Pop! goes the music

Who says you can’t find amazing talent right at home? One of our newest RethinkPopMusic interns, Ian Hoagland-Henefield, was in Jett and the Writers back in Boston. Check out the video for “One More” and read his take on Rethinking Pop Music:

Pop music is a lot like Capture-the-Flag. You don’t need much to have an awesome time. Writing pop songs can be very exciting when you stumble upon a fluid hook. Pop music is named so because it is just that: popular. It taps into our collective unconscious where beats and melodies are nourished and treated as gifts rather than mere sounds.

Great songs help us envision a new world and give us strength to talk to strangers. It warms us up to one another. Inflecting emotion through voice is not enough. A pop song must be sung with honest delivery. If you believe in what you are singing or playing it will be instantly recognizable to your listeners.
      
 Achieving a common ground with your audience shouldn’t be forced. Simple chords, melodies and lyrics are a good place to start in order to develop a working rapport with writing your own songs. Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks recorded a playful version of the Tom Waits song “The Piano Has Been Drinking,” which to this day is one of my favorite songs. The Hick’s version is slightly faster and incorporates three female and two male back-up singers who merrily repeat almost every word he sings. The song, in my mind, paints a picture so totally familiar to my everyday life and my attitude that I can’t help but listen to it over and over.