Thoughts #1

Pop

"Pop!"

That is a common sound that you can hear in this world. One of the times you can hear this well-known sound is when fireworks are launched into the night sky and popped as it explodes in the dark but yet beautiful night sky.

Fireworks are great as it is used as a way of celebrating important events most notably New Year where almost every country put up a fireworks show when the new year has started on a country. My nation also used fireworks to celebrate one of its important event - the anniversary of the country's independence after facing lots of years colonised. When the fireworks are being sent to the sky, a "bzzzzzt" sound can be heard before it explodes into a brilliant art piece in the sky which lasts for a while with the "Pop!" sound before it fades into nothingness within the sky. 

There is another notable source of this common sound and that is bubblegum. Bubblegum is a type of gum that you can chew and inflate it which actually makes it resembles to a bubble. This iconic gum is widely known and it not only comes in different colours but also in different flavours. (It is obvious, I know.) It is used to be a gum that is widely consumed by children globally since the idea of inflating a balloon/bubble of gum sounds interesting and it can be interesting to see how big does can it inflates before it popped too. Nowadays, the consumption of bubblegum or even the normal gum by children has dropped alot since there are more interesting things to do, most notably smart devices that are being blessed by the non-stop and fast advancement of technology. Meanwhile, adults who are more matured tend to opt for the normal gum - chewing gum (Sorry, I like to call chewing gum "normal gum").

However, as a citizen of my country, I didn't had much exposure to bubblegum or even chewing gum. That is because the import of gum is being banned in my nation where I call home. Yes, no gum in my country. No bubblegum. Even a normal chewing gum with no flavour at all, is not permitted to be in my country. More specifically, the import of gum is vetoed and the consumption of any type of gum is prohibited in my country. Because of this, I gotta admit that I always felt a pang of jealousy whenever I see someone consuming gum in television shows because they have the luxury of gum that me and my fellow countrymen can't experience at all. But there is a very good reason behind this ban which may seems to be stupid. 

First, I would like to ask you a question? How do you handle the gum after chewing it for a long time or inflating until its limit and popped the magnificent pink balloon you have created? You will throw it into the nearest dustbin or trashcan or any waste disposal location/spot. Sadly, not everyone does this proper way of handling of used and unwanted gum since sometimes it can be a hassle to walk a short distance to execute the disposal or sometimes there is no place nearby for you to dispose your gum. Despite understanding the second reason (since it is weird to have a gum that you countlessly chewed and exhausted its flavour, in your mouth), it is still gross to just dump the used gum at anywhere that is convenient to you (Yup, that is the reason for the ban). With the numbers of gums being in many places like MRTs (Mass-Rapid Transits) and shopping malls, the ban of gum is born, in the hope of the country to be a cleaner habitat (which it did thanks to the ban). Therefore, no "Pop!" sound from bubblegums can be heard in my country anymore. But still, some will still smuggle in gums and consume them because gum is an awesome treat to savour for anyone.

Coming back to the topic again (I seem to be drifting away from it earlier on. Whoops.), let me pen (more like type) down my thoughts of pop in the aspect of music. Yes, pop music. The most popular genre that most of the globe listens to. The songs from this genre is so mainstream that you can basically hear them from any stores that blast music with their hidden speakers like clothing stores and fast food restaurants. It used to be a genre filled with awesome songs like "Where Is The Love?", "Counting Stars" and "Just The Way You Are". However, it starts to degrade (that's my opinion, you might have different opinions. It is okay if that's the case). With Miley Cyrus changing her style and Taylor Swift doing the same after their own respective sweet and awesome early years full of great tracks that stunned and captivate everyone with their sweet voice and smoothing lyrics, it gets worse. Yes, songs has become less pleasing to ears and become more weirder. However, not all pop songs are bad as there are still great singers like Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith who both sing their songs with their awesome individual voices. It may seems that I might actually gonna continue this on a good note. But that is not going to happen as I would like to state digitally that the genre is really getting worse with the new arrivals of DJs like The Chainsmokers and Marshmellow (the dude that rose to his fame after a release on a label I adored - Monstercat). Yes, they rose to their fame with a song for each of them - "Closer" (which is a pop song) and "Alone" (A Trap song and a part of the Monstercat 027 – Cataclysm ). This spurred the inclusion of the elements of dance tracks that DJs typically create. Hence, now we start to see new pop tracks are done by DJs alongside with vocalists like Chainsmokers' "Paris" and Marshmellow's "Silence" (featuring Khalid). 

Even one of the new and uprising songs as of 2nd January 2018 - Let You Down by NF is part of The Billboard's Top Pop Songs Chart despite being classified as Hip-hop/rap when you google searched it (Just search "let you down" if you don't believe me. And please don't "inspect element" that fact and claim that the song is a pop song.) It is just weird to see how the pop genre has changed over the years. (I am starting to feel old after typing this. Help.)

Moving aside from the part of Pop music that everyone knows nowadays, yes, there are many other types of pop music like Bubblegum Pop, Teen Pop and Electro-Pop (If you want a full list, Google will be a good assistant to you in providing that certain information.) The Pop genre is also grouped by languages as there are types of Pop music like CantoPop and MandoPop etc. Yup, there are many worlds of Pop music, just that what I think right now is that the more popular parts are degrading, drifting away from the awesome and ear-pleasing music it mainly used to be. Therefore, I am rarely listening to Pop music and made a transition to EDM (Electronic Dance Music) for at least a year so far. 

Let's move on to a sweeter side of things - sweets and candies. There is one candy that has a name that ends with "-pop". Yup, it is a lollipop. The one candy that brings people to joy while savouring it with delight. Just like gum, there are countless of different types of flavours and there are many companies selling them. And I hope that your lives will be like lollipops - sweet and full of excitement (like the varieties of flavours).

I can associate other things to the topic "Pop" - the possible pop of the bubble in the trading world (I am actually patiently waiting for the Bitcoin hype to pipe down and its bubble to pop). and the "Pop" sound that can be heard in other things like making popcorn (Yes, the popcorn "Pop" obviously). It is just that I don't really have much time to spend on typing more content.

I want to focus back to lollipops because I am very curious of one certain thing about lollipops. Here's my buzzing question: Are lollipops originally flat or a sphere (like a ball)? 

Some of you readers (or maybe none) may be asking this question: Why do you want to know if it is round or flat? Isn't its flavour the most important part of it?

Actually, in most ways, yes, the flavour is the most important aspect of lollipops, that is why we buy lollipops, to savour the certain flavour that is contained in a candy. But why can't we just look at the lollipops at a different perspectives? That is what I thought recently and I immediately started to look more at its shapes. It is then when the stupid me actually come to the realisation that there are flat lollipops and lollipops that are spheres on top of a small plastic stick (most notably Chupa Chups). 

It turns out that lollipops have many different shapes, it is just that how the manufacturers want to make it. And the original shape of lollipops weren't mentioned in the vast internet (All I found  is that people just create lollipops by putting sweet stuff on a stick, with less care on how does it looks like. Still, sometimes questions like the one I mentioned earlier on, can be good in a way as it makes your brain tinker and start working to think hard in the search of the real answer. Also, making your brain active is a good way as it can prevent dementia which happens to lots of elderly in the whole wide world. 

After all, I gotta say that "Pop" actually can be referred to many things - a type of music and sounds etc. And I feel that we should always try to continue to think about stuff like today's bonus topic, and possibly making ourselves more smarter during this journey of self-discovery of answers. I believe there is endless number of things that we can actually associate with "Pop" as long we have the drive to do so.

Still, maybe in the future, I might still gonna ask myself a question:

"Are lollipops originally flat or spherical?" 

This is the end of the bonus chapter for 1st January 2018. :)

Bonus chapter of  First Chapter (1/1/2018)  [Ch-B1]