Couldn't agree more with this. HT and Meteora were bigger and had bigger singles sure, but LT was far poppier, which isn't even a bad thing for all 3 albums. I mean all 6 LP albums have at least one major pop staple. LITE is a return back to basics, IMR and Burn It Down are incredibly popish especially the latter. IBG and COG are pretty good radio tracks. Victimized and UIB and maybe RU and STB less so. Id say By Myself, Forgotten, Hit The Floor, Nobody's Listening aren't exactly radio sounding staples too though.
Hybrid Theory and Meteora definitely have elements of pop, like the song structures and clean, processed vocals during the sung moments. However, I wouldn't say they were entirely pop, given the dirty guitars, aggressive lyrics in certain cases, and the varied themes that weren't directly about love or romantic relationships. I do get more of a familial/very personal relationship vibe from certain songs. I have noticed that even with today's pop, the go-to theme for a song is love, love, and more love. This is probably the main reason I can't get into pop as it currently stands, as it's just so mind-numbing repetitive with its themes and sound. This is just my two cents. Edit: My main question, and I'm sure others have been asking, is, what makes a song or an album truly/wholly "pop"? What does it mean to be "pop" today versus the early 2000's or at any other point in time that pop music has existed? I ponder this great mystery and many more.
You can have a pop song with dirty guitars and with themes other than love. There's no definitive "pop music", it's a term for genres that have widespread appeal generally. Why is "every" pop song about love (I'd be willing to be the percentage is a lot different than you make it sound)? Love songs have massive appeal because it's something many people can identify with.
Just to clarify, I wasn't implying that every pop song was directly about love. From what I have heard on the radio, love is the most widely used theme for a pop song, but not the only one. The station that I pretty much have to listen to at work (the boss says it's "neutral" music) is Magic 102.1, which has some variety but is mostly pop. Many of the songs on this particular station are indeed about love in some capacity, though there are a few songs I actually enjoy on here that aren't necessarily about romantic love, and I appreciate that.
Yeah no, you're totally right. I suppose to answer your question for what makes something pop, it depends on what you mean. Some people take it as its literal meaning: popular, that is to say, everything from Linkin Park to Mozart to Pink Floyd were "pop". Most people, obviously, don't use that particular definition and mean pop as a genre. Obviously, you can't objectively define what's part of a genre and what's not, but features tend to include short track lengths, big, catchy hooks, simpler, more relatable lyrics, more standard song structures, simpler textures (ie. only one instrument, usually vocals but sometimes synths or guitars, playing/singing the main melody at any one given time), etc. Linkin Park's music has all of these in spades. Another feature of course is accessible (usually lighter) instrumentation. You can have all the above, but if it's played on a sitar with Hungarian throat singing over it, it's not going to be a pop song per se. In the case of Hybrid Theory and Meteora, this is very important, as screaming and heavy guitars are, to me, what makes a song like By Myself less poppy than, say, In The End. Obviously this list isn't exhaustive, but that's roughly what we mean when we mean poppy. Instrumentation and lyrics are just one piece of the jigsaw. By the way, there's absolutely nothing wrong with a song/album/artist being poppy. Just thought I'd clarify in case that's not clear.
Thanks, this definitely helps give me a better idea of what it means to be "pop" these days. I had a feeling there wasn't a single, definite description that encompasses everything related to pop, though the elements/features you listed above are attributable to many songs. Perhaps I keep subconsciously thinking of the negative stigma that has been associated with pop music in general for awhile, and really didn't want that perceived negativity to affect my enjoyment of LP's songs. I had pretty much convinced myself that Linkin Park was a band that used certain pop elements as it continued to stray further from an entirely poppy sound, as is evident with THP. I just wish that I could more easily enjoy different types of music, even pop, so I wouldn't be putting too much thought into any of this. That's my over-analytical mind for ya.
Nu metal is dead. But im sure if any band were to bring it back and make it sound fresh like a new version of it, it would be LP.