# Ironically common pop occurences

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-common-pop-occurences/392073>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 13, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-common-pop-occurences/392073 "2007-02-13T20:32:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-common-pop-occurences/392073/1 "2007-02-13T20:32:19Z")

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So I picked up _A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out_ by Panic! at the Disco and it struck me as good, and slightly more pop than the stuff I’ve been listening to lately. Thing is, I couldn’t pin down _why_ it sounded pop: the singing and the music weren’t too different from a lot of more hardcore bands, and the lyrics aren’t the standard music-business-is-a-big-party or songs about scoring and love ballads.

Then I discovered that they _did_ share some elements with other pop songs, but all of them seem to be odd coming from pop music:

1. Disdain for what the “critics” say. Even the Monkees did this, and they are the definition of Pop. I think it comes from protesting too much: punk doesn’t _have_ to prove it’s independent.
2. Breaking the fourth wall by referring to the Chorus or the Verse in the lyrics. I have no idea why this is a pop convention, but it goes way back to music that sings about “this song.”
3. Segues, movements, whatever. We’ve had several threads about what you should call a song changing into a seemingly totally different song in the same track, but there was no consensus on the name. Anyway, this seems to be more emo-pop specific, in fact it seems that nearly every band I consider emo-pop does it in at least one song. The only other pop examples I can think of at the moment are Hey Jude and Blackwater, but I can’t think of many examples\* from bands such as The Promise Ring or Park.

\*I was going to say “none,” but then realized that the second best song of all time, _Best Looking Boys_ by The Promise Ring, does this.