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POP MUSIC EXPLAINED By Thos. M. O'Brien I was watching late-night television recently and, contrary to its usual effect on my metabolism, my eyes were opened! I'm talking about pop music and music videos and things related to what helps fuel (or dissipate, depending on your own outlook) today's young adults. Now, I'm no stranger to MTV or any of its clones. I like watching music videos. In fact, now that I think about it, I probably invented music videos back in the early '60s when I was an emerging teenager who made a series of 10 minute movies set to the popular music of that time--the Monkees. (Some will say that the Monkees' TV show was the first real music video but I disagree--the Monkees' show had a story line.) Anyway, pop music is much better now, in my opinion, that it has a visual presentation in addition to the aural one. But this is no analysis of music videos. What this is, is the story of a revelation I had the other night. First, you see, there was this show that featured a few popular groups "live and on stage" performing their music. Great! I've always liked watching artists and musicians performing their work. The next show was composed of the Top 20 music videos in America. No live musicians performing their own work on this show--everything was on tape. Not only that, but some of these groups were on the chart with remakes of other groups' prior hits--it wasn't that they did the songs better as much as the fact that the video along with the song made for an updated, modern presentation. Are you seeing the progression here yet? The next show featured groups who have never written or recorded a popular song. All these people did on the show was lip-synch and act-out someone else's hit. Ah, now it becomes clear! So what was the NEXT show about? The next show featured imitative lip-synched music videos made by amateurs with consumer equipment and consumer talent. Aha! I thought by this time (2 a.m.) that I had watched a complete cycle of mediocrity, but no. No, the final show featured pop music artists who had composed and performed hit songs in the past lip-synching and imitating music videos made by consumers of the very music they had originally performed "live and on stage" back in the neanderthal '70s and '60s! (This was the very most entertaining of all!) But it wasn't the final show. I dozed for awhile and awoke (at least I believe I awoke) in time to view a program which featured a company of improvisational comedians who were busy lampooning popular music videos! What'll they think of next?