My room-mate has Project: Runway on as I make dinner, and one of the commentators used that already over-used phrase: “Those colors really POP!”
Ten years ago, everything “pushed the envelope.” Five years ago, everything was “edgy.” Now, whenever anybody wants to give the appearance of being an industry insider who ‘knows the lingo’ throws around the term “It really POPS!” When you describe something by saying “It POPS”, you are letting everybody know that YOU are so edgy, you really push the envelope.
They may be overusing the term on that show, but saying that a color or colors “pop” in fashion or decor has been around a long time. It’s a pretty standard term.
My high school art teacher used to say “it really pops!” and that was in 1987.
My college architecture professors used to say “that really pops!” and that was in 1992.
Things need to stop popping, I agree. I don’t have to go to meetings and hear about products popping - I wonder what word they use for that at Orville Redenbacher - but I’ve heard too much about colors doing it. We’re decorating our apartment and my girlfriend kept talking about having bright curtains that would be “pops” of color. I bit my tongue about it for a few days before I finally had to beg her to use a different word. She immediately said it two or three more times but I think it’s gone away since then.
Man, that orchestra in Boston is going to be so bummed when they are forced to change its name.
I’m not sure how new “pops” is in the design arena. They’ve certainly been using it for years on TLC design shows. I figure it’s just shorthand for a thing being “eye-popping” (kind of gross, actually) or eye-catching (even weirder). You dig?
Truly, all those design shows make decorating and designing gravy, even though usually the results are pretty rinky-dink. It’s all good, though. I always thought that Vern Yip was da bomb!
We consulted a decorator for some advice about buying furniture and window treatments, etc., for several rooms two years ago, and I told her at the outset that if she used the words “whimsical,” “country,” or “zen,” our association would be at an end. I also told her that we would not be buying a giant footstool and using it as a coffee table.
“Pops” is just a term used to describe something that contrasts with it’s surroundings. The opposite of blend.
Frank Lloyd Wright building don’t “pop” because he makes them blend into their surroundings. I.M.Pei’s designs “pop” because they are in sharp contrast to their surroundings.
I have to agree…I think HGTV shows would all be five minutes shorter if they banned the word “pop” when describing color.
I know on Trading Spaces (back in the day people actually watched it) they started over-using it there as well.
When I bother to watch TV, I’ll sometimes watch crafty shows. I am very, very tired of hearing how to make something pop.
I’m also tired of people “sharing” things. If you want to tell me how to do something, fine, I’m good with that. If you want to teach me, even better. But I have nothing to give back, other than watching advertising, and to me sharing means that the transaction is not one-sided. I will not be writing the people in the show, to tell them how to do something better. It’s not a sharing situation for me.
Recently I was watching Grey’s Anatomy and I heard someone use the trendy and overused word “elbow” and it made me want to kick them in the face. They think they’re so edgy and envelope-pushing with that ridiculous term. Just call it the middle arm hinge like everyone else, poseur!
