New Pop

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

If you haven't voted in the Poptimists demographic survey, please do!

It makes interesting reading (FOR ME!) so far - we have a couple of years clearly in front as far as pan-generational excitement goes, and the agegroup distribution patterns are intriguing too - more detail on all this when I've got more votes in. The agegroup distribution is shaping up as expected - the majority of Poptimists (about 2/3) are in their twenties, with a handful under and a chunk over.

Something which does interest me in terms of the results - very few votes so far* for the early 80s, 80-83, the years of New Pop. New Pop has been repeatedly invoked - often by people who wouldn't consider themselves 'poptimists' I grant you - as a kind of pop ideal. Certainly as far as this - hugely unrepresentative - community goes, though, the number of people who remember it as exciting is dwindling. To recall New Pop as a critical moment you need to be 35 or more, I'd guess - even to remember it clearly as a pop moment you'd need to have hit 30. At some point New Pop is going to shift from being a beacon of inspiration to a stick to beat the kids with - perhaps that point has already passed...?

*(it's v.unscientific of me to mention this as there may now be a spike).

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

When I say "beat the kids" I probably more accurately mean "beat current pop".

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Did any of the Dissensians use it against MIA in the endless fites of last year? I can't recall if they did or not, but it strikes me as exactly the sort of thing that might have happened in the heat of battle, esp given S.Reynolds' participation.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Dude, the ILM threads on MIA were bad enough, you don't think I went near the Dissensus ones?

It's possible, anyway. I've held up New Pop as an ideal plenty of times, I'm really noticing it lately as a trope among some 40something critics* - the demise of Smash Hits was a particular spark to the tinderbox. It's harmless enough, except for seemingly leading to people overrating Goldfrapp. I suppose my question wd be, if you don't remember New Pop, does its use as a referent annoy/baffle/excite you or what?

*and the Nipper!

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

As the story has been told to me, New Pop is basically a historical precedent for what I'd like to see happening now--all the problems of punk (now indie) transformed into un-self-conscious, all-embracing pop. I don't know how accurate this is, but this is generally what's invoked when someone brings up New Pop, so I go for "excite."

(I didn't start listening to music until 1989 and am American, so I am most definitely exclusded from new pop's "moment.")

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"un-self-conscious" seems a strange word to describe New Pop.

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I changed it at the last minute and shouldn't have. I think I meant "unabashed" or something like that.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do know what you mean.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i think some of it was un-self-conscious though! or rather, i think self-consciousness was to be ruled as a metric of distinction

from memory the first four items ever = HAMN LEAGUE Travelogue EP (i think?); something by THE DAMNED; somethingby THE RAINCOATS -- and i forget the fourth momentarily

i will look this up when i get home

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

The first four items ever of New Pop? Were the Raincoats New Pop? That's funny, I was just walking through the subway station this morning thinking about how much I like them. They came to me completely outside of that context (thanks Kurt).

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

HAMN = human btw (i am hungry)

it is p!ssing me off that i can only remember three of the four! luckily i have lashings of cuttings gathering dust at home

[koganbot]

When I was a wee'un in my late '20s in Muricca, what you people are calling "new pop" was called "new wave," which perhaps explains why it seemed kinda... dull.

Had I voted any of those years, would surely have been for Taana Gardner and Spoonie Gee and Funky Four Plus One More and Jenny Burton and Shannon and early Madonna and Soul Sonic Force.