The continual evolution of the spirit of the times is foregrounded in American Pop, and character development and plot details are obscured and vague. Assuming that the de-emphasis on character and narrative was intentional, Bakshi and writer Ronnie Kern infuse the movie with a mythic sensibility and intelligence. In American Pop, The evolution of American music becomes not the tale of discreet individuals entirely responsible for their contributions to a particular genre, rather, the sweeping scope, rapid pacing, and surreal nature of the animation brings to light the archetypal quest of any individual's desire to manifest unbounded creativity, genius, and brilliance.

Through this perspective, we see that Bakshi views the creative life as the devil's bargain, a Faustian dilemma. The price for inspired, transcendent creativity-for stealing artistic fire from the heavens-Bakshi implies, is a great one. Inextricably bound in tapping pioneering and inspired genius is decay, self-destruction, and death. Those who storm heaven are banished to hell. This appears to be a fact of life for Bakshi, and, staying true to the lives of many of the creative musical geniuses of the previous century, seems not just the province of fiction or animated films. In astrological terms, we can view this as the tense but fated interrelationship between Uranus and Pluto. The brilliance, stimulation and excitement over creation and innovation affiliated with the archetype of Uranus are bound to the death-rebirth renewal process correlated with Pluto. In other words, creating awe-inspiring novel forms, in this case in music, demands that natural seasons of death and rebirth must occur.

Bakshi's perspective of the creative life, presumably coming from his own lived experience, is a realistic one. Although the risks are far too great, the sacrifices dire, and the lifestyle—from a rational, clinical perspective—perhaps pathological, the irrational compulsion to pursue one's muse persists, if not dominates, the creative psyche. The brilliance of American Pop is that it illuminates the intuition that transpersonal forces dictate the show of life and that humans are some how subordinate to these gods and goddesses. American Pop is a flawed film, but one that reveals timeless truths and illuminates a deeper reality of nature.