Pop Music

Like 13-year-olds cranking up the stereo to send a message to bickering parents, those involved in the escalating debate over record labeling are doing whatever it takes these days to make themselves heard. In the last year, as labeling legislation has gone from conservative pipe dream to serious consideration in at least 10 statehouses, including Pennsylvania's, everyone has become an expert on the subject of song lyrics. Especially those found in rap and heavy-metal music.

Doug King is working the phone in his cluttered Cherry Hill office. The soft Mozart concerto in the background seems incongruous to this guy in a wide-lapel suit and aviator glasses. He sips McDonald's coffee and pulls on a Marlboro Light while he schmoozes and pumps his product in a deep, raspy voice. "This is happening right now and this is going to be big, really big," he says with the conviction of a man who made his career in the music business. For nearly 30 years, he promoted and produced songs that are mostly forgotten.

This year, the discourse of popular music was not carried out in song. It was on the front pages, in the business section, in the gossip columns. It wasn't exactly scholarly, and it didn't always rhyme. With the exception of Ice Cube's intentionally incendiary calls to violence against Koreans and Jews, what the artists said on their albums got little attention. The million-dollar deals they made, the extravagant (and often less-than-successful) tours they mounted, the exhaustive boxed sets they issued - these were the newsworthy bits.

Inquirer critic Dan DeLuca writes about pop music at .