Pop music: the TV dinner of our cultural diet
In a world of infinite choice, why destroy your soul with factory-manufactured poison?
“Pop music today is like a candy store where everything tastes the same, all sugar and no substance.”
— Thom Yorke, Radiohead
Pop music is significantly worse now, but the reality is it’s been throwaway music for decades. It's essentially the frozen TV dinner of genres, and depressingly enough, some are indeed fine with eating metaphoric frozen food forever. But once you discover fresh-made cuisine, you likely can't go back. It doesn’t just taste better, you physically feel better after consuming it. Your world is richer, horizons larger, consciousness broadly more present and alive.
Some even decide they care enough to cook their own, and with modern software giving everyone a pro quality studio right on their laptop, this is now easily possible (for those with ambition, I know asking a lot here). Anyway, the TV dinner comparison, while simple, touches on a modern cultural truth: people choose paths of easy satisfaction/convenience versus the deeper fulfillment of real nourishment.
So what does this say about us as a culture? Are we simply the passive consumers of aural fast food, or is there something deeper at play? Plato, in his Republic, warned about the dangers of art that appeals to baser instincts, arguing that it can corrupt the soul. Depressingly, here we are, spooning up daily helpings of childish lyrics, predictable chord progressions (if they exist at all) and autotuned vocals, seemingly indifferent to the impoverishment of our musical diet and slowly decaying souls. And even if you’d like to avoid it, it’s nearly impossible as it’s quite literally piped in most places outside against our will.
The very nature of pop music is its ephemerality. It’s designed to be consumed quickly, enjoyed superficially, and discarded without much thought. Theodor Adorno, a critical theorist of the Frankfurt School, posited that the culture industry churns out these products to keep us docile, distracted, and perpetually unsatisfied, much like the TV dinner analogy. The more we consume, the less we think; the less we think, the easier we are to control. Pop music, then, becomes not just a reflection of our times, but an instrument of our oppression.
Why do we tolerate this? Jean-Paul Sartre might argue that we are in "bad faith" – we deceive ourselves into believing that this is the music we want because the alternative, embracing the "fresh-made cuisine," requires effort, discernment, and, most disturbingly for many, the confrontation of our own freedom. It’s far easier to surrender to the repetitive, empty charms of pop streaming algos serve than to engage in the existential project of finding something authentic, that awakens our spirit and rouses us to action to improve ourselves and our surroundings.
“Modern pop music feels like it's been focus-grouped to death. There's no heart, no real passion.”
— Beck Hansen
Those who turn away from pop, who “care enough to cook their own,” are engaging in an act of rebellion against this cultural malaise. Nietzsche, with his concept of the Übermensch, might see these individuals as those who have transcended the herd mentality, who have chosen to forge their own path in the face of nihilism. They reject the prefab for the handcrafted, the empty for the genuine, the easy for the meaningful.
To cook your own, metaphorically speaking, is to invite both the possibility of failure and the burden of responsibility. It’s a daunting task that requires a degree of bravery, creativity and, above all, a willingness to endure the solitude that accompanies those who swim against the current. As someone who personally attempts this, not for fame or attention just as a personal mission, I know intimately the journey required. But isn’t this why we’re here? To find real meaning, not simply exist as passive consumers?
And here lies the crux of the matter: in a world where pop music reigns supreme, those who dare to seek out or create something more substantial (or at the very least different/unique) must do so with the knowledge that their efforts will likely be unrecognized, their tastes misunderstood, their creations overlooked. It’s a leap of faith, an act of individual defiance against the mass-produced simulacra of modernity. I would still rather exist here alone, or at least (thanks to the internet) with a small group that won’t submit to dystopian, vapid aesthetics. Degeneracy will kill a civilization but doesn’t have to kill your soul personally if you can minimize exposure to it.
Wrapping up…
Of all our cultural institution decay, I still think music is suffering the most. Degradation of pop is not just a commentary on the state of an industry but a reflection of our collective psyche. I am hoping the culinary metaphor works for some of you to put away the TV dinner pop, seek out something different, and even embrace the challenge of cooking your own. The satisfaction is similar in both cases, too.
Bonus content: for many years I’ve gone to the effort to curate and mix music I scour the internet for that I find creative, iconoclast or otherwise carefully crafted by artists who are doing this for different reasons than big labels or pop stars. My small effort to try to share with friends that a different world is possible. Perhaps something here inspires you or at the least makes your day better.
Adding insult to injury here is the fact that so many music journalists (I use the term loosely) in the 21st century have been lured or conned or otherwise fooled into treating music that's super popular as music inherently worth paying attention to and writing about as if it's worthwhile.
I can't say it's because of bad pop music today--but I after years of learning to cover others' songs, a friend and I started writing and recording our own music. It is a challenge to learn, and certainly not going to the top of any charts. But it's a ton of fun and super rewarding at the end of the process. Nothing like playing your own music!