The Pop Culture Ideal

In essence, my interpretation of pop culture is media aimed at the widest audience. By that I mean it has a large target audience. Trends mostly dictate what that entails and most times, in music specifically, it is fairly easy to ingrain a song into this category and make it a hit, if it follows similar stylistic beats or convey messages that present recurring themes. For instance, there are songs that only have an intro, one verse, and a repeating hook that is catchy, and end with an outro that echoes a line from earlier in the song. The message most often involves how easy life is when money is no longer an object or how hard the artist has had to work to make it “out of the dirt” which is a way of saying they worked exceptionally hard, continuously, over a period of time to achieve their fame and position. This music is usually targeted at teens and young adults, up to the mid-thirties. As the lyrics are easy to understand and are accompanied by an upbeat rhythm that glorifies a life that would make one envious, it does not require much thought at least at first glance, and many listeners can relate to it.

Another aspect that can be included in that is brand recognition. This allows people to hear a song an immediately know who an artist is based on the tone. A lot of rappers used recurring ad-libs that in a way engage the audience. It becomes a complex mixture of hearing a new song, a new beat, and new lyrics while at the same time holding aspects that are familiar and easily identifiable such as motifs, ad-libs, and style of writing.