Isn't the whole point of Pop music that it appeals to a wide audience? To this end the rhythms, chord structures, melody and even lyrical content need to be something that the audience can easily relate to. Lots of dissonant chords, dark lyrics, complicated melodies would surely defeat the purpose. I think there are two ways for music makers treat pop music, as a commercial venture or as a form of artistic expressions. I believe that possibly in modern music there are too many that treat it as a commercial venture fueled by an audience that all want their slice of fame on Xfactor, American Idol etc. Occasionally though there are musicians and bands that produce artistically credible pop music that is also commercially successful. I've often tried to sit down and write a 'pop song' and to be honest it's not that easy, even with the so called formula of 4 chords, big chorus, catchy hook it is still not easy. So I applaud the talents of people who write pop music. I appreciate the work that goes into creating a good pop song even though the singer/band might have has very little to do with the creative process.

I do quite a bit of driving for my job and sometimes I switch on mainstream radio for a while and to be honest I don't think modern pop music is all that bad. There have been good and bad pop music through the decades and this is no different. I find myself humming along to Adele, Train, Maroon 5 etc. quite a bit. I guess that means it's catchy & accessible and maybe even good pop music?