Friday Five Pop Radio

So . . . Now that the new album is in post production I can finally listen to music on the radio again.

The reason for the self imposed pop music boycott is simple. While I'm working I am highly influenced by the sounds around me and my sub conscience will willingly adopt/incorporate/steal anything it can get its grubby little hands on.

I'll spend weeks on a piece only to realize that I've just rewritten "Yesterday" with the original scrambled eggs lyrics.

Yet this sonic diet has lasted almost four years and although the twelve notes haven't changed, there have been some interesting developments since the last time I switched from my local NPR station.

So here we go:

Five things I've learned about pop music this week:

1. Justin Beiber really is really that bad.

For someone who has been as culturally ever present as this little Canadian import, I assumed there would be at least some redeemable quality in his work. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Can't change the channel fast enough.

2. Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, 

Katie Perry and Taylor Swift 

have all gotten much much worse, 

while Pink has gotten much much better.

The pop girls have become imitations of their own parodies. In contrast, Pink has got some writing and producing chops. There is a duet on her new album that is just breath taking.

3. If Maroon 5 did it, it must be good.

I've teased Adam Levine before, but its ridiculous the amount of airtime he's getting. I found three different Maroon 5 songs on three different stations playing at the same time. What's more amazing, I discovered that they don't even write all there own material. Which means that there is a demo version of "Moves Like Jagger" out in the universe. A demo version which must have been selected over thousands of other submissions. That shit wasn't just an accident, it was a fucking choice.

4. Auto-Tune is a playable instrument.

Everyone now knows that Auto-Tune is pitch correcting software. Singer sings off key and Auto Tune will automatically tune it. By now we've also grown accustomed to the sound it makes at the beginning of each note as it drags the wave length up or down to stay in key. What you might not know is that in order to get that way-wah sound, the vocalist has to be REALLY off key. Which is REALLY hard to do. So now I'm imagining hip hop session where some guy at a mixing board is saying something like "Sorry Jay Z, you're just too good with the pitches, lets try it again, only this time I gotta feel you suck more."

5. Regardless of time, technology, and taste, there is still only two kinds of music.

Good and not.