Pop music has never been this exciting

Re: In popular culture, music is dead, Mar. 23

I want to address John Kennedy’s blatantly pretentious and skewed generalization of popular music from last week’s The Cord. Mr. Kennedy, congratulations on beautifully articulating how little you actually understand about the workings of the music industry. Your error comes from assuming that all popular music is supposed to be good. No one in the world thinks Rebecca Black’s “Friday” is a good song—her YouTube video’s 90 per cent dislike rating is evidence of this.

Black became popular simply because her music is fun to mock, just as “Crank That” was fun to dance to. Kanye West’s utter disregard for good taste for the sake of his creativity has drawn him comparisons to Picasso. If so, Lady Gaga would most certainly be Van Gough: a refreshingly vibrant example of expressionism.

Your take on auto-tune is equally misinformed, my friend. No one relies on auto-tune – they use it for the distorted effect which, in the end, sounds good. I suppose you also think that musicians who distort their electric guitars also have no place in the music industry.

Most ironically, in your martyrdom to enlighten the world of your nonconforming to popular music, you have fallen in line with the popular ignorance that calls Justin Bieber garbage. If you were to get past Bieber’s fake swagger that was manufactured by his record label, you’d see a prodigy, one whose talent harkens to Michael Jackson.

—Kenny Mak