By Andrew Van BaalStaff Writer
Though you might sooner endure a slow, tortuous death than declareyourself a pop fan in the year 2000, when the term is most commonlyassociated with juvenile boy bands and their female equivalents (whatI like to call ‘belly bands’), there’s not a soul among us who hasn’tbeen moved by the melody of a simple, catchy tune.
Good pop songs stick around in our collective consciousness farlonger than supposedly more important things — does anyone know thewords to Isaac Newton’s “Law of Gravity” as well as they know MichaelJackson’s “Billie Jean”? Whether they tug on our heartstrings, compelour feet to dance, or both, pop songs have the power to unite people,and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.
“Everybody in the world needs pop music,” said one of its leadingpresent-day innovators, Bjork, “just like they need politics, theirpay, and oxygen to breathe. The problem is that too many peopledismiss pop as crap because nobody has had the courage to make popthat’s relevant to the modern world.”
Au contraire, Bjork-darling. If one looks beyond themoney-grubbing shlop-pop smearing the airwaves, it’s not difficult tosee that there’s still a number of artists who believe in makingquality pop for the masses.
Chief among them is Jon Brion, producer and multi-instrumentalistextraordinaire who knows “pop is a much maligned form of musicbecause the assumption is that it is not deep, that it’s shallowmusic … it’s really defined by the quality of melody, lyrics andchord changes.”
Personal definitions are important, because pop can be an elusive,confusing term. According to writer R.M. Manning, in its broadestdefinition, “Pop music is, essentially, whatever is most popular withthe people at any given time.”
Similarly, seminal vibraphonist and Berkeley College of Music vicepresident Gary Burton defines pop as, “Music made by American artistsin the popular field. It doesn’t matter whether it’s hip hop or rapor whatever.”
But within the definition of pop as an all-encompassing term,there are as many different forms as there are musical influencesthat can be squeezed into the duration of a four-minute song.
Burton concedes that “there used to be one ‘hit parade,’ one ‘top10.’ Now there are so many different categories and subcategories,that the name of the game is diversity. It’s an incredible range ofchoice, something that suits your mood for any occasion.”
Among pop’s myriad subcategories we have pop-rock, jazz-pop,Brit-pop, New Wave, pop-punk and endless new variations created asfast as the major music magazines can coin cross-breeding phrases todescribe them (cross-genre pop artist Beck gets the worst of it bybeing routinely described as pop-folk-hip-hop-country-dance-R andB-funk-trash-rock).
A small but steadily growing wave of new, “indie-pop” pioneersdefine their pop in terms of stylistic conventions set forth by theoriginal pioneers — groups like The Beatles, The Beach Boys andproducer Phil Spector. Three-minute songs,verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure and sharply-definedhooks. There’s a new body of pop emerging that places its emphasis ontasteful songwriting and dense production.
Jon Brion is at the forefront of this movement. His Friday nightgigs at the Largo pub in Los Angeles remind us just how great pop canbe when it’s made with respect, musicality, innovation and a genuinedesire to connect with its audience (as opposed to connecting with aquick buck). Described as a “pop music salon — a sonic Algonquinround table for the post-Beatles set,” Largo has become the gatheringplace for the new pop aficionados on the west coast.
In addition to housing Brion’s considerable talent and spontaneousenergy, the small club on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood has played hostto luminaries such as (the aforementioned) Beck, Michael Stipe, ElvisCostello, Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, Beth Orton and Grant Lee Phillips.Brion’s original songs — featured on his debut solo album”Meaningless,” available only through artistdirect.com startingDecember 11th — hearken back to the days when pop musicians wereactually musicians and not, to quote a Frank Zappa song, “DancingFools.”
Like the other present-day pop practitioners mentioned here,Brion’s songs may be rooted in the traditions of the past, but theyhave a decidedly modern, progressive feel, interpreting anestablished form with an experimental sensibility.
Los Angeles seems to be a hotbed for quality pop these days.Another performer who’s graced the Largo stage many times is ElliottSmith, whose melodies remind us of late-era Beatles. Dreamworks ispromoting his new album “Figure 8” as the second coming of thepre-eminence of the singer/songwriter in American pop (the firsthaving occurred in the late ’60s). Unlike most advertising execs,they might not be stretching the truth beyond believability.
Smith’s music is, as L.A. Weekly music critic Alec Hanley Bemisputs it, “dramatic and pathetic, loud and soft, anonymous andparticular, all at once.” Elliott Smith’s songs do what all great popmusic should — make us feel.
British author Nick Hornby describes that emotive power in abittersweet passage from his first novel, “High Fidelity” — “…whenI hear those sweet, sticky acoustic guitar chords, I reinvent ourtime together, and, before I know it, we’re in the car trying to singthe harmonies on ‘Love Hurts’ and getting it wrong and laughing. Wenever did that in real life. We never sang in the car, and we neverlaughed when we got something wrong. This is why I shouldn’t belistening to pop music at the moment.”
Indeed, most artists — and that includes pop musicians — willtell you the bottom-line isn’t money; it’s emotion. Bjork said themost crucial thing a pop song can do is to allow the listener to”relate to it, go deep into it and know that it matters and makes adifference for you. It doesn’t have to be some existential artypiece, it can just be a song that everybody can sing along to. But ithas to touch you for that moment.”
