It's not meant to be the same!
Since I have been making a habit of criticizing those who criticize pop culture: You know what bothers me today? You've all seen the meme of Justin Bieber's lyrics juxtaposed with Frank Sinatra's and then people will decry how our culture is so simple and stupid.
You have to remember, every era has different levels of music. Justin Bieber's music is short-lived, pop music for tweens. It was never intended to be up next to Frank Sinatra's music, which was considered a little higher end, even at the time. We have deeper lyrics in some of our pop songs, and less deep in others. That's just how it is. Let's compare Sinatra's same lyrics:
With each word
your tenderness grows.
Tearing my fear apart
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
It touches my foolish heart.
To Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud":
Take me into your loving arms
Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars
Place your head on my beating heart
I'm thinking out loud
Maybe we found love right where we are
I think they're pretty comparable in poetic prowess. Personally. And is Ed Sheeran not pop music? He is. But he is for a more refined (and more mature) crowd that Justin Bieber. Kind of like Frank Sinatra.
It's the same thing as when people put Bach next to video game music and say that we aren't a refined culture. Well, put Samuel Barber up there instead, and we are (yes, Samuel Barber died in the 1980s, like Baroque isn't a 150-year period?). If you put the Baroque equivalent of video game music (bar songs) next to video game music, it's pretty similar in its musical complexity. We're really comparing apples and oranges.
To prove my point, I will juxtapose Justin Bieber with another song of the past: L'homme arme. This is a Middle Ages/Renaissance bar song that mostly only lived because people wrote it into a mass. But here we have Justin Bieber:
And I was like
Baby, baby, baby, nooo
I'm like baby, baby, baby, noo
I'm like baby, baby, baby, noo
Here we have a Renaissance drinking song:
The man, the man, the armed man.
The armed man, The armed man should be feared,
should be feared.
Everywhere it is cried,
That every man should arm himself in iron chain mail
The man, the man, the armed man.
The armed man
The armed man should be feared.
Wow...deep, right? It's folk music. It's not supposed to be deep. It doesn't mean anything in terms of the words--it's for drinking. And I was still kind of unfair to Justin Bieber on this. I juxtaposed a chorus with a whole song. A lot of drinking songs had choruses that comprise of things like, "Woah-oh-woah-oh-woah!" You can also see this comparison with sea shanties. Let's compare choruses to a very well-known sea shanty.
First, Bieber:
And I was like
Baby, baby, baby, nooo
I'm like baby, baby, baby, noo
I'm like baby, baby, baby, noo
Second, our sea shanty:
Hey, ho, and up she rises
Hey, ho, and up she rises
Hey, ho, and up she rises
Ear-lie in the morning.
We are all enlightened, right? No, but it was just supposed to fun. Something to pass the day.
I'm not saying Justin Bieber isn't a conceited meat-head. He is. I'm just saying that you can't compare Rembrandt to graffiti and say that culture has gone down the tubes. They aren't in the same category.
You have to remember, every era has different levels of music. Justin Bieber's music is short-lived, pop music for tweens. It was never intended to be up next to Frank Sinatra's music, which was considered a little higher end, even at the time. We have deeper lyrics in some of our pop songs, and less deep in others. That's just how it is. Let's compare Sinatra's same lyrics:
With each word
your tenderness grows.
Tearing my fear apart
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
It touches my foolish heart.
To Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud":
Take me into your loving arms
Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars
Place your head on my beating heart
I'm thinking out loud
Maybe we found love right where we are
I think they're pretty comparable in poetic prowess. Personally. And is Ed Sheeran not pop music? He is. But he is for a more refined (and more mature) crowd that Justin Bieber. Kind of like Frank Sinatra.
It's the same thing as when people put Bach next to video game music and say that we aren't a refined culture. Well, put Samuel Barber up there instead, and we are (yes, Samuel Barber died in the 1980s, like Baroque isn't a 150-year period?). If you put the Baroque equivalent of video game music (bar songs) next to video game music, it's pretty similar in its musical complexity. We're really comparing apples and oranges.
To prove my point, I will juxtapose Justin Bieber with another song of the past: L'homme arme. This is a Middle Ages/Renaissance bar song that mostly only lived because people wrote it into a mass. But here we have Justin Bieber:
And I was like
Baby, baby, baby, nooo
I'm like baby, baby, baby, noo
I'm like baby, baby, baby, noo
Here we have a Renaissance drinking song:
The man, the man, the armed man.
The armed man, The armed man should be feared,
should be feared.
Everywhere it is cried,
That every man should arm himself in iron chain mail
The man, the man, the armed man.
The armed man
The armed man should be feared.
Wow...deep, right? It's folk music. It's not supposed to be deep. It doesn't mean anything in terms of the words--it's for drinking. And I was still kind of unfair to Justin Bieber on this. I juxtaposed a chorus with a whole song. A lot of drinking songs had choruses that comprise of things like, "Woah-oh-woah-oh-woah!" You can also see this comparison with sea shanties. Let's compare choruses to a very well-known sea shanty.
First, Bieber:
And I was like
Baby, baby, baby, nooo
I'm like baby, baby, baby, noo
I'm like baby, baby, baby, noo
Second, our sea shanty:
Hey, ho, and up she rises
Hey, ho, and up she rises
Hey, ho, and up she rises
Ear-lie in the morning.
We are all enlightened, right? No, but it was just supposed to fun. Something to pass the day.
I'm not saying Justin Bieber isn't a conceited meat-head. He is. I'm just saying that you can't compare Rembrandt to graffiti and say that culture has gone down the tubes. They aren't in the same category.
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