I have never had much time for modern popular music. I enjoy a little traditional Jazz, I think some of the twenties songs hilarious even when they are not supposed to be and I can see the allure of fifties rock and roll and the political strengths of the sixties but the comments and music of the Beatles onwards seems to me facile, often immature and the cult of the person as part of a ‘scene’, unnecessary if the music were interesting.
That isn’t to say that some songs and some instrumentals are not enjoyable in a primitive way ( and by primitive I mean fun to dance to for the beat) but the idea that this is the height of music in any way seems to me absurd. But then maybe that assumption is wrong. People don’t listen to this because it is art they listen to it because it is ‘their music’, their generation, their statement of independence their way of getting out of the rut every-so-often.
As such it doesn’t have to be or try to be, art. It doesn’t even have to say very much, it just has to excite, calm, chill or enthuse in whatever measure the listener is requiring. And that’s because unlike the classical repertoire this music is not about the composer, singer, band or performer it is all about the listener.