How to Create a Pop Star

Last night I watched most of the movie this came from.  Really cool stuff.  But this is the most brilliant part of the movie.  I don't HATE many forms of music, but I absolutely HATE pop music with a passion, and this is why:

Calling a pop musician an artist is like calling someone who can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a chef.

1:50 - 2:05
Forgive for sounding harsh, but, assuming that this wasn't a rehearsal, good gravy was that bad!

2:21 - 2:28
Um, a little better, I guess?

BTW, that was for the first video, not the Stevie Wonder song.


Edited by KingCrInuYasha - June 01 2012 at 21:14

rogerthat wrote: dtguitarfan wrote: Calling a pop musician an artist is like calling someone who can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a chef. So is calling you a music lover a bit like comparing Hitler to Martin Luther King?   Here, pop music. So much for making better sandwiches than the gourmet chef that fails hard, then.

Stevie Wonder is NOT a pop star in the sense that is being referred to in this thread. He is an R&B and funk musician who has had great success despite his unfortunate case of being born blind.

By the way, I listened to that album last night. Great stuff, I love "Golden Lady".

darkshade wrote: Stevie Wonder is NOT a pop star in the sense that is being referred to in this thread. He is an R&B and funk musician who has had great success despite his unfortunate case of being born blind. By the way, I listened to that album last night. Great stuff, I love "Golden Lady".

THANK YOU.  Someone who knows what I'm talking about.

dtguitarfan wrote: rogerthat wrote: dtguitarfan wrote: Calling a pop musician an artist is like calling someone who can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a chef. So is calling you a music lover a bit like comparing Hitler to Martin Luther King?   Here, pop music. So much for making better sandwiches than the gourmet chef that fails hard, then. First of all, you're not making sense. Second of all, Stevie Wonder was way more than pop. He was soul, funk, jazzy, all kinds of influences all boiled into one very unique package. I'm talking about something very different - I'm talking about the music pollution that these corporations are churning out - producing "artists" by the hundreds every year that sound EXACTLY like every other pop artist...because duh, they slap together the same dang chord progressions in the same rhythm and use the same melodic patterns as every other pop standard out there. Stevie Wonder does not fall into this category. Stevie Wonder did something new.

Define "pop genre".  No such thing as that. It has always been only a mix of contemporaneous music influences.  Stevie Wonder may have done it better than most others, but it's still pop music.  Pop music is simply accessible music revolving around a chorus that is intended for a large audience.   The point is there is nothing inherently wrong with pop music that makes pop artists all those things that you mentioned.  Proof being that you also have tr00, uber kvlt heavy f****ing metal bands who sound exactly like each other.  You also have celebrated rock bands who make the same album at least 10 times over.   That has nothing to do with the nature of pop music.

And what of Tom Petty, Paul Simon, Stevie Nicks, George Harrison, Prince, Tori Amos, Seal?   Whether you like them or not, all high quality Pop artists.

I believe the topic of this thread is "How To Create A (late-2000s/early2010s) Pop Star

rogerthat wrote: darkshade wrote: I believe the topic of this thread is "How To Create A (late-2000s/early2010s) Pop Star Like Norah Jones?  She's not half bad either.  Pretty good, I should say, though I am not terribly fond of her work.

No, she's been around for a while now. We're talking about pop artists like Lady Gaga, Justin Beaver, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Rebecca Black, etc... The ones who can't really sing and rely on auto-tune to the max.


Edited by darkshade - June 01 2012 at 21:49

Ugh. Just go watch "Before the Music Dies" - it makes my point much better than I ever could. It's about companies, headed by people who know nothing about music telling artists what to do and grabbing pretty people who have absolutely no musical talent and using tricks to make them seem better than they are. It's about focus groups listening to ten second clips and these results being used to determine if music should be invested in.