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Hot takes are a tricky business because one person’s hot take is another person’s room temperature one. That’s why I tried to attack everyone, but whether I succeeded is up to you.
If you hate pop music you’re probably miserable. When I say "hate" I don’t mean you happen to not like pop music and tend to avoid whatever’s on the billboard at the moment. That’s just a preference. I’m not the biggest fan of most pop music myself even if some of my favourite music falls under this nebulous umbrella that stretches from Rina Sawayama to Animal Collective. Hate, here, means going out of your way to shit on anything that wouldn’t be out of place on a radio. Maybe you think disliking Six60 is worth mentioning on your Tinder bio, maybe anything that becomes a trending
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sound on TikTok suddenly becomes unlistenable. I could go on. And while music elitism isn’t restricted to hating pop, it’s particularly jarring to see people who say they love music spend energy letting fun, upbeat music bother them. There are legitimate criticisms to have of pop music, especially as an industry, but exploitation probably isn’t at the top of your list of grievances is it? The irony is that if you love pop you have a tendency to run into the blues - that’s why we need it. As much as I’d love to listen to nothing but American Football and the Microphones this winter, I’m gonna have the new Snoh Aalegra on repeat and I suggest you should too!
