OMG, R FS POP?

Hi Sage Heads! Kathleen here.

This is what I'm thinking about today: We might be pop songwriters. It's not really a thought I want to have, but I can't un-think it. When you mix up a whole bunch of genres and just cannot be true to one, but borrow freely on a willy-nilly basis using a different recipe almost every time, when you work with piano instead of guitar, you can still deny the pop gene. But when you listen to the radio and your mom says that Katie Perry sounds like one of your songs, you have to ask yourself, "am I a pop artist?" Consider that a broad definition of pop music is anything that isn't classical (either anglo or any other culture). Then consider that "pop" is short for "popular". Follow that up with the question of how new, relatively unheard original music could even be considered "popular". It's a downright conundrum.

Having some kind of musical personality cataclysm today. Might as well fess up. The second question of the day is "how do you market music that has no label?" We call ourselves all kinds of different things, like "alt-everything", "alt-cabaret", or "fo-jazz".  BTW, we know how to spell "faux"; "fo" in this case is short for "folk" (Thank you Marty Balin for coining the phrase!) We like to play acoustically and not get real loud.  We think we're perfect for house concerts, old fashioned supper clubs, coffee houses, and listening rooms.  Our careers have been long and varied.  Between us, we've performed on a lot of stages, including some pretty big ones, with groups ranging from jump blues to gospel to heavy metal to girl group rock to country music, all over the world.  This sounds like a lie, but when we tally it up, it's actually true.  I think it also gives us the right to mine our experience and turn it into songs as well as to play in the tasty little rooms we crave. No stage necessary.

We should know who and what we are by now.  But no, apparently not.  To quote one of our own songs, "We don't know what we don't know."  Our minds remain open. As much as I chaff under the "label collar", it might be preferable to the blank stare I give people as my thoughts race down hallways,  opening and closing doors that lead to the many theme rooms in the mansion of my mind. It's getting embarrassing!

What do you think?  Are we pop?  Do we have to have a label that will make it easier to deliver the "elevator speech" that describes what we do?  Any ideas?

Comments and observations are welcome. 
 

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