poptimism is synonymous with the death of american countercultures — "indie" is now a set of genre tropes and the "indie" critical scene bends over backwards to signal appreciation of megacorp music products, so as to not be "an elitist snob"
hip-hop led the way in this appropriation and subsumption of underground culture into becoming an instrument of bland corporate aesthetics. an established monoculture of "hipster music" was created, framing what was once an archipelago of freaks into a safe freakshow
what was once a race to the esoteric and fringe in the subcultural social capital formation mechanic has since switched to a "balance" — "trying too hard" is now passé, one must now "admit guilty pleasures" proudly, so as to say "in the end we all love corporate pop. we are equal"
what is sold in this is the nostalgia for monoculture — the feeling of belonging. franchise films serve the same purpose — it is bad manners to not enjoy the latest marvel flick. it would be very "uncool" to have a list of favorite films without something to show your "poptimism"
i don't think there's a way back to the old subcultural elitism of zines, etc. in which a limited release 7" by an unknown band is "better" for its obscurity. nowadays, lacking popular clout just means you've failed, because the internet is an ostensible meritocracy
social-capital formation has now turned toward "discovering an up-and-comer" — people want to see their finds become successful and popular to enjoy this vicariously, but also to prove that they are good at "getting there first"
the difference under poptimism is that fame and popular acclaim and "relevance" is taken as the ultimate end of any creative production. to make something, as we say, "just for the fellas" is essentially a form of bigotry against the "open culture" of pop
culture has become a collective ownership in our minds (the way all things neoliberal corporations want to monopolize are wont to be considered, such as youtube videos) — no longer an individualizing or tribalizing affair, but a way of "keeping up" with what is relevant to all
by collecting all of fringe media environs under one archive — the internet — this arose by necessity. the .mp3 streamer finds everything in the same archive, whereas in the past one would have trouble finding "everything in one place" — one would have to be "in the know"
we mustn't lament this, as it provides new opportunities — such as equalizing establishment pop figures WITH fringe subcultural figures. online, one can run into presidents and shitposters, and all are accorded the same position in the feed. strange chimeras form
what we have lost in this enframing of actual diversity (the segregation of media environs) under the totalizing monopolies of silicon oligarchs cannot be returned. however, we can, perhaps, "culture jam" the mainstream more now than ever
where gen X culture went out with a whimper — being crossed out from the start — gen Y and gen Z are afforded with greater opportunities to shake the somnambulism of the masses. the underground rises up, like post-apocalyptic zombies, with scores to settle
if poptimism must reign, let us make it sing strangely
i think you make some good points that certainly describe reality, but i dont expect too many people will be able to understand your posts at a high level. perhaps that's the part of the point, though.
Isaac Barnes
Post More
Adrian Wright
bump
Jackson Kelly
Neat.
Xavier Sanders
Tldr but bump
Parker Nguyen
bump
Gavin Smith
Yeah I don't like poptimism but I also can't take rock music seriously because I've internalize the poptimists critique of rock. Will have to invent something totally new.
Cameron Baker
heh heh
Dylan Turner
This isn't turnitin.com, you fucking stick of unsalted butter
I appreciated your post unironically, thanks user aged 20+
Chase Jenkins
Lmao nice blogpost faggot how about you go try this hard on reddit.com, its down the hall two tabs to the left
Austin Cruz
I mean... he's not wrong.
Isaiah Rogers
these are a few genuinely super thought provoking posts, user. thanks. i think we're definitely on the same page in regards to the context of this new way of interacting with music and figureheads of the industry, but i think we have different opinions on it. i dont think we should be expecting mass appeal pop music to have the same integrity or sincerity as independent music had at one point, and still can attain... i'm a firm believer that the artists we should be lifting up are the people who could really use acknowledgement and a warm thanking for their work
John Campbell
You have to be 18+ to post on Yea Forums
Jordan Bell
>poptimism
Stopped reading. Dumb meaningless buzzword. Don't take music so seriously. You'll live longer.
Gavin Carter
based brainlet
Dominic Young
Not an argument, retard.
Matthew Brooks
People come here and they want all of the perks of escaping the label of "layman "but it all they do is poison the genuine discourse that occurs among people ACTUALLY interested in a subject.
Joseph Hill
This is a troll thread.
Luke Watson
says the literal child who stopped reading after the first word in the op
Jacob Young
>People who disagree with me and the current state of music discussion are trolls You're right
Henry Edwards
I know you're new here, but if you want people to take your shitposts seriously, try not starting them with buzzwords. Last post from me since most of this thread is just you samefagging.
Isaiah Brown
useless
Daniel Cooper
sir i regret to inform you that you are in fact not the final authority on what is and what isn't a "buzzword"
now go away and keep not taking music so seriously
Jack Miller
pop music is a product not an art
also this shits a cycle, obscurity will be popular soon. after rich people see that poor people are imitating them, theyll change whats in, as always.
whats the big deal about an entertainment product being shitty?
Carter Anderson
Poptimism is liking music for the actual music. I feel like pop music always gets shit for the most shallow reasons like the songwriting process, the lyrics, the promotion, etc. that have nothing to directly do with the music being listened to. It often gets shit on for a ubiquity it doesn't have, just like how many people make generalized statements of "all *insert your favorite genre* sounds the same". There can be good pop music and there can be bad pop music.
Thomas Morales
Imagine being this delusional
Caleb Adams
>esoteric what does esoteric means
Colton Stewart
who is this girl? is this ariana grande?
Jordan Thompson
>"indie" is now a set of genre tropes and the "indie" critical scene bends over backwards to signal appreciation of megacorp music products, so as to not be "an elitist snob" indie was always a set of genre tropes and was sold out when Sonic Youth released Goo and Nevermind went to #1 >hip-hop led the way in this appropriation and subsumption of underground culture into becoming an instrument of bland corporate aesthetics. an established monoculture of "hipster music" was created, framing what was once an archipelago of freaks into a safe freakshow hip hop was deeply countercultural until white guilt made people in the mid-aughts look back to the "good old days" of hip hop and pretend to like '90s rap to appear cultured. second half of this is right >what was once a race to the esoteric and fringe in the subcultural social capital formation mechanic has since switched to a "balance" — "trying too hard" is now passé, one must now "admit guilty pleasures" proudly, so as to say "in the end we all love corporate pop. we are equal" no one who was into indie rock went into the esoteric and fringe. those kids rejected industrial music, extreme metal, never grew up to get into jazz or classical music. they were always retards and i'm glad their days are over >what is sold in this is the nostalgia for monoculture — the feeling of belonging. franchise films serve the same purpose — it is bad manners to not enjoy the latest marvel flick. it would be very "uncool" to have a list of favorite films without something to show your "poptimism" this is blatantly false. marvel movies fucking suck but the people who complain most loudly about this are still calling Spielberg films art.
Parker Martin
>i don't think there's a way back to the old subcultural elitism of zines, etc. in which a limited release 7" by an unknown band is "better" for its obscurity. nowadays, lacking popular clout just means you've failed, because the internet is an ostensible meritocracy that's because people like you make threads with hot pictures of ariana grande as bait instead of posting about good music or getting over your nostalgia for zine culture and listening to something new and good >social-capital formation has now turned toward "discovering an up-and-comer" — people want to see their finds become successful and popular to enjoy this vicariously, but also to prove that they are good at "getting there first" worked the same with indie
you repeat yourself too much and have such ugly spacing that i don't wanna continue addressing your points one by one. but you're a zoomer. yes, poptimists suck but the response isn't to ask for a return to fucking old indie rock which was just a sales arm of the MTV industrial complex anyway
Benjamin Reed
>Poptimism is liking music for the actual music. maybe once upon a time, when it was conceived by balding journos on message boards. over nearly two decades it has come to inform online 'stan' culture, music writing at large, and even indie/underground artists feel a pressing need to flaunt their appreciation for 'lower' forms of art these days. it's repulsive
>the response isn't to ask for a return to fucking old indie rock thats.......not what he did
Eli Parker
This is great satire
Nicholas Young
ur dumb, sorry
David Rodriguez
Yeah none of this is relevatory.
Jayden Baker
Ariana needs my big schlong
Hudson Brown
Maybe once but now it's indie virtue signalling
Luke Green
pop music is literally music created to appeal to the most people possible. it directly contradicts what substance is
Brandon Stewart
Ummm ok, you sound like a deranged incel sweetie. Maybe get laid LOL K thnk u bye
Owen Green
>what was once a race to the esoteric and fringe in the subcultural social capital formation mechanic has since switched to a "balance"
Nobody's stopping anybody from being esoteric or fringe. That's a choice you make as an artist. Finding an audience is a different story.
>"trying too hard" is now passé
"Trying too hard" has always been a bad thing. It is associated with inauthenticity. For example, "trying too hard to act tough" implies you aren't actually that tough.
>"admit guilty pleasures"
Again, an issue of authenticity. It's just matter of being real and true about what you actually like. Authenticity once again is preferred. That is nothing new-- People like real things.
>so as to say "in the end we all love corporate pop. we are equal"
If you don't love it then don't say you do. The culture doesn't control you. Has there not always since the dawn of time been "pressure" from the majority to conform? It's like a law of human nature, it doesn't start or end with poptimism. Poptimism is just one example
Angel Walker
>music that is engineered for the most people possible to like it >people like it Damn what are they thinking? Must just be virtue signalling
Nathaniel Morgan
you are woefully out of touch
Lincoln Hill
>poptimism is synonymous with the death of american countercultures — "indie" is now a set of genre tropes and the "indie" critical scene bends over backwards to signal appreciation of megacorp music products, so as to not be "an elitist snob"
>hip-hop led the way in this appropriation and subsumption of underground culture into becoming an instrument of bland corporate aesthetics. an established monoculture of "hipster music" was created, framing what was once an archipelago of freaks into a safe freakshow
You've failed profoundly OP. And it's because you gave a shit. Fucking degenerate.
Aaron Jones
something is going to break in the 2020's
Lucas Carter
This thread is a perfect example of why you shouldn't care about what other people think of you.
Wyatt Long
If what you are saying is true then why doesn’t everyone who uses the internet know about Yea Forums
Julian Perry
Cont. The internet isn’t one homogenous group of people who act and feel the same way about popular music, it’s obviously the opposite. That applies to every other subject as well. It’s like you watched a varg video and looked at all his obsequious comments and decided that’s the totality of popular opinion.
Jaxon Wood
>what we have lost . . . cannot be returned just you wait
People don't hate pop because it's popular, they hate it because it's fucking garbage. Every week some new shit is pushed as a groundbreaking "actually good, guys, really!" masterpiece, and it's forgotten just as fast. Remember a few years ago when Justin Bieber's last album came out and you had a cohort of people here writing essays about why it was just as good as Swans? See how they do the same thing with whatever shit is trending with the freaks in the real world? Fucking Ariana Grande? Remember when people said To Pimp a Butterfly was going to go down in history, and you'd be shouted down as some sort of /pol/ caricature if you so much as criticized it? Now Kendrick may as well not exist. Desperately clamoring to give board-room shit a "fair shot" to prove how "not hipster" you are is revolting because of how inauthentic it is. You treat music as an accessory, which is a cardinal sin.
Brayden Rivera
>shitting on kendrick while holding swans up as the gold standard for great music not a good look chief
Daniel Reyes
Still, not an argument, shithead.
Jacob Thomas
>Bad because popular You’re a fucking child.
Nolan Watson
he's back, declarations to the contrary be damned!
Tyler Ramirez
>"getting there first" This. Its post-Hipster bullshit, now people signal how happy they are their fave indie artist is doing pepsi ads, just to show they aren't a lame hipster
Ayden Diaz
learn to read bruh
Andrew Hernandez
has anyone else noticed that this is a logo daedalus post he's correct, by the way
Hunter Reyes
7.5/10 essay. Maybe write another draft and develop these ideas more.
Jeremiah Price
Are you trying to be ironic by typing like that?
David Walker
don't be too impressed, he plagiarized it from twitter personality logo daedalus.
