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Reflecting on my pop music immersion

I have to say, I think this was my favorite project of the semester. It allowed me to really dive deep into a topic I love which is music. I have always been a fan of pop music, but this allowed me to dive deeper into the artists I love and the news that is happening almost constantly in the industry. Honestly, I did not require a lot of research because it was already a topic I was passionate about.

My intention was to curate the latest news in pop music, which I was successful at. However, it was difficult to simply report on one thing. I curated posts not just about new music being released, but also news about the artists who create them. Since we as a society see musicians as celebrities, it was hard to focus on one aspect of the music industry without ignoring another.

I think being the curator was my favorite part of this immersion. The consumer part was relatively short and sweet, as I was simply finding my favorite pop artists and following their Twitter accounts. However, when it came to curating their tweets, I found that I had to follow more trade press venues such as Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Variety, in order to see more of the news. Many of the artists I enjoy listening to use their Twitter’s for more personal purposes, and therefore I didn’t have a ton to work with. For example, I followed Ariana Grande in the hopes of seeing exciting news about her upcoming work or performances, but instead was faced with pictures of her many dogs.

After I curated a lot of posts via Twitter, Youtube and Facebook, I began to write my own posts about popular music. In one I was able to explore the positive things that makes popular music so attractive to the everyday person. In another post I created a playlist of the best popular music of the last 10 years. All of this allowed me to really explore my creativity. I found it difficult to find an event to live tweet, but then I struck gold when the #INTHEHEIGHTSMOVIE hashtag began trending worldwide. “In The Heights” is not only a favorite music of mine, but it is a pop/hip-hop musical with a latin feel that falls directly under my immersion into popular music. Live tweeting this allowed me to even incorporate a bit of information about Broadway and the film industry because the pop musical was being adapted into a movie and the teaser trailer had just hit the internet. That being said, verified users and normal people like you and me alike were talking about it live and therefore provided me with a lot to talk about. My twitter handle to view my live tweets is @JuliaMonteleon1.

According to “Newsroom Curators and Independent Storytellers: Content Curation as a New Form of Journalism” the function of a curator is “basically someone who takes an inordinate mass of material, and turns chaos into order, or in more recent slang, turns ‘noise into signal.'” I found that simply by making choices about the direction I wanted to go with this project, I was becoming like the captain of a ship, directing it where to go. I like the comparison that this article in particular made about curators being like human filters when it comes to social media and world news. With a constant influx of stories from different sources, it can be easy for the story itself to be lost in translation. In my case there was a lot of white noise about artist’s lives that I didn’t really care to use. I didn’t want to focus on their celebrity, I wanted to focus on their music, and the mark they are leaving on the world. In this way I was able to curate information that made my blog a place for pop music news, rather than a tabloid for celebrity news.

As for “My 13 Golden Rules of Twitter,” I found that there were some rules that I think I could have followed better if I had done this over a semester long period of time. The rules that involve creating relationships and gaining reciprocity take time, and I don’t believe I had the kind of time to develop relationships with people who were interested in my topic. The other problem with this is that for my topic many of the people involved are verified users with so much celebrity that it would be difficult to get them to engage in conversation with me. For example, I could not expect Lin Manuel Miranda to tweet me back when I live tweeted the release of the teaser trailer for “In The Heights.” However, I did find that when I responded to someone else’s tweet, or retweeted something with a comment, I did receive a few likes from people. Hashtags also drew attention to what I was tweeting.

My pop favorites of the 2010s

Below is a list of some of the best pop songs of the 2010’s. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I kind of am. Whether you are cleaning your room or driving along in the car, here are some songs that are a MUST for whatever you are doing.

  • 1950 – King Princes
  • Truth Hurts – Lizzo
  • Delicate – Taylor Swift
  • Sucker – Jonas Brothers
  • 2002 – Ann-Marie
  • Thank u, next – Ariana Grande
  • New Light – John Mayer
  • I don’t Care (ft. Justin Bieber) – Ed Sheeran
  • Hard Times – Paramore
  • Party in the USA – Miley Cyrus
  • Formation – Beyonce
  • Perfect – One Direction
  • Shut Up and Dance – WALK THE MOON
  • Classic – MKTO
  • Tonight Tonight – Hot Chelle Ray
  • Teenage Dream – Katy Perry
  • What the Hell – Avril Lavigne
  • What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction
  • The A Team – Ed Sheeran
  • Versace on the Floor – Bruno Mars

POP Music is constantly moving and moving us.

What I have found in doing this immersion project of social media is that pop music, like news, is a 24/7 cycle that there is a never a shortage of information about. The fact is this: people love pop music; this is why it has the name it does, popular music. It is not just about the catchy melodies or memorable hooks, it is also about the artists we know and love constantly creating new and interesting sounds that wow audiences from the inside of their headphones to inside the concert hall. We treat our musicians as larger than life celebrities who can do no wrong, and can you blame us? They create music that makes us feel so much.

Music has the ability to make us laugh, cry and dance. Pop artists inherently create the tunes that move us more than anything. That is why they are the songs at the top of the charts each week. Whether it is a sad melody by Billie Eilish that makes you reflect about where you have been in life, or a song by The Weekend that makes you want to dance like no one is watching, popular artists have given us so much. Idolizing is the easiest thing in the world because they give us so much.

Billie Eilish releases new song “Everything I Wanted”

The sad melody quickly reached the top of the charts after release.

I had a dream
I got everything I wanted
Not what you’d think
And if I’m being honestIt might’ve been a nightmare
To anyone who might care
Thought I could fly (fly)
So I stepped off the golden, mm
Nobody cried (cried, cried, cried, cried)
Nobody even noticed
I saw them standing right there
Kinda thought they might care (might care, might care)I had a dream
I got everything I wanted
But when I wake up, I see
You with meAnd you say, “As long as I’m here
No one can hurt you
Don’t wanna lie here
But you can learn to
If I could change
The way that you see yourself
You wouldn’t wonder why you’re here
They don’t deserve you”I tried to scream
But my head was underwater
They called me weak
Like I’m not just somebody’s daughterIt could’ve been a nightmare
But it felt like they were right there
And it feels like yesterday was a year ago
But I don’t wanna let anybody know
‘Cause everybody wants something from me now
And I don’t wanna let ’em downI had a dream
I got everything I wanted
But when I wake up, I see
You with meAnd you say, “As long as I’m here
No one can hurt you
Don’t wanna lie here
But you can learn to
If I could change
The way that you see yourself
You wouldn’t wonder why you’re here
They don’t deserve you”If I knew it all then would I do it again?
Would I do it again?
If they knew what they said would go straight to my head
What would they say instead?
If I knew it all then would I do it again?
Would I do it again?
If they knew what they said would go straight to my head
What would they say instead?

Billboard Interviews Taylor Swift

“In the 2010s, she went from country superstar to pop titan and broke records with chart-topping albums and blockbuster tours. Now Swift is using her industry clout to fight for artists’ rights and foster the musical community she wished she had coming up.”

Billboard on Taylor Swift

In an article published by Billboard today titled “Billboard Woman of the Decade Taylor Swift: ‘I Do Want My Music to Live On,'” Swift discusses where she has come from and where she has been in pop culture and the music industry.