Little Inklings 2024

HOW POP MUSIC CAME TO BE By: Sophie Griffin ’30 The trouble started when the god of music, Apollo, fell in love with a human named Pherdea, a woman with a beautiful voice. They met at a music competition, in the city of Florina. After meeting in secret for months, they had one beautiful daughter. They then all moved into Pherdea’s home. Aftermuch thought, they decided to name their demi-god daughter Popi. When Popi was a baby, Pherdea would sing to her. The music was so enchanting that the townspeople began to stand outside Popi’s nursery window just to listen to Pherdea’s angelic singing. The crowd got so big that gods and goddesses started hearing about the music. Including Zeus. Zeus was the all-powerful king of the gods. Despite having many children with humans himself, Zeus was furious. In fact, his fury was so mighty, that he caused a devastating thunderstorm over Florina. The storm left Pherdea dead, and her house destroyed. Apollo and Popi were captured by Athena, the war god, and brought to Mt. Olympus. Upon their arrival, Apollo was imprisoned, and Zeus began to contemplate what to do with Popi. He had wanted her to be killed, but Hera, Zeus’s wife, managed to convince him to instead give Popi to Persephone, the goddess of the underworld. As Popi grew up, she developed the most captivating voice, but the sameway Pherdea was silenced in her death, Popi could never finish her songs, so shemade them short and easy to remember, and with a strong rhythm, so they could be heard throughout the underworld.When Popi turned 15, Persephone finally gave in andwanted to let her go.Worried that Popi would be recognized in her human form, Persephone turned her into a sparrow, so that she could fly up, out of the underworld, and into the daylight. Not just any sparrow, the very first song sparrow. When Popi began to fly, she first flew to her demolished childhood home in Florina. When she landed, she became very sorrowful at the sight of her mother’s tombstone. She was so upset that she began to sing, all night long. When the townspeople heard her, it reminded them of Pherdea, and they began talking about what Zeus had done to their poor town. Popi was curious, and as she listened, her sadness melted into anger at Zeus. She was so upset that she decided to fly into the air, to get to Mt. Olympus and speak her mind to Zeus himself. She flew and flew, and flew, until she flew right into Mt. Olympus. As she transformed back into a human, she started to sing in her breathtaking voice. Her voice was so unusual as compared to Apollo’s, and every god and goddess began to listen to her. When Zeus began to listen to her, hewas overwhelmedwith emotion, and immediately forgave her, and named her Popi, daughter of Apollo, goddess of her new type ofmusic, named after her, pop music. She eventually blessed a baby with the name Taylor Swift, to be her on-earth representative of pop music. 70