Boybandification, Poppunkification

I have this habit of falling asleep with the TV on, and when I wake at 3 AM, I find the weirdest things showing.

This time it was something like the Charlie Rose show, where this dude was interviewing another dude about his new book.

"I'm here with Ted Cameloshinswin about the book, Poppunkification, how people crave stupid music but don't exactly want to admit it. People are hailing this as the most definitive critique of people's tastes in music since Adorno."

"I do take some umbrage with that. Adorno was saying that Jazz was crap compared to Classical. I personally believe that Jazz is amazing."

"Okay, okay, I understand. Anyway, let's discuss your book."

"Let's."

"You say that the late nineties early new millennium music scene was saturated with bubble pop acts... what you termed the Boybandification of popular music."

"Right. Then there was a backlash, because people felt dumb for listening to it. I'm not saying they were, they just felt like that. Some acts survived. Justin Timberlake, for example, got himself a Ghetto Pass."

"I see."

"Christina Aguilerra (sp?) transformed from a suburban white girl from outside of Pittsburgh to a Boricuan princess from Spanish Harlem. Others weren't so lucky. Ask Britney. You could even say Fred Durst was a victim of collateral damage."

"Right, I get it."

"But, the problem was, we needed bad pop music to fill the void left by the end of Boybandification. Remember, we still like bubble gum."

"Enter Poppunkification?"

"Exactly. With popunkification, you had acts like Avril Lavigne, Blink 182, and Good Charlotte, who were essentially giving us bubble gum pop hits, but were packaging it in this edgy box that included spiky hair, tattoos, and rebellious clothing. Now the buying public could get their cheesy pop fix, but not feel like they were sacrificing their integrity. No choreographed dances, guys who played guitars-- everyone felt better."

"Okay, so I guess the big question is: when's the backlash?"

"I'm not sure I see one."

"Really?"

"You may see a backlash against individual acts, like people may be sick of hearing Fall Out Boy on Verizon Wireless commercials, but the overall genre may be here to stay."

"Amazing. So people can listen to dumb pop without feeling as dumb."

"It's a very good thing."

I switched it off then turned on my stereo.

It's tearin' up my heart...

I'm not ashamed of liking boy bands.