In that sense, I became politicized because the people in the coal mining villages who were involved in the struggle knew why they were there. But they couldn't understand why some pop star from London would want to be there.
Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, 'What kind of music do you make?', and you say, 'Pop music.' You may as well have 'I'm not cool' stamped on your forehead.
I wanted to be a rock star. I dreamed of it, and that's all I dreamed of. To be more accurate, I wanted to be a pop star. This was in the late '80s. And mostly, I wanted to be the fifth member of Depeche Mode or Duran Duran.
Even though I'm a pop singer, I really have more the life of a country singer.
Madonna can still produce a catchy pop song, but she hasn't expanded her artistic vocabulary since the 1990s. Her concerts are glitzy extravaganzas of special effects overkill. She leaves little space in them for emotional depth or unscripted rapport with the audience.
I used to be the hippest of them all. I used to know everything about everything. I used to read about everything that was going on, and I knew everybody's name and anybody in pop culture. Anything that was written about me, I would read.
All my favourite pop songs are the most stupid ones, the ones that are the most obvious.
I have always loved creating and entertaining. It started with music, singing. I grew up in a household filled with music - not pop but old-school stuff, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong.
Trends in fashion, design and pop culture are taking on more global influence, and of course, one thing that's always in style is color.
I find pop art really offensive because it's taking a piece of popular culture and putting it somewhere where people can't see it.
One of my pet peeves is when people think that pop guys go country when they can't make it in pop anymore.
Pop music will never be low brow.
I decided a long time ago that if I was going to do anything internationally, it would be mainstream pop entertainment - and that's exactly what 'Quantico' is. The diversity is just reflective of the world today - look around you: this is what America looks like. This is what the world looks like. It's time Hollywood embraced that.
It's a bit weird, because I don't really know what people expect or think being political is; I just don't get it. What am I supposed to do as a pop star-stroke-revolutionary? Get up and put my balaclava on, go to the grocery store and then invent some Google viruses, and then go to rob a bank to fund my revolution on YouTube?
I know I could never be in a pop band. I honestly have an appalling voice.
Maybe I've got to admit that what I did here was enough. I can make some more films. Maybe I'll direct a film. Maybe I'll have my musical put on stage. But nothing, really, to be absolutely honest, competes with making a very successful pop band for 10 years of my life.
Our centers spread the floor, shoot the three and block shots. We can play pick and pop.
I think the sheer number of pop stars has kind of drowned out, somewhat, our interest. We're just submerged.
I feel like this: When you call me in to do something with you, you must want me to do soul-singing. Because you know I'm a soul singer. Don't ask me to come in and rap. And don't ask me to come in and sing pop.
My music is not a particular genre. It's not bubblegum or cheese. It's just good songs, pop songs. It's just my songs.
No doubt about it, country is a much more family-friendly business than pop.
I have a good memory for early life. My visual memory is good about childhood and adolescence, and less good in the last 10 years. I could probably tell you less what happened in the last 10 years. I remember what houses looked like, sometimes they just pop into my head.
Early in my life, without any supporting evidence, I fretted over what I believed was my fate: accidentally becoming an international pop star. The pages of my diary were filled with hypothetical ethical dilemmas.
Thank God kids love following an artist. When you get a group who pop, it's the best thing in the world.
It's very schizophrenic because I like a lot of very straight pop, like Small Faces, Stones, Kinks; and on the other hand, I like a lot of avant garde things.
As hard as it is, as ghetto as it is, hip-hop is pop music. It's the sound of music getting out of the ghetto, while rock is looking for a ghetto.
Online business models are still evolving. New and different products and services pop up every day. This gives rise to supporting products and services. A business can make substantial profit by helping others execute their plans for making money.
If you try to do that in pop music - to play only rare show tunes, for example - people don't come.
I'm not that beautiful, and I don't want to be a pop star.
When I graduated, everyone was like, 'You got to do pop and R&B to make it,' like very contemporary pop and R&B. I tried for a little while, but I just realized my voice wasn't quite fitting some of the records that I was doing.
I've never intended to be controversial, but it's very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.
Spin Me Round was number one all over the world, everywhere. It changed the face of pop music, no question. We took technology further than Trevor Horn.
While not a musician, my father was a music agent for years before becoming pop culture icon Famous Amos.
It was like I was Hannah Montana! I was a normal girl from Pittsburgh one minute and then a pop star the next!
You hear ten seconds of a song, and you know it's OutKast. There's a strangeness about it because it's catchy, but it's not just pop for the sake of pop. They're pushing the envelope.
Big Pop songs are born of inspiration and spontaneity. The question becomes how do you create spontaneity when you're going into the studio five days a week?
