The History Of Pop Part 38 aka My baby's got no money, he's got his true belief

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The last of 1997, and if you think some of the big hits are being held over until next time...you'd be right. But the nation was in NO MOOD for pop party fun as - sob! bawl! - DI DIED, and weren't we all glad that Sir Richard Ashcroft was there to help us through it. There's no sign of Elton on this Now, by the way, even though he bossed the charts - to sully such a beautiful track by including it on a compilation would of course be unthinkable, so you'll have to save your ticks.

Hanson's "Mmmmbop" won Now 37 at a canter, after tying with the Spice Girls for a long time. The Cardigans ended up in third. And now, over to you lot.


[Poll #713593]


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Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

No, 'Viva Forever' and 'Stop' are around the corner!

All Saints' real peak also still in The Future, 'I Know Where It's At' is vg but the sound of a group yet to find their real forte ('Never Ever' and 'Black Coffee').

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"I Know Where It's At" is them being The Next Spice Girls and doing it very well - they hadn't found their voice yet but let's not forget that voice also brought us "Booty Call" and "Under The Bridge".

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I love both of those! I like basically ever All Saints single without exception (unless they went crap right at the end and I don't remember cos it's not on the Greatest Hits).

I don't know why I typed 'forte' when I clearly meant 'voice', yes I agree about this being them on a Next Spice Girls tip.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Also that All Saints record is the SHINING LIGHT in the Terrible State Of Pop because it paved the way for Actual Chart Pop It's Okay To Like that made the Sugababes possible (and the re-emergence of Kylie).

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yes I remember they positioned themselves as 'credible' in relation to Spice Girls, then again East 17 did that wrt Take That and, well, yeah.

Re-emergence of Kylie how, though? Sugababes definitely daughters-of-Shaznay, but I think Kylie's disco relaunch was something rather different.

BACKSTREET BOYS are an elephant in this pop-room! 'As Long As You Love Me' is one of their standards but people are skirting around it.

DAUGHTERS OF SHAZNAY

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

So who is the SON OF ROBBIE?

Re: DAUGHTERS OF SHAZNAY

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Mike Skinner

SONS OF ROBBIE

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Are there actually any current boybands it's "cool" to like? On same level as Sugababes/Girls Aloud?

Re: SONS OF ROBBIE

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ah boy bands are diff things to Sons of Robbie I think, Robbie I associate with mawkish, populist, semi-credible balladry.

Busted (RIP) were I guess, Cis and I have a soft spot for McFly. So, er, no!

Re: SONS OF ROBBIE

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

Haha KAT-TUN.

I love Robbie :(

Re: SONS OF ROBBIE

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Haha yes I KNOW!

I don't like a single song by him, I don't think.

Re: SONS OF ROBBIE

[cis.livejournal.com]

KAT-TUN are only cool to like because you and I like them though!

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Yes Kylie was different but this has less do with what the music sounded like and more to do with whether people were willing to take it seriously. It seemed like there was a sea-change in attitudes towards pop that started with All Saints that meant people who would never have admitted to liking the Spice Girls were able to go "hang on, this is great" to later stuff. Which meant Kylie could finally become credible doing PROPER DISCO POP rather than through appearing on Nick Cave albums.

(It's not immediate, of course, didn't that Impossible Princess album flop?)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I wonder at what point the marketing of All Saints as credible actually tipped over into them being credible? As I remember it was all based around Shaznay writing the songs, but when they covered 'Under The Bridge' I remember a LOT of "omg how dare they! they are just pop girls!" reaction. Maybe when they started working with Orbit? Was that after Orbit had worked with Madge?

I guess there's also the way that All Saints were really explicitly r&b-influenced, kind of a synthesis of Eternal and the Spice Girls, and unlike Eternal they timed their emergence simultaneously with the emergence of Timbaland, so there's the production angle as well...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

That was specifically from RHCP fans though. "They probably don't even realise what it's about" - this logic particularly annoyed me (and still does).

It was one of the tracks that got customer complaints when we put it on in the bookshop.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

EVERYONE at my school was an RHCP fan. I think they were probably the most popular band in my year. I remember people being annoyed that they changed the gender of the city.

I also remember seeing some Year 7 girls singing the chorus while everyone was waiting to be picked up, and people pointed and laughed and were all like OMG they don't know it's really about DRUGZ!!!111 but we do therefore WE ARE SO COOL!!!!!1111

16-year-olds :(

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is a BAD THING though! Inasmuch as both All Saints and Sugababes were justified in an "Oh they're different though, they write their own songs" way, they allow for the position (much taken in my experience) that they're great despite being Actual Pop. cf "Back For Good" which everyone agreed was a Great Song as they queued up for their copies of Mosely Shoals.

Whereas the Spice Girls - who were *very* widely liked, if not among students - couldn't be admired in that way, and nor could DiscoKylie.

[(Anonymous)]

Where does "We like this because Kara DioGuardi wrote it" fit in?

Inquisitive Spice

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

my fave All Saints single is one of their last ones (War Of Teh NervXors)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh yes that one is lush and gorgeous. Surely there was a 2-step rmx of it?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

All Saints/Spice Girls would make good choices for the Canon!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Dude we had Spice Girls the other week!

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

Thank god for The Spice Girls/All Saints being around the corner.

I was losing the will to live.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

I never much liked Never Ever, but Black Coffee is obv aces.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'Never Ever' is really divisive, I think, I know a few people who absolutely loathe it (the weird submissive-needy narrative) but I think it's perfect in every way (for possibly the same reasons).