Review: This is Pop, the documentary about the versatility of pop music

this is pop is a documentary of Netflix in eight episodes that tell a little about the trajectory of pop music around the world, according to some specific themes addressed in each episode, such as the origin of auto tune, the Swedish influence on pop music, the influence of music on people's lives, etc. As it is an American documentary, it ends up turning more to the foreign side of the thing, so I also gathered information more focused on the national knowledge and international impact of pop music. still in your first season, comes to know a little more about the world pop music class that this documentary offers.

Country and pop? Yea!

You may not be a pop music lover, but you've definitely heard a lot of hits that it provides, and I don't even talk about the present day, which always appear in the timeline of social networks, but, for example, those who watched the soap opera Laços de Família, from Globo, certainly came across music "Man! I Feel Like a Woman", by Shania Twain, and this song is very successful in the country, including having fun and making everyone sing in karaokes.

The track is mentioned in this is pop, in the episode where they talk about how the country and pop came together. In it, there is Shania's statement, talking about her references and how it was a scandal to have a woman, at the time, showing her belly button in a clip. Fortunately the song was recognized by the hits which it is and made the CD it is part of, come on over, as the best seller worldwide — it currently ranks in the top ten best-selling CDs worldwide, evidencing that Shania's cultural impact and Man! I feel like a woman had.

the episode "When country turns to pop” is narrated by Orville Peck, a music artist country who is gay and knows how the genre works to be so traditional and conservative, which has led him to be quite persistent in the trajectory of expressing himself through his art. Not much is said about him, perhaps because he already has his role as narrator, but he certainly hasn't left out the story of another pop music icon who had his debut (debut) in scarves countries: Lil Nas X.

The boy, black and also gay, just 22 years old, released his first single, Old town road, and had an immediate positive reaction from the audience. The music that is enough country with hints of pop and even systematic trap: every time, it was a success. However, the Billboard, music company that punctuates sales and popularization of songs in the world, removed the track that was on the rise from the best country songs at the time, the reason? Too pop for the genre. This shocked everyone, even more so because of the obvious success the song had.

So by pulling strings here and there, Lil Nas X managed to reinsert the song into the charts by re-releasing it on a remix on Billy Ray Cyrus; you may not know who he is, but you may know how he is popularly known: the father of Miley Cyrus, the eternal Hanna montana. With the participation of the icon of the current country American, Old town road returned to the charts Billboard and established itself as the best song of 2019, ranking first in more than 15 countries.

The famous boy bands

BTS accumulators is a boy band (a group of boys, like the Giblets, for anyone who is reading this and is at least 25 years old) South Korean that is very relevant these days. Boys are a phenomenon all over the world, making a lot of success among teen and pre-teen girls. This artistic model with groups of men singing had been seen for decades and this is pop evidences this with the success and influence that was the boy band Boyz II Men.

Four young people who were humming in the corridors of a public school got together and, with a lot of willpower, they formed this musical group. By the mid-1990s, the group had already assembled a large fan base (group of fans) all over the world, but mainly in the United States, the country where they were all born and raised. From here, events began to appear in malls and their consequent overcrowding, with many people wanting to see their idols singing and dancing to the most played songs on radio and in MTV clips.

The person responsible for the great success of Boyz II Men is Michael Bivin, one of the first members of another boy band which had more notoriety in the United States, new-edition. The episode portrays the relationship between the group and Michael Bivins, always showing the respect that the businessman had for the boy band, recognizing his talent, and as the boys — now men, for those who took the pun on the group's name — are also very fond and proud of Bivins, as New Edition was an inspiration to them even before he became their manager.

But like all boy ou girl band, not everything is flowers. From 1995 onwards, after and during the heyday of Boyz II Men, we had other boy band, these best known internationally and even having great success in Brazil: Backstreet Boys e NSYNC. Just as Elvis Presley stole the spotlight from Chuck Berry a few decades ago, the boy band of the 90s took all of Boyz II Men's melody, lyrics and style as a formula for their own success. An unfortunate appropriation that systematically gives these groups more evidence nationally and internationally.

With one member less, the three members of Boyz II Men grew old understanding that their music, despite everything, marked a generation, and many people who grew up with them today appreciate the art created in all its context. Just as many people nowadays went to concerts by artists from the 90s, like Sandy & Junior, there are also those who insist on going to the shows of these more nostalgic artists to honor and recognize their great importance, just as Boyz II Men was and still is.

Talent is not concentrated in the United States

Many songs, artists and references that we have are from the United States. When I say this, I mean the fact that I quote Beyoncé, Britney Spears, imagine dragon, Justin Bieber and you don't not know who is who. But what you probably didn't know is that none of what they sing was actually composed by themselves. OK, maybe you knew because nowadays it's quite common to see a singer with lyrics composed by several other artists, but the point here is that most of the songs were composed in Sweden.

Yes, in that country in the north of the planet something like “the center of world pop music” is concentrated. To confirm this, I'm sure you know the song Dancing Queen, from ABBA. This 1976 song has already been and is heard by thousands of people around the world, thanks to this land that cannot speak of its success. this is pop also brings this curiosity: Swedes cannot talk about their own success and this is part of their culture, so, as Ludwig Göransson — responsible for the Oscar for Best Score for Black Panther and Music/Record of the Year by This is America — he says, for you to find out about the talents of Sweden, the best thing is to do a lot of research.

Another band that appeared a few years after ABBA and was also from Sweden, was Roxette, with its unique melodies, lyrics and rhythms, reaffirming the genius and ability of Swedish composers and producers towards pop music. Dennis Pop (producer) and Max Martin (composer) were big names behind these and other hits. Later and now, Shellback it's the swede who tops the biggest hits we've heard. One of Shellback's milestones was having placed 10 songs at number one on the Billboard top 100. Today, instead of foreign artists going to Sweden to record, the country is exporting artists.

auto tune

Despite its usefulness in the music world, the auto tune has its origins in an engineer named Andy hildebrand. During an unpretentious dinner, a woman asked if Andy could make a with to improve his singing voice and that was a trigger for the then manager. Some time later Andy comes with the contraption he named "Auto-Tune". In it you can, after capturing some sound, such as a voice, perform edits like the ones we see in some songs.

Probably the most famous worldwide use of Auto-Tune is the view in Believe, 1998 song by the iconic and legendary Expensive. Since starting her artistic career, Cher has had her ups and downs, including when she released Believe with her voice completely distorted by Auto-Tune, leaving everyone wondering if that song really was the singer. The track's producer, at the time, claimed that the device had not been used, but denied it a few years later, when the tool became more evident.

However, this is pop talks more about the rapper's use of Auto-Tune T-Pain. The artist explains that, during a flight, he received a call from Usher stating, in a sad tone, that he was destroying the entire music industry, since he didn't make songs with his voice, but through Auto-Tune. . There was a time of seclusion for the singer because of this and other opinions on the subject; soon after, however, he reappeared and performed without the use of any third device, just his voice and an instrumental backing keyboard, proving — even though he knew it wasn't necessary — that he could sing naturally.

It is also discussed, for those who used the internet in 2009 more or less, the videos in which there were parodies of news with Auto-Tune. For me the most famous was the bed intruder, talking about the case of a man who broke into houses and robbed them, then they did an Auto-Tune remix of the news. Not only these, at the time many videos went viral with the most diverse remixed versions, usually from the news. Probably the equivalent of tacky funk versions of several songs.

God save the queen

I'll start by saying that I was disappointed that they didn't talk about the Spice Girls here in this is pop. Even so, it is interesting how the documentary mentions the pop scene in Europe, showing the fight between Oasis e Blur in the land of the queen. And there's really not much to go into here, the documentary literally talks about when the bands fought for first place in the charts, one of them won and later each one released a song as good as the other, being Wonderwall e song 2, respectively from Oasis and Blur.

Despite giving exclusive space to expose the rivalry between British bands, there was a moment when it was said that the scenario grunge was what dominated the world charts, having Nirvana in constant prominence and success, making the bands try to achieve success in their own land, which ended up working, after all, everyone has heard the famous "woo-hoo” on some soundtrack. And despite mentioning the Spice Girls at the beginning, the this is pop he could also have mentioned other important figures such as Amy Winehouse, George Michael, Elton John and others who are quite important to pop music at the time and today.

The power of the music

Pop music reaches the masses in a contagious way with bubblegum choruses, making us always remember that beat. Other times music has a role, which must also be contagious, but bringing some deeper message and/or meaning. this is pop is a documentary that, yes, portrays a lot of pop music history, but also talks about the ability of this art to touch people on subjects that can be taboo at times and even forbidden at others, freeing people from their personal ties, social ou religious, offering a broader view of the world as it is — or perhaps we would like it to be.

It is very interesting how they approach stories of protests that were marked by the songs that composed these feats, most of which talk about the resistance of black people and other minorities, as well as their importance of reminding these and other people that they belong to small social groups, that they can and should claim their rights, because it is not your skin tone or the gender you belong to that you should accept being looked down upon by privileged people.

Despite the necessary focus on black movements such as the Black Lives Matter, topics such as the resistance of indigenous peoples in Canada (which was a recent topic in the newspapers) and the Riot grrrl, where women composed inspiring lyrics, talking about their freedom that for centuries has been interrupted and corrupted by an increasingly sexist society. also talks about Hozier and your famous song take me to church, where he portrays the abuse, hypocrisy and discriminatory relationship that the Catholic Church has from its conception to the present day.

The documentary this is pop also talks about other subjects such as the importance of Brill Building, something like the “American songwriting center”, and also the importance of festivals, since Woodstock even the ones seen today, like the Coachella e Lollapalooza. If you were curious to check out more about this wonderful documentary, you can find the this is pop na Netflix. With so much interesting in the first season, we're already looking forward to the next one!

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