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).

[identity profile] dubdobdee.livejournal.com 2006-06-07 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
DON'T TRUST REYNOLDS ON THIS
i. he hates pop
ii. he is always careful to redefine "popism" as something stupider than it ever was
iii. er as promised above i will look this up but KIM WILDE and HAIRCUT ONE HUNDRED people, also DOLLAR -- and probably NOT the PSBs, though i doubt i can justify this except to cite the NME's extreme suspicion of Smash Hits