Pop is real music

This idea and similar ideas should be studied by all who appreciate real music. Now my opponent"s opening started with a list of definitions, which is a good place to start. But I find some of the definitions provided to be unsatisfactory for the following reasons. 1. Real + Music does not necessarily equal real music. We find all sorts of similar ideas in the English language. The definition of one word plus the definition of another word does not necessarily equal the exact definition of the two words combined. Day care, lighthouse, and restroom are all examples of this idea. 2. The definitions provided by my opponent are too inclusive. Followed to its logical conclusion, Hanon"s scales or horrific shrieks might be classified as real music. But if my opponent objects and claims that this would still be real music, perhaps we should just agree to disagree and leave the debate at that. 3. My opponent might be familiar with the thought experiment "Mary"s Room. " We do not have the ability to create a precise definition of red; it must be experienced to be known. So these definitions of music are all incomplete in a sense and cannot be used as an absolute definition. My opponent provided us with a list of definitions, but he/she did not indicate the definition he/she would use for each word. This leaves us with unnecessary confusion. I"d prefer that this debate would stop being a semantics game. But if my opponent wishes to continue in definitions to win, let me just say that the way my opponent defines real music includes all music. The problem here is simple in argument form: P1: All music is real music. P2: But pop music is not all music. C: Therefore, pop music is not real music. This is obviously a joke, but it just shows that you can play the definition game forever. What we need to do is to look at what real music is. Instead of purely defining it, I"ll list some requirements for music to be "real music. " 1. Real music has a real (potentially unspoken) message. 2. Real music has significant creativity. 3. Real music has the potential to inspire any society and any individual. Now my opponent may object that this does not fit a precise definition. But let me provide a thought experiment. Suppose you are in a car ride, and you hear something boring on the radio. You might say, "Hey! Let"s get some real music going! " Now no one would want the dial to switch to a station full of random or robotic tones; we would want a structured song that speaks to us. We would probably want a song that fits my three requirements. Argument 1: The messages of pop songs are often different than the messages of real music. We know real music when we hear it. Calm, exotic, or funny, the emotions of real music captivate us in an indescribable way. But the messages of pop music have mainly been about angst and sexuality, drugs or profanity. Justin Bieber, a purported Christian, cannot rise from the nonsense. His song "Love Yourself" focuses on a petty relationship that no one should care about. Sarah Knoploh writes, "Some songs on the [2008] charts did feature positive messages" But more than two-thirds of songs had lyrics that promoted sexual activities, alcohol, and included profanity. "1 In addition, our poetry has gotten far worse as a result of pop music. I would like to ask our voters to compare the hymns of Longfellow with the lyrics of Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, or anyone else on the top charts. The art of prosody has been lost. The rest of our poetic devices have flown out the window. Whatever happened to the genius of Isaac Watts or the creativity of Charles Wesley? And even if pop music is not the main cause of poetic deterioration, it at least perpetuates the disease. Argument 2: Pop music usually has no musical creativity. This argument has to be accepted by the serious musicologist. Not only have we lost musical form, we"ve also lost musical ideas in general. There is a significant percentage of pop songs that have a four-chord-loop structure. Chord structures like vi-IV-I-V have been overused to death. These sorts of songs repeat the musical structure after every 6 seconds. Basically, if you"ve heard 30 seconds of an average pop song, you"ve heard the whole thing. Instrumentation is excruciatingly bland. You"ll note in an average pop song that the drummer repeats his riffs every 4 seconds. Oboes, violins, or other instruments are hardly ever used creatively if at all. Argument 3: A significant amount of pop music degrades society. Bozell III writes about Master P, "The former gangsta-rapper (his real name is Percy Miller) came to Congress and apologized for his musical transgressions. The angry music of his past, he said, came from seeing relatives and friends shot and killed. But he said now he doesn't even want his own children to listen to his music, "so if I can do anything to change this, I'm going to take a stand and do that. " He also apologized to women for his music. "I was honestly wrong. " Later on NPR, he explained that listening to other gangsta-rappers "inspired" his own violent lyrics, like Ice-T boasting, "I am a nightmare stalking, psychopath walking. " He said that song "put me in the mood when I was in the ghetto just to continuously make music like that. " It was inspiring that he mustered the fortitude to confess before Congress. "2 This is not an anomaly. Pop music sometimes has an obvious negative effect on society. Sometimes the effects are a bit more subtle. But obviously, this music is generally useless to us. We do not want to think of shallow relationships or boring harmonies. Our minds are fit to study better things. So when we listen to pop music, we sometimes do ourselves a disservice. My opponent listed 4 songs that do have tones which would technically put them into a musical category. But these songs have little creative value and are basically garbage. Now these arguments do not rip apart every pop song ever made. Rather, they just exist to show that over fifty percent of pop music is not real music. I do not believe that I have to attack every single pop song, but just the majority. And when you look at the majority of pop music, it is usually meaningless, dry, and bland. Real music, in contrast, is meaningful, rich, and creative. Modern musical geniuses can still be found. Yanni gives us heartfelt melodies. The Piano Guys add lush harmonies to otherwise boring songs. Jarrod Radnich creates brilliant piano solos. Still other composers work at creating cinematic music or video game music. And when you compare their compositions to the top charts, there are clear winners. This might be because one side understands real music and the other side can only think of money and drawing in a wider audience of sheep. Sources: [1] . http://www.mrc.org... [2] . http://ic.galegroup.com...