What is "Pop" as a genre?

I know what you mean and I agree on the part that Avril's been a bit different, especially
when you compare her to Backstreet Boys or Britney, which you shouldn't to begin with.
But as I underlined in my first post Pop music can borrow other elements, too, such as
rock, punk, country and so on.
If you take a really close look or ear at different music artists that are defined as Pop you
see they are all not the same.
Taylor Swift first started as a Pop artists but barrowed elements from Country, but that
doesn't make her a Country artist, it makes her still a Pop artist.
Avril started her career in 2002 and what was defining for that time? Well, people loved
it loud and rebellious. It wasn't just Avril, she was one of them, but there was Pink or
Alainis Morissette, too and even other less known artists. They stand for a certain time
periode, but all of them were Pop artists.
In my opinion, Under My Skin is the only record that falls out of the concept, not only
because it's darker and more serious. But her Singles are very Pop and that's why
she was still so popular. It wasn't a classic Pop album, of course it wasn't, but music
changes ever since it got invented. And I think it would be wrong to say, that a real Pop
song is a song from the 60ies, just because that's when the first Pop music had had
flushed the music scene.
Music reinvents itself by the time that passes. If I had to explain someone what a classic
Pop song needs, I'd go for this:


But that song was released in 1994, so what's with all that came afterwards? Has there
to be a new definition just because a new vibe came into it? I personally don't think so,
but I don't wanna roar about it either.
And actually if you look at the tempo, the beat and rhythm, Human Nature reminds me
of 4 Real, at least the Chorus and the Chorus quite a lot.

It's the catchy, the romantic, the moving energy, even if it's a bit more emotional and
without electronic elements.

I'm not trying to talk a lifetime here, but I think it's not that simple. I do think that a
certain bit of crossover should be tolerated until you rip a song apart and try to find a
new definition. Basically because if you did that, there would be no genre left to define
music with.
I do think terms such as Pop Rock, Pop Punk and so on are suitable by the way.







A poppy alternative rock album. You really mixed it all, didn't ya?
Well, let's see, if it was a poppy alternative rock album it would be something like this:


I personally see a huge gap between this and Avril. Sure, you find always parallels
if you look for them, but the song structure of Desire suits more the genre
Alternative. Alternative is one of the most tricky, in my opinion and it's one that
gets misused a lot.
I'm confident to say that Avril is nothing near Alternative, not by a single bit. She
can be seen as an Pop Rock Artist (untill The Best Damn Thing) and a Pop Punk
Artist (in The Best Damn Thing), but that's about it.
There's no rough vibe, no feeling of destruction, no explosions (which isn't bad,
really), but it's nice and clear.
I think one of the best examples for an alternative rock band is Chevelle, you take
one listen and you know what Alternative stands for:



I think what some of you are missing here is that Pop music is all over the charts.
To really define a genre you have to dig deeper and see what there is. I'm not
saying you don't know a lot about music or that I'm a little know-it-all, but what we
do so far in this thread is: comparing Chart music to one another and trying to find
a difference in that. That again, in my Opinion won't work, cause this music was
recorded by a producer who get's paid for creating a hit and they certainly know
how to do that. To really define a genre you have to take a look at musicans who
are free to do what they want to do and you won't find that in chart music.