Guest Author - Michelle Anne Cope

I don’t get out much. I mean I go places, but my travel plans are far and few in between and do not constitute that I keep a travel journal. However, this week is different. This week I’m not working in my studio in Columbus, Ohio. I’m working in Virginia. Norfolk to be exact, which is just a few minutes away from Virginia Beach.

I arrived on Saturday and it was a beautiful pre-spring day. My friend, Kelly, picked me up at the airport and even before lunch, before the mandatory trip to Wal Mart to buy toiletries because I was too scared to pack any in my luggage, we went to the beach.

There it was—the Atlantic Ocean. I found myself standing in lukewarm brown sand looking out at the blue green water thinking about pop music. As the waves played chase with each other and often resembled small pools of Cool Whip®, I wondered what people were listening to on their IPods, MP3 players, radios and portable CD players. I was in the midst of a college town where the students had small devices loaded with thousands of songs. I wondered if they were pop songs.

What are you listening to? Do you have hopes for new music from old artists to be released? Maybe you know of some new music coming out in the pop genre that I don’t know about. (Remember – we are all working on this site together!)

Let’s get together and chat. I would like to invite you to visit the new Pop Talk Online Pop Music Forum. You can read, join, or start a new thread. The forum is our place to “hang out” and talk about music, artists, bands, or anything else you want to talk about. I love forums; I met some of my closest friends on fan boards and in music forums.

I can understand if you are shy and unsure of posting your ideas and thoughts for the world to read, so, if you would like to lurk and get a feel for the conversation and atmosphere, that is fine. Just keep in mind that this forum is safe. Your opinion is important, and is just that, your opinion. In our forum, it will be respected and valued. There will be no fighting or biting.

I have some ideas for future forum threads. I thought that in a few weeks, I could start a thread listing the new releases expected in pop music. New music is released for purchase on Tuesdays and I would like to update this thread on the Friday or Monday before each new release date. I would also love to see our new song fiction game continue and get to know forum visitors. Please stop by. You can get to the forum by clicking the little light bulb on the right hand side of the page, or you can get to the forum from the top of the page.

I have to go now; Kelly is making me an egg and bacon sandwich. I love being waited on! Yet, don’t worry, I'm working. On Friday, I'll be telling you about one of the biggest associations in the music industry—The Recording Industry Association of America.

Have a great week. See you Friday!
Chel