Trash Pop

A subgenre of pop music that consists of catchy, but shallow lyrics, electronic beats/instrumentals, and autotune galore. Some of the lyrical hallmarks that comprise the subgenre are profanity, hypersexuality, excessive alcohol consumption, hedonism, and superficiality. Trash pop tends to also have an incredibly "cheap" and "generic" sound to it, and literally anyone could probably attempt to have a career in this subgenre because it doesn't take really any vocal talent or developed songwriting abilities. Other than the common lyrical themes prevalent in trash pop, the signature sounds of trash pop music include: very limited emphasis on vocal talent/range, electronic/computerized beats and instrumentals, generic/run-of-the-mill production backing the songs, and genral loudness and obnoxiousness.

Trash pop became extremely popular and mainstream in the mid to late 2000s through the early 2010s, with legitimate popstars devoting themselves entirely to the genre, as well as a plethora of reality TV stars and internet sensations foraying into the subgenre. Although, it's gained more recent popularity, trash pop has probably been around in some form before this time. Trash pop has catchy, but degrading, lyrics and melodies, and ultimately can be summed up, befittingly, as "throwaway."

Various Trash Popstars:

Ke$ha

LMFAO
Lady Gaga
Kaci Battaglia
Jessie & the Toy Boys
Kimberly Cole
Heidi Montag
Jeffre Star
Chris Crocker

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Pop Music

An extremely broad genre of music. Pop music consists of catchy melodies, infectious beats, polished instrumentals, and usually a calculated image/vision to go along with it and promote it. "Pop music," as a genre, isn't to be confused with the term, "popular music," which could be music from any genre that has garnered mainstream attention or adoration. Many works of pop music also never gain widespread popularity. Pop music is commonly structured in a verse-bridge-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus-middle 8-chorus form, but there are numerous exceptions to this standard, but pop music always has a catchy and polished sound to it that is intended to appeal to the public at large. Although, at times, pop music can have a "unique" sound to it that instantly will make one label it as "pop," pop music often heavily borrows from other genres of music, creating subgenres such as: dance pop, teen pop, bubblegum pop, r&b pop, pop rap, country pop, electropop, etc. The one characteristic that sets these subgenres away from the genres they borrow from is, again, a catchy, structured, and polished sound.

Pop music is also often maligned by music elitists and critics. But, the one thing you have to remember is that pop music is mostly intended to be fun and exciting, not some deep emotional work of art; although pop music can be deep and emotional at times, contrary to popular notion.

Examples of Pop Music and its stars:

Britney Spears
Madonna
Kylie Minogue
Bananarama
Rihanna
Girls Aloud
Sugababes
One Direction
The Wanted
Michael Jackson
Justin Timberlake

... and the list goes on...

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