10 - History Of Pop Memes

Looking through the different genres, pop has stood out as one that I would like to research futher. This includes looking at the memes and history of the genre. Pop has a massive influence on the way people behave, the attitudes they adapt and their appearances. Memes allow this to happen because someone's initial idea or thought can develop into a trope because people decide to copy this idea due to the dominance of the people and the media. For example, in pop, fashion sense. If an individual has a certain fashion sense and is seen to wear something outrageous, this is then accepted and copied because people see the person wearing it and want to be like them too. Establishing new fashion, someone's own individual preference is copied and becomes a trope. 

An example of this in pop in the past has been The Beatles. They're a prime example of memes and how they can establish and become massive. The Beatles were a massive band in the 90s who took over and were very successful. An example of a meme is their haircuts, as they became recognised and established, the hair cut The Beatles had was and has been copied for many years, eg; Oasis. Even today the initial aspect of the hair cut is copied by the every growing, Justin Bieber. This clearly shows the effect of celebrities in society and how popstars appearance can determin memes in everyday life with peoples appreances as they want to copy their favourite stars look. This also shows how memes and tropes can progress throughout the years, that even though these changes occured a while ago, people are still developing ideas today. 


In the last few years reality music TV shows have had a massive effect on the genre of pop in terms of memes and tropes. An example of this is XFactor. There has been alot of contraversy in previous years due to their being many rumours of cheating and fixing in the show. 


The TV show also allows the public to pick their winner, or so they say, depending on whether the fixing alligations are true or not. By the public voting their winner, a trope occurs even in this sense. This is because, the winner, or the person that the majority of people want to win, has begun from a small idea or bit of information and this has grown from the minority to the majority, hence why the win. 


Usually, there are a few people most people want to win. However, the producers will know who will make the most money. They know that the demographic will watch and will want to copy and aspire to be like these young people, especially if they have similar dreams to them. The producers will use this to their own advantage and memes will occur because people will want to be like the contestants. For example, the clothes they wear tend to increase the amount of people wanting to also wear similar things. Clothing that may have been seen as horrible will now be acceptable to wear in an element of society and seen as fashionable because these people are wearing it. 


Another area that is increased by XFactor and elements of reality music TV programmes is the songs that are sung. This is a example of memes because if a band or an individual sings a song one of the weeks, it will gain more playback on radios and TV because people will want to listen to it more. People will all agree on the genre of music they like because its what the majority of people are doing. For example, Fast Car - Tracy Chapman entered the itunes chart again after being sung on the XFactor. This proves the power reality TV shows have on what people listen to and how pop can change. 

In pop, there have been many successful boybands. Memes are obvious here due to three successful bands that are known worldwide each going for the same type of clean cut, attractive image. Westlife, Take That and Boyzone have been successful over the years and each have gone with the same genre and types of songs. This has become part of the genre over the years of the success. Although, their initial ideas for appearance and songs are also copied from past influences. 


Memes are a big part of the pop genre because people see what's successful and copy it, this is how they become. Everybody wants to have the success. However, in some circumstances people just purely often have the same kind of ideas at the same time. 


The pop genre is one of the most popular so its easy for these memes to become tropes and for the ideas to increase in popularity and to be copied. People see pop stars as role models and aspire to be like them. This is why its so important for producers and the music industry to get it right. 


The genre is aimed at everyone, so this is why the memes such as haircut and appearences are far easier to recognise in society and in the media because more people copy and listen to the style of music. Without memes in pop, it would be a totally different genre.