Excuses, Excuses, Excuses : The pop charts would have more meaning if hit makers channeled their passion into their music instead of whining over bad reviews

One of the bittersweet ironies of the current pop scene is that many of today’s biggest sellers inject more passion into their interviews than into their records.

Much of that passion, however, is wasted by the artists on complaints that critics dismiss their work for reasons that have almost nothing to do with music.

Bad reviews, the artists maintain, are due to such extraneous issues as how much money they have or how carefully they groom their hair.

The arguments are amusing on one level because they’re so superficial, but they are symptoms of an unwillingness among many of our artists who consistently top the pop charts to face some issues undermining the quality of pop music in the ‘90s.

Rather than document excellence in music these days, the pop charts all too often simply chronicle the conservative judgments of radio programmers and the success of marketing campaigns. That’s the bittersweet reality of today’s pop scene.

Anyone who lets these charts--or radio--serve as their guides to what they should be listening to is probably missing out on the most inspiring currents of pop music today. The fact that many of our top hit makers are among those who don’t recognize this reality speaks to the depth of the problem.

If they spent more time concentrating on their music and less time trying to rationalize why their music isn’t more critically admired, we’d all be better off.

Here are the big four of pop-star complaints:

1--Critics don’t like me because of my hair.

Richard Marx, who has had nine consecutive hit singles despite music that’s colorless and almost totally void of revealing edges, blamed his bad press recently on his lushly sculpted hair.

“I just have thick hair, which I think (upsets) a lot of bald critics,” the pop singer told the Times’ Steve Hochman in July, drawing attention to his long locks.

“When I read bad reviews of me and when I read slams in the press, I don’t ever read, ‘He doesn’t sing well’ or ‘He doesn’t write melodic songs’ or ‘He doesn’t work hard on stage or produce good records,’ ” he said. “I read, ‘His hair’s too perfect.’ ”

If Marx had indeed stumbled upon a truism in pop, Don Henley and John Mellencamp, among others, would be the targets of every critic in the country. Henley’s hair was so self-consciously long on the last tour that he spent half his time on stage brushing it out of his eyes, yet Henley is among the most admired figures in pop. Ditto for Mellencamp.

2--Critics don’t like me because I’m rich.

Phil Collins was upset earlier this year because so many critics have maintained that Collins, one of pop’s biggest sellers in the ‘80s even though his music tends to lack invention and fiber, is unconvincing when he sings about such social issues as the homeless and racism in his latest album, “. . . But Seriously Folks.”

In a January interview with The Times’ Dennis Hunt, Collins blamed the response on his comfortable financial status.

“If you’re rich, people assume you’re an insensitive jerk who’s out of touch,” Collins said. “But there’s some decent rich people too. Having money doesn’t turn you into a jerk. If those critics knew me, they wouldn’t be making rash assumptions about me. I’m rich, but I’m not a bad guy.”

That’s certainly more biting than anything Collins has put on record in years. The problem with Collins’ argument is that it ignores the fact that some of the most commercially successful pop artists--including Bruce Springsteen, Prince, U2 and Stevie Wonder--are praised by critics for their social commentary.

The reason is that there’s more conviction and character in their music. Collins may care as deeply about social issues, but he surrounded his views in the album with such gentle, unthreatening pop strains that many listeners no doubt didn’t even realize the songs are supposed to be social laments.

3--Critics don’t like me because they don’t think I’m rock ‘n’ roll.

Billy Joel has complained repeatedly that one reason he’s not better appreciated by critics is that the writers tend to be rock fans and they don’t see him as a legitimate rocker.

Raising the point again in Rolling Stone magazine last January, Joel said: “Me, I’ve had a . . . war with the press going on forever, and that’s one war you cannot win. . . . They don’t see me as this authentic rock ‘n’ roller. . . . I never pretended to be one.”

Yet, if pop critics truly couldn’t see past rock, why are Randy Newman, Paul Simon and Tom Waits so widely acclaimed?

4--Critics don’t like me because I’m too popular.

The argument here is that critics are snobs who only like struggling or unknown artists.

Collins--here’s that guy again--employed this reasoning in a recent letter to my colleague Chris Willman, who had reviewed a Collins performance at the Forum. Willman called the singer-songwriter a pop underachiever--a gifted musician who sacrifices some of his artistic potential in order to connect with the masses.

In the letter, Collins said: “Critics like you assume a holier than thou position (and feel) . . . if it’s a ‘hit’ its gotta be cheap . . . and written for the lowest common denominator.”

The populist stance is no more true than the first three defenses, but it deserves more attention because it is probably the one defense most voiced by the public.

Complaints that critics don’t like anything that is popular aren’t leveled only by defensive artists. Pop fans, too, often raise it.

These fans expect critics to write about and praise successful acts, but they often think critics are being self-indulgent or playing favorites when they applaud unknown artists or someone whose style is perceived by the mainstream listener to be extreme--punk in the late ‘70s or rap in the ‘80s.

If a record’s any good, it’s going to be a hit, right?

Wrong.

It was possible once to write only about hits and touch on the most vital strains in pop music, but no longer.

There were lots of mediocre hit makers in the ‘50s and ‘60s--from Pat Boone and the Crew-Cuts to Bobby Vee and Tommy Roe. But the Top 10 was also filled those years with the works of such gifted figures as Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Marvin Gaye, the Byrds and the Beach Boys.

It wasn’t until the ‘70s that the pop charts began to be dominated by the mediocre--no longer reflecting the brightest and the best of modern pop music. The primary reason is that rock-oriented radio stations--in seeking the widest possible audience--began avoiding artists with the radical and adventurous edges.

If this meant that discriminating pop fans could no longer count on the radio--or at least top-rated stations, as opposed to college and alternative stations--as the main guide to stimulating new music, it didn’t mean that critics or fans couldn’t sometimes find brilliant work in the Top 10.

A look at the results of the Village Voice’s annual poll of the nation’s leading pop critics over the years shows that many best-sellers have been wildly acclaimed.

The 1989 Village Voice poll is fairly characteristic of the balance these days between commercial and relatively unknown on critics’ lists.

Eighteen of the 40 best albums of 1989 sold 500,000 or more albums--enough to qualify as gold. Among the artists: De La Soul (the New York rap group that topped the poll), Madonna, Janet Jackson, Tracy Chapman, Don Henley, Soul II Soul, the Fine Young Cannibals and the Cure.

Rather than Collins, Marx, New Kids on the Block, Paul Abdul, Bon Jovi, Milli Vanilli, Skid Row, Debbie Gibson, Poison, Warrant, Winger, Great White, Kenny G, White Lion and other meaningless best-sellers from 1989, the Voice poll saluted such commercial underdogs as the Neville Brothers, the Mekons, the Pixies, the Replacements and Lyle Lovett.

The reason the latter artists were favored over the best-sellers by critics had nothing to do with haircuts, bank accounts or image, but music. Those artists on the Voice poll reflect more of the personal vision that has helped expand the social and artistic boundaries of pop music over the last 40 years.

To maximize their talent, Marx, Joel and Collins need to stop swinging at straw men and realize the problem is within. To improving their pop-music diet, pop audiences too must stop depending on what is on the pop charts.

Even Marx, Joel and Collins must shudder at an album Top 10 this week that includes M.C. Hammer, Wilson Phillips, New Kids on the Block, Poison, Keith Sweat and the “Pretty Woman” sound track.