Brainwashed by pop music

So I had said that I would discuss music and gayness and so far - just gayness. So I would like to discuss pop music and where it might have come from.

My high school art teacher, Mr. F, once talked about pop music saying that it all sounds the same. I remember listening to the radio in the studio while working and hearing him say something like, "it's like they found out a formula that satisfies everyone's brain and forces us to buy into it, and are exploiting it for all it's worth."

Although I don't think all pop music sounds the same, I have to agree with him - there is a definite form to pop songs that has been established for a long time: the essential AAB - or bar form. The brain seems to be aesthically aroused and satisfied by this formula. Most art can be reduced to repetition and contrast, or a mixture of the two - variation. (This is my idea of Schenkerian analysis - I -V - I; where I is continuity or repetition and V is contrast).

AA - An idea is proposed, and then repeated. Now our brains know what's going on because we heard it more than once.

B - Wow, something different, contrasting, maybe even conflicting. Our brains are aroused.

Rounding - it's all okay, we know what's going on again. We're satisfied.

Let's analyze some Ke$ha:

Blow by Ke$ha has the bar form AAB

4 bar phrases, mostly parallel periods

A is comprised of two periods (aa,bb) and a refrain of a repeated 4 bar phrase (cccc)

A is repeated with different lyrics (aabbcccc)

B is a short instrumental interlude and repeated 4 bar phrase (go insane, go insane) (ddddd) then the refrain (cccc)

Now let's analyze something older

A Chantar is a song from the 12th century southern France by a female troubador, the Comtessa de Dia

The troubadours were sort of the pop stars of Medieval France

Kind of 4 bar phrases, contrasting periods, overall strophic form, verses are bar form AAB

A is the contrasting period (ab) and is repeated with different lyrics A (ab)

B starts higher in the voice and continues up before falling to an open cadence and then back to the rounding (cdb)

I thought this was enlightening - that really, pop music hasn’t changed much outside of the technology used to produce it. And our reactions to the pop music are similar - I mean, not to knock the Comtessa, but Ke$ha is far more exciting to me - but our brains react similarly to the more sensational music. So I guess Mr. F was kind of right with his pejorative statement about pop music having a formula that feeds pop music directly into our minds.