Thoughts on a pop music ban for one season? | Page 14 | Golden Skate

Thoughts on a pop music ban for one season?

Tutto

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
1) You just managed to make sound catchiness like a bad thing...

2) I teach ESL for living and do you know how easy it is to find a pop song that could be used for teaching below intermediate level? Very hard. The ones I use are almost all actually rock songs because pop ones are too difficult.

3). Actually, with pop for 99% percent of people (including myself who was brainwashed to like some of Katy Perry) it's the reverse: at first people don't like it or are meh about it but the more they listen to it the more they like it. That's why massive radioplay results in good sales of a song.

4.) The pieces that are the most stuck to my brain like cheap perfume are fragments of Carmen and Hall of the Mountin King. Always have been, perhaps because of their ubiquity. (Hey, if popularity is a qualifier, they'd qualify for pop!) Oh, and Dance Macabre ever since I heard it the first time on Smurfs when I was 10.

5). The only time that happened it was on a musical. Never felt the need on a pop song.


I guess that list's wrong from the start so no point expanding.

I could suggest this for your students:

"Feeling Good"

Birds flying high
You know how I feel
Sun in the sky
You know how I feel
Breeze driftin' on by
You know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good
I'm feeling good

Fish in the sea
You know how I feel
River running free
You know how I feel
Blossom on a tree
You know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good
 

Rissa

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
I could suggest this for your students:

"Feeling Good"

Birds flying high
You know how I feel
Sun in the sky
You know how I feel
Breeze driftin' on by
You know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good
I'm feeling good

Fish in the sea
You know how I feel
River running free
You know how I feel
Blossom on a tree
You know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good

:laugh: I already use this one, Buble version (other have too much vocal fireworks to be useful), for adults, warm-up activity, only 4 unknown words. To be honest, though, Feeling Good is not what appears in my head when I think "pop". :confused2:
 

Tutto

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
:laugh: I already use this one, Buble version (other have too much vocal fireworks to be useful), for adults, warm-up activity, only 4 unknown words. To be honest, though, Feeling Good is not what appears in my head when I think "pop". :confused2:

You see our opinions might be not so different after all, once we get clear on that elusive definition...
 
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Rissa

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
You see our opinions might turn out not so different after all, once we get clear on that elusive definition...

Only apparently we won't get clear on it... I mean if your criteria is "catchy" and "sticks in your head" and "when I hear it on FS I mute it"...
 

Tutto

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Only apparently we won't get clear on it... I mean if your criteria is "catchy" and "sticks in your head" and "when I hear it on FS I mute it"...

Well if you are determined not to... then of course we won't...BTW what actually is your criteria?
 
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mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
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gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
My view:

Nothing should be banned, except perhaps blatantly offensive lyrics

For competition, skaters should be encouraged to use music that best allows them to show depth and variety of musical interpretation through the use of skating-based movement skills, and judges should be encouraged to recognize and reward them for doing so.

That will include some music from almost all genres and exclude some music from all.

Skating show producers should either choose music themselves or give guidelines to individual skaters to choose music that fits with the theme of the show, that will appeal to the target audience.

Beyond that, anything goes.
 

mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
I used to sing this song by John Denver at the top of my lungs when I was very young. It's called Calypso and I think it would be great for Keegan Messing. It's a Folk Song but, it was also a hit on the pop charts back in the late 70's. Would it pass the Pop Music Ban? Calypso by John Denver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35x_rwyBh-8

Maybe one of Tom's students could use "Rocky Mountain High" also song by the late John Denver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLWD2WIvRQk
 
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cheerknithanson

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 13, 2014
Country
United-States
My view:

Nothing should be banned, except perhaps blatantly offensive lyrics

For competition, skaters should be encouraged to use music that best allows them to show depth and variety of musical interpretation through the use of skating-based movement skills, and judges should be encouraged to recognize and reward them for doing so.

That will include some music from almost all genres and exclude some music from all.

Skating show producers should either choose music themselves or give guidelines to individual skaters to choose music that fits with the theme of the show, that will appeal to the target audience.

Beyond that, anything goes.

Totally agree! :clap:
 

moriel

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 18, 2015
There are so many definitions. Some think that pop=popular music, some that pop is a genre of popular music, some view pop as a commercial music and so on… I thought that for the purpose of this thread we can simplify things and define pop by its characteristics.
So you know you hear a pop song when:

1) The tune is simple & catchy
2) The lyrics are equally uncomplicated and rarely go beyond the vocabulary of a 5 year old
3) You really like it the first time but feel more & more irritated at further exposure
4) It sticks to your brain like a smell of a cheap perfume
5) You reach a mute button when yet another skater starts his/her routine to [….] [insert the name] whatever happens to be in ‘fashion’ with skaters that season

You are welcome to extend the list…:)

That sounds like, basically, "stuff the topicstarted doesnt like"

1) Nothing wrong with simple and catchy tunes. In fact, there is music that has nothing to do with pop in any definition that may feature this. Also, this is very subjective, as "simple" and "catchy" are different for different people. For example, I find Mozart catchy =) Shall we ban him cause he is pop? Pretty sure we should, i´m about 99% certain his music was the pop thing back in his days hehe
2) Whats wrong about that? Again, just a matter of preference. Also, not all pop features simple lyrics, as people have already pointed out.
3) Again, thats a personal matter. Also, that means that all warhorses = pop, unrelated to the music genre.
4) "Music topicstarter doesn´t like". I feel like that about Les Mis, can we ban them too?
5) "Music topicstarter doesn´t like"

I´m sorry dude, i think you are just being incredibly judgemental and doing a major "OMGOMGOMG THERE IS MUSIC I DONT LIKE, PLEASE BAN IT FROM FS".
If a skater likes a piece of music, its the skater´s business. Period. If you don´t like it, just use the mute button and stop promoting your own musical tastes and being mean about whatever you dont like: "rarely go beyond the vocabulary of a 5 year old", "smell of a cheap perfume". So nice, so much respect.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Actually, I think the "popular" in popular music refers to "music of the people." As contrasted with music for learned music critics or music for the courts of the nobility. One thing that pop music does, that classical music in general does not do, is make you want to jump up and dance.

When I hear a Mozart serenade I do not suddenly leap to my feet and start in on a minuet. (Actually, I don't know the steps of the minuet. All I know is the first two: you put your left foot in, you put your left foot out…)

But a Strauss waltz -- now you're talking! Who can sit still and resist grabbing a broom and waltzing about the room? This is "people's music." (When the sheet music for the piano version was issued in the United States it quickly became the best-selling song of its era. This was before vinyl. What's vinyl? It was something they had before ITunes. What's ITunes? It was something they had before whatever it is that they have now. ;) )

This "get up and dance" ought to make pop music good for skating, right? I wish a synchro team would do the wobble.
 

4everchan

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Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Country
Martinique
^^ re the stand up and dance? i do it all the time to stravinsky, bartok, even chopin or bach :)
 
Joined
Mar 16, 2005
I wouldn't mind a pop-ban for a season, but this years SD is hip-hop lol. Hopefully it's considered eventually after everything that is coming..
 

MGstyle

Crawling around on the ice after chestnuts
Medalist
Joined
Sep 1, 2015
Personally I detest pop music with vocals in general, but there are a few exceptions, like Shibs' Fix You, which was just exquisite. So I wouldn't go so far as to say "ban". My guess is that music with vocals is still a novelty and many skaters want to go for it. I am hoping the trend will dye down after a while and we will see much less of those ghastly, cheesy pop songs galore.
 

Tutto

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Actually, I think the "popular" in popular music refers to "music of the people." As contrasted with music for learned music critics or music for the courts of the nobility. One thing that pop music does, that classical music in general does not do, is make you want to jump up and dance.

I don't know about dancing but Zadok the Priest for instance invariably makes me want to join in the chorus (nobody can hear me thankfully:)).
I still think that there is a difference between 'popular music' & 'pop music' the latter being more of commercial variety pressed on our ears from every medium in existence. But I do realise that there is no accounting for tastes and many people like it. One thing which does amuse me is that it seems totally fine to bash classical music but disliking pop music immediately makes you an arrogant snob...?

I also believe, perhaps wrongly, that a half of an hour of Mozart weekly on the school curriculum might result in a less violent world than we are living in today. I don't expect everyone to share my opinion.

Personally I detest pop music with vocals in general, but there are a few exceptions, like Shibs' Fix You, which was just exquisite. So I wouldn't go so far as to say "ban". My guess is that music with vocals is still a novelty and many skaters want to go for it. I am hoping the trend will dye down after a while and we will see much less of those ghastly, cheesy pop songs galore.

Thank you! I was beginning to think I must have been hallucinating or something...
I too hope once the novelty of vocals wears off, skaters will use them more wisely.
 
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Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I still think that there is a difference between 'popular music' & 'pop music' the latter being more of commercial variety pressed on our ears from every medium in existence…

To me, the difference between "popular music" and "pop" is like the difference between "the classical period" (Haydn and Mozart) and more broadly "classical music" to mean long-haired music in general, from whatever time period or sub-tradition.

I am not exactly sure how "pop" is distinguished from rhythm and blues, funk, soul, rock and roll, fusion, etc., etc., etc. -- except than Michael Jackson was king of it and "Billy Jean is not my lover" the epitome. Frank Sinatra? No, that's "old standards."

Just basic blah singing a song (Harry Connick, Jr., Taylor Swift) -- I don't know what genre that would be classified as.

Is "bubble gum" an officially recognized musical genre (Justin Bieber).

Not too long ago the big lament on figure skating boards was the "generic female ballad." (I don't know why that was worse than generic male ballad, but there you are.)

tutto said:
One thing which does amuse me is that it seems totally fine to bash classical music but disliking pop music immediately makes you an arrogant snob…?

I don't think anyone bashes, or even dislikes, classical music. I think what people don't like are classical music fans who are intolerant of other people's enjoyments. My guilty pleasure is Dixieland. (Which is better, New Orleans four-beat or Chicago two-beat? The Hot Fives or the Hot Sevens?) It might not be Mozart, but at least it is better than Twentieth Century classical music. ("Modern classical music, let's be honest, fails to delight the ear, so there is no point in going any further in analysis.)

Anyway, we are talking about figure skating. We are not trying to select the music that we want to shoot into space so that aliens will know the cultural and artistic heights which the human species has attained. (If that were the question, send up Bach's "Herz und Mund" cantata and call it a day. :) )

I also believe, perhaps wrongly, that a half of an hour of Mozart weekly on the school curriculum might result in a less violent world we are living in today. I don't expect everyone to share my opinion.

I do (share this opinion). Also, play Mozart to your babies. It will make them smarter. (Anyone who doesn't believe me, Google it. :yes: )
 

Rissa

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Is "bubble gum" an officially recognized musical genre (Justin Bieber).

Official enough to have its own wikipedia page and history starting in the 60s...

I think what people don't like are classical music fans who are intolerant of other people's enjoyments.

Exactly this. The crux of this entire thread.

I don't think there is a figure skating fan in existence who would dislike classical music. They have been going hand in hand for so long and are still intertwined to a degree that disliking it would make watching figure skating impossible.

I enjoy classical music a lot, have plenty of my own favorites, but I enjoy plenty of pop music as well and find it annoying when somebody puts it down and suggests banning it when we just got it , and we've barely scratched the surface.

One thing which does amuse me is that it seems totally fine to bash classical music but disliking pop music immediately makes you an arrogant snob...?

Huh? Where did anyone bash classical music? Receipts please?

And as Mathman so eloquently put it, it's not the disliking of pop music that makes one a snob, everyone's got likes and dislikes (I don't like jazz and jazz programs but I know lots of people like it so that's my problem). It's the intolerance of other people's enjoyment of it, which shows in, you guessed it, a suggestion to ban it.
 
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