The Best Pop music - Part 1

I realise that over the past few weeks I have taken more than a few swipes at popular music. I feel fairly justified in this because most pop music is trash. We all know it, but some people love it regardless. Not me, I like my music to mean something, or at least have some emotion higher than 'look at me I am having fun.'

In my little experiment against Justin Bieber a friend commented and asked what she should play to her sons instead. This is actually a subject very close to my heart. I often think what I should be playing to my son, what my niece and nephew should listen to and what I would recommend. It is in fact a very interesting experience introducing young children to music. Incredibly rewarding when you get some feedback. At times the faintest bit of a connection over the music can be enough to bring a tear to the eye. I read a book by Nick Hornby, the writer of High Fidelity, called 31 songs. In this book he talks about the same topic and says that all he hope for is that his son will appreciate music. Not in an obsessive way, but in a way that allows them to talk about it. That is a close approximation I think to what I want.

Before this turns into a therapy session for me, time to get back on topic. What are good songs that fit into the criteria of ' the demographic that is sensitive but smart ...good role models for this delicate age group'. Firstly, there is no such thing as a good role model in entertainment, this is very important. What we look for are people that can convey emotion and meaningful lyrics in a tune that connects to us in some way. How they live their lives is not important when it comes to the music. Think Michael Jackson. Is Billy Jean less of a song because MJ's life was so removed from anything like normality. Not to me. So, what to recommend??

It is extremely tempting to jump in at the top into the complicated music and try to make it sink in. I think this temptation needs to be avoided a bit. Start with melodic great songs and work from there. The beginning of Rock and roll is a great place to start. Catchy, fun and very well written in most cases.

How good is that? A good place to start, at genius level song writing. I also love this song at the moment

I tested the Everly brothers on two four year olds and they both danced around the room to it. I could go one for the entire post about how much good music there is from this period. Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and of course Elvis. The music is great and although I know it is dated by now, it is well structured and as pop it stands up so well because it is so very well crafted. I think that also, as time passes it seems that music that once was considered subversive becomes quaint to us. Allowing us to appreciate it more for the melody and the structure rather than the social commentary.

My personal opinion is that the greatest pop songs were written by The Beach Boys. Forget Kocomo, please forget it. However songs such as this next one have amazing melodies and in reality are no different in lyrical content from Baby baby baby oh by Justin Bieber, just written a lot better.

OK, so I think I broke my own rule and went for the very best of music. perhaps try this one instead.

Happy joyous pop music. So good and catchy it just puts you into a good mood.

of course you can not talk about pop music and not mention the Beatles. The Beatles wrote so many good pop songs it is extremely hard to know where to start. I know The Beatles purists will be very unhappy with me, i will live with that. Start with the first album, Please Please me. There is a reason they exploded onto the pop scene. This album is the main reason.

So I realise these are all songs that are now 50 years or older. However to the ears of the young they are always new.

I am going to leave it there on this first post. i will however try to put together another couple of pieces on this huge subject in order to try to provide some great music for the little ones.

If you have comments on this topic then please feel free. For this post let's talk about pop music of the 50s and 60s. There will be 70s 80s 90s and modern posts as well for you all to add your greater knowledge on the topic.