What makes for a good (indie) pop song?

Pop hooks are the musical equivalent of tweeting.

Jarvis Cocker image courtesy of: the Guardian

They're short and catchy and as the name suggests, they can reel you in to listen to a more substantial piece. Particularly in the dense forest of indie music, it could spell the difference for an obscure talent to gain hits.

As the year comes to a close, many review sites and critics have compiled their top tracks and albums for 2013. It has become a tired old ritual, but is universally practised by curator sites because lists are a good way to generate internet traffic.

People read lists. They've stopped reading in-depth articles. And listing tracks involves the least amount of effort. Films take longer. A pop song requires a tiny snippet of one's time, and it only requires 10 seconds for a listener to become engaged.

So what makes for a good pop song?

From Gates of Hell to City of God

It may have been a case of poverty porn, but it wasn't. This music video by the four-piece British drum and bass group Rudimental set in Manila, uses a similar narrative to the film, City of God (Cidade de Deus) of two boys growing up amidst the squalor of a large metropolis. It was meant to be inspired by the life of bboy champion Mouse and his older brother.

Though perhaps a far cry from the early days of d&b and more in keeping with the formula for pop songs these days, the UK chart toppers have produced something that is truly soulful and way better than any of the stuff French DJ David Guetta puts out, with more street cred than anything Will.i.am or the Black Eyed Peas offer.

Building Capacities with Armi Millare of Up Dharma Down

Image courtesy of Chico Limjap
at Chicolimjap.com

ca·pac·i·ty /kəˈpasitē/ n. pl. ca·pac·i·ties

1. The ability to receive, hold, or absorb.

2. The maximum amount that can be contained.

3. a. Ability to perform or produce; capability.

    b. The maximum or optimum amount that can be produced.

4. The power to learn or retain knowledge; mental ability.

5. Innate potential for growth, development, or accomplishment; faculty.

6. The quality of being suitable for or receptive to specified treatment.

7. The position in which one functions; role.

To these definitions, we can now add: title of the soon to be released and much anticipated third album of Up Dharma Down under Terno Recordings.

The Scenester’s chief contributor, Kristo Babbler recently “sat down” with Armi Millare, keyboards and lead vocals for Up Dharma Down to take stock of the band’s evolution to date, their creative process in the lead up to their third outing, and Armi’s personal journey all throughout. A rather revealing exchange ensued.

Hipsters Down Through the Ages

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night...

- Allen Ginsberg, Howl (1956)

The passage quoted above was how the father of the beat generation described the inhabitants of the bohemian scene of his day in a manner so condensed that only a poet could produce it. It took Kerouac and Burroughs full length novels to expound on this simple summation.

The emergence of hipsters can be traced back to the rise of the urban metropolis. Cosmopolitan London and Paris in the late-eighteenth to the early-nineteenth centuries with their quaint coffee shops which apart from spawning revolutions produced dandy writers like Charles Baudelaire who elevated aesthetics to a living religion. It was he who coined the term modernity to depict the fleeting, ephemeral quality of life in an urban setting and made it the artist's role to capture its essence.

Man on The Street - Valentine's edition

It’s that time of the year again to play some Sade or England Dan and John Ford Coley while you and your better half cozy up with a bottle of Pinot Noir or just put on Anthony Minghella’s Truly Madly Deeply.

In that spirit, we here at Le Scenester decided to bug some of the old hipsters and some of the young ‘uns for this Valentine-themed Man on the Street with the following two questions:

1. What's your current ear candy or eye candy for 2011?

2. Who are you swooning over (for Valentine's Day)?