…always like ur attitude…but no wonder, ur one of those, always love to use the same sonic escape plan by drowning everything in long wet reverbs… 
and hey…i enjoyed the birdbot gibberish tune one more time…
made me nod along and smile…
mysterious, what pure pop can do…
and missed out on the very end, first time…what a good laugh…thanx, big time…
if u ever hit berlin, @norb , let’s have a coffee…
You’d be surprised how little reverb I actually use most of the time.
I’m more of a distortion guy.
…yup…that’s the OTHER sonic emergency exit…
I was DJing last night. People kept asking for Taylor Swift but I don’t buy pop records usually. The closest I managed was Missy “Get Ur Freak On” into the DJ Hype remix of Fugees “Ready Or Not”.
I used to be in a band that made roughly pop-formatted funk, but our lyrics wouldn’t have caught mainstream ear. These days I make shit techno and electro because I don’t have the talent for pop. (I’m gently, slowly, working on improving my techno). Slowly.)
…missy elliot and timbo had a great take on next new thing innovative global mainstream pop…
and so did the fugees…
I have to admit I don’t often react to messages on this forum but this take makes so little sense to me.
Most people have never cared about Michaelangelo and never will. They have heard his name once or twice and are not too sure if he was a painter… or a sculptor maybe? Or both? Most people don’t care that much about artists or the intricacies of their works. People react to art in different ways depending on their mood, their personal life context, the album art, the weather and what they had for lunch. For some people, music is a part of their life that they don’t glorify. They just bask in it once in a while, for different reasons, hence with various expectations.
To think that music must be some kind of competition to be in the top 5% of “high quality art” is close-minded technique worship at best and “contentification” of art at worst. If that’s how you like to enjoy music, by any means, have fun. But I think it’s also important to share the opposite take :
The 95% of music you think “has always sucked” may be meaningful to other people who see value in it. Judge them for it all you want. However, I suggest you don’t make the mistake of thinking that the fact you see no value in said music makes you somehow a better person than others*.
*Unless you have an objective method of determining what is inspiring and emotionally evocative music for all humans, no exception. In which case you can make claims with % in them, and probably a bit of cash as well for cracking the code to inspiration 
ps: if your message was satire, it’s really good 
Some of my friends hear a connection between pop and noise. They used to DJ nights where you’d hear Prince next to [Sculpture] (https://plasticinfinite.bandcamp.com/). It was fun.
…no great producer, that was not also a great reducer…
while anything can become pop…
not talking about sonic products for selling here…
talking about innovations…and those always come from crossing all over, that’s never been crossed before…whenever subculture gives birth to tomorrows mainstream again…
and now, i gotto leave…keep on working on my new shit…
tribal dancehall mutant mosh…
the last chapter of my sonic journey through post industrial dub pop…
as radio friendly as possible…
About 12 years ago I got offered £5000 to make the music for Master Chef.
Being the twat I am I turned it down, because I wouldn’t have known where to start. I don’t really regret it but I do wish I had the confidence to bullshit and blag stuff.
Think people who create hooks in music are evil. You know what your doing and its not very nice. And fuck the midi pack.
I’ve dabbled with making music in some sort of pop song structure.
Even people who say “that sounds poppy” as a form of criticism, nevertheless love listening to and playing music that is tightly structured - by my standards. “Their” music is built around verse-and-chorus structure, and is bound by some sort of regular pulse - usually established by a drummer, drum machine, or strumming guitar… all elements found in pop music.
I just put in an order for an arranger keyboard, a type of keyboard designed for pop song forms - it has buttons for intros, verse variations, fills, outros, etc. I can’t write lyrics to save my life, so I’m not really going to make pop songs, but I look forward to exploring making music this way, after years of recording tracks without much structure or a steady beat - drone, ambient, experimental, free improv, etc.
Missy is incredible. Total art. I like a lot of those old Timberland beats too.
It’s kind of a project/case study i often thought i should try :
Can i make a track/song that has all the requirements to fit in this kind of productions, and not sounding like a parody ?
Not something that i’d like or be proud of, but something that could act as the “real stuff” : Structure, sounds, gimmicks, hooks, drops, energy and the whole thing.
Here, i’m really thinking about obvious commercial products that would fit the trend of the year. …Can i do it ?
…But time is precious, and the Current sounds coming from your gear is way more important.
I love writing normal poppy stuff. I’d say it’s way harder to pull that off well than experimental stuff (no shade).
Experimental edges closer to subjective art for me where as pop is more “how correctly did you do this”. Just my opinion.
I love pop that has a bit of an edge to it and/or blends more underground sounds with poppy structures. After all, Nirvana was pop, Portishead was/is pop. Even Burial is pop to some extent. The ones that crossover into the mainstream despite all the odds, I can appreciate even when they get super famous. I had a night of intently listening to Billie Eilish not too long ago and I really enjoyed it. Anyway, you get what I mean, pop that has something a little deeper or meaningful than a throwaway bit of overproduced sound du jour.
I’ve had my stuff played on 2 local radio stations over the last 6 months.
Definitely not Pop. But then the radio shows playing my stuff werent Pop shows.
Im never going to get day time mainstream air time. And I dont care either. That’s not what Im into.
Radio friendly is a weird term, depends on the station, and the DJ, and the type of show.
My stuff tends to be more on the “commercial” dance track side of things, like this Daft Punk meets disco kind of thing.
Here’s a more pulsing electro/house kind of thing:
And this is probably the most “commercial” thing I’ve done in electronic music, a big-room EDM remake I did a few years ago of the old classic jazz tune.
I like making some pop songs from time to time. Often more synthpop than regular pop. But ive always liked really melodic stuff. But that doesnt fit with the techno stuff i do so i put everything into cheesy pop songs. hehe.
I found a vocal samplepack in cubase 10 or 11. I didnt know it was included. Think it was aimed at edm or something. So i had to make it fit a cheesy synthpop melody i had. There is a lot of flexibility with the variaudio engine. Was fun to change the timing and melody of the vocals. Took it as a training exercise. Here is the result.
This recent episode of Why We Bleep feels appropriate for the topic. They go surprisingly deep into James Blake’s musical process and his perspective of the music industry.
I’m not the biggest fan of Blake’s voice, but I really respect him. He does his own thing with pop music and has a lot of integrity. I would say the same thing about Frank Ocean, except that I love his music and it’s definitely influenced my own (mostly in a spiritual/emotional sense, not stylistically)