The Pop Thread

Midnight said:
I'd like to expand my musical taste, but I have next to no knowledge of modern pop. I only know about Indian (Bollywood) pop, and personally got into metal via video game OST's.

Could somebody recommend a starting point - a song or album I could listen to?
(I originally couldn't get into pop due to a dislike for romance-related songs, but I'll try to put that aside.)
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Alizee - Mes Courants Electriques is one of my favourite pop albums. It’s not exactly modern if you’re more interested in stuff from recent years.
 
Midnight said:
I'd like to expand my musical taste, but I have next to no knowledge of modern pop. I only know about Indian (Bollywood) pop, and personally got into metal via video game OST's.

Could somebody recommend a starting point - a song or album I could listen to?
(I originally couldn't get into pop due to a dislike for romance-related songs, but I'll try to put that aside.)
Click to expand...
Charli XCX - Vroom Vroom
 
Midnight said:
I'd like to expand my musical taste, but I have next to no knowledge of modern pop. I only know about Indian (Bollywood) pop, and personally got into metal via video game OST's.

Could somebody recommend a starting point - a song or album I could listen to?
(I originally couldn't get into pop due to a dislike for romance-related songs, but I'll try to put that aside.)
Click to expand...

Lorde - Pure Heroine

An excellent album, and not just for modern pop standards.
 
The only pop artists I currently listen to are Michael Jackson and Of Montreal.
Of Montreal is absolutely deranged pop, and is unmistakably eccentric.
I'd recommend their 2001 album, Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse.
 
The Flash said:
There are quite a few people on the board who listen to pop artists. The current mainstream scene isn't my forte but pop really has a vast history...
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i know I'm late to this, as always, but what else is one to do while stuck at home during a pandemic.

At any rate, Indeed pop does have a vast history and no one has really scratched that surface. The focus has been on current pop which I have very clue of due to being a grumpy old man that listens to the same shit from when I was a kid to about... 25.

IMO, Pop as we know it began with the ability to record music, followed by the affordability of records. This exploded in the 50s. the "Big Bands" of the 40s wasn't really "Pop" just yet. What made the 50s so special was the post war boom and the creation of the teenager as a marketing target. Rock, on the back of Blues, was the biggest benificiary of this. Again, radio alone wasn't enough, agressive marketing and the ability to own your idols records solidified what became "Pop."

Then we had The Beatles. The Beatles were big even before they decided to quit touring, but it was that decision that allowed them to truly experiment in the studio and INNOVATE. What were The Beatles? Pop? Rock? Their own thing? They transcended all labels. The only other act that comes close to that, again IMO, was Michael Jackson.

Which brings me to my next point. POP is short for POPULAR. This is both any band that becomes popular on their own artisitc merit AND pre-fabricated bands meant to please as many people as possible. Going back to the 60's we had The Monkees, The New Kids on the Block of the 60s. Mick Jagger has said in interviews that the true contribution of the Beatles was they showed everybody that the real business was in writing your own music. A buddy of mine HATES Elvis because of that, he was merely an interpreter to him. I say, an interpreter, sure, but a damn good one. It's not easy to do.

So Pop is both an act that becomes popular AND one that is designed to be popular. That is why I think the best decade for POP music was the 70s. You had acts like The Carpenters spearheading the boring adult contemporary charts, but you could also listen to what is now classic rock, prog rock, funk, disco, motown, country etc. We also saw the emergence of Rap and Raegge towards the end of the decade. Music wasn't seperated in these genre ghettos we have now. Legitimately popular bands of the era were Kansas, Led Zeppelin, Earth Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder, ABBA, etc.

Slowly but surely all that variety in pop music disappeared leaving us with Boy Bands, supposed rock bands and retro acts like Amy Winehouse and Adele.

There are a few "current acts I like. Sia, Adele, but I haven't truly followed a lot. I enjoy songs from Taylor Swift, One Direction and the like, but not enough to buy an album and the other radio singles I've heard are not enough to convince me otherwise.
 
The only pop music I can digest is 80´s pop. Simple Minds, XTC, Roxy Music, Depeche Mode,...Today´s popmusic is most of the time bland, saltless, uninspired,... That´s one of the main reasons I don´t listen to the radio anymore. But then again I´m an old fart...
 
Well, a large portion of modern radio pop sounds very uninspired to my ears. I can’t be bothered to go into detail right now but there are specific things that I don’t like about current song formulas. I’m sympathetic towards a lot of 00s popular music.
 
Saapanael said:
Well, a large portion of modern radio pop sounds very uninspired to my ears. I can’t be bothered to go into detail right now but there are specific things that I don’t like about current song formulas. I’m sympathetic towards a lot of 00s popular music.
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Not to mention all singers sound the same.
 
I suspect that’s due to production techniques that render singers’ voices into something robotically flawless. That’s not to say that heavy vocal production is not inherent in pop music of the past but the human voice seems to become something more and more alterable and artificial in modern music production. I don’t think this is done to hide the inadequacy of singers (I believe that pop singers are very well-trained and know what they’re doing) but rather to conform to a trend.
 
Yeah, the first thing you notice when you hear a random song these days is the autotune, you can't make out any of the singers individuality.
 
I think a lot of people like the pop of their childhood, which has more to do with the childhood part. That seems to be equally true of non-heavy music fans. I will admit today's pop leaves me cold, though there are some artists that are clearly trend setters rather than trend followers who I esteem as superior to the bulk - ie, Tswifty and Beyonce - though I never seek such music out on my own.
 
Speaking of Roxette:Joyride was the first album I bought. On cassette. I was fan as a teenager, way before I discovered grunge and later on metal and prog.
Bought the CD a few years ago out of nostalgia.
Still a pretty enyoable album though.
 
I remember the summer when How Do You Do! was in the charts. Spending a week at my uncle´s place and bicycle trips with my nephew. Roxette was the soundtrack of that summer.
 
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