ext_281244 ([identity profile] freakytigger.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] poptimists2006-06-07 01:35 pm

New Pop

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).

Re: Age isn't everything

[identity profile] blue-russian.livejournal.com 2006-06-07 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, this can be quite important. I was the oldest sibling, and moreover my parents had only a handful of bad MOR jazz and virtually no pop. While not discounting the eventual influence of friends, et al, my early musical discoveries were all down to me (and the radio, although my really my entry point was Beatles Beatles Beatles).

Re: Age isn't everything

[identity profile] blue-russian.livejournal.com 2006-06-07 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Sorry - point to that being, that I came in "late" - or felt like it - and probably spent a good three years listening to back catalogs before I found myself paying much attention to new releases.