When you think of "pop music" certain celebrities immediately come to mind. People like Brittany Spears and groups like N'SNYC and the Back street boys have become what some people today view as American idols, people that we strive to be like or look like. But the kind of messages that pop artists today are sending out are far removed from the popular music of the 1960's. Music today is extremely disparate than that of the sixties when pop culture turned the world, especially New York, upside down. The Velvet Underground, for starters, wrote their own lyrics. They wrote them about topics that artists today would never dare to touch upon but rather ignore, and didn't care what people thought of them. A deeper meaning runs throughout the music and lyrics of the velvet underground while a sense of irrelevance is prevalent in much of the popular music today.
Velvet on stage
The Velvet Underground & Nico
University Pop Music ProgramThe velvet underground was extremely controversial in a time when the pop world withstood great disapproval. They were the first musicians to openly sing about such divisive aspects of life. While many singers and bands of the 60's portrayed music about peace, love and hippie type music, the velvet underground personified a darker side of life in New York at that time. They took New York and the world by storm with their lyrics and music. Pop music today is much more light-hearted. Touching on subjects like friends, love and happiness. Most of this music can be considered to have no real meaning behind it. While the velvet underground was singing about "heroin addiction, sadomasochism and dead naked sailors lying on the floor" (The Washington Post; Eli Attie), Brittany Spears is singing "oops I did it again", lyrics that mean nothing to most people. The Lyrics and songs of the...