《1. Mad Science and Pop Hits NYT》.pdfVIP

Mad Science and Pop Hits By JON PARELES, BEN RATLIFF and JON CARAMANICA Published: December 28, 2012 FOR pop 2012 was a year of rewired consensus. A year in which Taylor Swift finally accepted her pop-star birthright, waved casually at country and then bravely entered dubstep. A year in which the critic- consensus RB star was Frank Ocean, who spent most of the year spilling out feelings and then averting his eyes. A year in which Carly Rae Jepsen suffocated the mainstream and then evaporated. A year in which Psy, a B-list Korean pop star, unleashed a video (and song) that became the first to surpass one billion views on YouTube, redefining virality in pop along the way. The most reliable movement in pop this year was the basic mistrust of the old model. Radio has ceded much of its advantage to the Internet, and new stars like the rapper Kendrick Lamar established themselves by ignoring the usual playbook and let the old generation of tastemakers play catch up. In this conversation excerpted from the year-end edition of the Popcast of The New York Times, the critics Jon Pareles, Ben Ratliff and Jon Caramanica discuss the year’s biggest pop trends and those that will be reshaping the genre for years to come. BEN RATLIFF We were talking about Tumblrs last year — sort of little online boutiques that don’t sell you things but shape your taste. Now this year something’s been proven: Pop performers can become truly famous by building their careers themselves online, maybe more efficiently and faster than a major company can help them to do. JON CARAMANICA Especially if a major company is secretly helping them to do it: 2012 was probably the year when you started to see people who were birthed of the Internet, in about as true a sense as you can, become equally successful in a hard-dollars sense as people who have been birthed from of a major label. RATLIFF Give us an example. CARAMANICA A couple of things jump out at me this year. One, you