Stop complaining about pop music already

A while back on Buzzfeed there was a list of 12 incredibly depressing facts about pop music and how all these truly great bands are overshadowed by inferior ones.

Well, what else do you expect? The "pop" in pop music is short for popular. So yes, I think it's reasonable to assume that music created and marketed to appeal to broader audiences will tend to sell quite well, as opposed to works that may be "great" but which will be more divisive. This is why pizza and hamburgers are more popular than other "better" dishes: mass-market appeal. How many people do you know who will say that they absolutely hate pizza and won't eat it no matter how hungry they get? How many people say that about crab? (I do)

But I want to break apart #8 on this list, the only comparison between two major pop artists. Katy Perry has as many #1 singles off of Teenage Dream as Michael Jackson has off a single album. Come on?! The King of Pop upstaged by Katy Perry? Is that even possible??

Just a minute there because I have a bubble to burst. The big disappointment is that Thriller is not the album we're talking about here. Only two songs off Thriller reached #1 and neither of them were "Thriller". Things are about to get Bad.

For reference, here are the 5 singles off Bad that reached #1:
"Bad" (well, kind of obvious there)
"I Just Can't Stop Loving You"

"The Way You Make Me Feel"
"Man in the Mirror"
"Dirty Diana"

Now, how many of those songs can you actually remember? How many would you call great or even good? How many of them are just 80s pop songs that get stuck in your head and you want nothing more than to get them out, with a drill if possible? "Smooth Criminal" is probably the song that gets the most airplay off that album and it never reached #1.

For comparison, here's the songs off Teenage Dream that charted at #1
"Teenage Dream"
"Firework"
"California Girls" (which I refuse to spell with 'gurls' (sic) Only Prince gets a pass on improper spelling because he's Prince and if he wants to spell you as U I'm going to let him. Noblesse oblige and all that)
"Last Friday Night"
"E.T."

Now, I'll admit I hate "California Girls" with a fiery passion, and "E.T" does nothing for me, but the rest of the #1 singles... well they're not bad. Works of genius they're not, but at least 'Last Friday Night" has the self-awareness to include a gratuitous sax solo. Compare that with so many 80s soundtracks where the sax was sincerely thought to be an improvement. These are songs that are at least enjoyable and not likely to make me want to punch small children in malls when I hear them.

Mano-a-mano the two albums aren't so dissimilar. Only a few songs off Bad had any real staying power, and in all likelihood only two or three off Teenage Dream will be heard on the radio in 25 years time. Which for a pop album is damn good. Let's not forget that pop music is inherently about The Now and over time songs that capture what it means to remember a time period are the ones that stay around.

I will admit to one major distinction between the two performers: Michael Jackson had the good taste to write most of his own material on Bad, while the 5 singles off Teenage Dream all bear the mark of Dr. Luke, pop songwriter extraordinaire. Which is to say that any of those could have been handed off to any number of pop songsmiths, with very similar results. But it's not as though pop music fans care about things like artistic integrity and a singular unified vision behind an album. Come on, it's not like it's rock and roll or anything.