Pop music notes on the decade: Authenticity takes a holiday

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Recently asked what the word “authenticity” meant to her, Lady Gaga — the last major pop star to emerge during the decade we’re now departing — tried her best, at first. “Integrity, intention,” she said, furrowing her neatly plucked brow. Then she gave up the pretense. “I can say this . . . to you all day,” she harrumphed. “It’s not gonna reap anything.”

She’s right. Of all the aspects of pop that went into fatal mutation mode in recent years, the cult of authenticity was hit perhaps the hardest. The advent of downloading wrecked the music industry as we’ve known it, and along with many jobs and old-fashioned rock star dreams, core assumptions about what makes music meaningful have been changing, too…..