I’m a pop music whore. Let’s just get that out there. I love Britney Spears (”Hit Me, Baby” is a classic, despite its obvious overtones), Madonna (anything by Madonna), and basically any boy band you can name (and some you probably can’t). So when I first started liking Nickelback, I was no more embarrassed than usual about it.

Until the famous controversy surrounding their two songs “How You Remind Me” and “Someday” which are nearly identical, prompting some people to wonder if it was possible to plagiarize yourself; also prompting one erstwhile fan to compose the classic “How You Remind Me of Someday“, pumping one song into the right channel and the other through the left. That embarrassed me…for awhile, until I heard about the Music Genome Project (which essentially says that there are certain elements that all “hit” songs have).

So now I feel that I can proclaim my love for pop music a little louder. But then! Oh, then, I heard Nickelback’s “If Everyone Cared” and “Never Again“, which may not be classics of the genre, but are great songs in a broader political context. The first is essentially a modern “Imagine” (although nowhere near as classic, I just mean the subject matter):

And as we lie beneath the stars
We realize how small we are
If they could love like you and me
Imagine what the world could beIf everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we’d see the day when nobody died

Whereas the second is an indictment of domestic violence:

He’s drunk again, it’s time to fight
She must have done something wrong tonight
The living room becomes a boxing ring
It’s time to run when you see him

and its affect on children:

Father’s a name you haven’t earned yet
You’re just a child with a temper
Haven’t you heard “Don’t hit a lady”?
Kickin’ your ass would be a pleasure

Pop music may indeed be junk food in terms of originality of note progression; it may indeed all be written in the same key; it may signify a lack of maturity on the part of the writers; but not all of it is lyrical drivel. And some of it is a lot deeper than you’d expect from the label “pop”.