n.d. Web.