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] lockedintheatti.livejournal.com 2006-06-07 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh yes - I'm not complaining. Just rather odd that they managed to buy two great albums and then nothing else before or after. And that despite that they ended up with two utterly pop-obsessed kids.

Re: Age isn't everything

[identity profile] lockedintheatti.livejournal.com 2006-06-07 04:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm. Beatles & Bob both fall into that 'pop history' trap i mentioned above earlier - i feel like i should go back and explore pop history more but I find it hard to relate to unlike anything that has ever been current for me. Except for Sly Stone, oddly.

I know quite a few major pop fans who have uninterested parents. I wonder if that is classic rebelling v parents; or just the fact that uninterested parents means the kids get to dominate the radio and therefore form their own tastes unhindered by parents.

Re: Age isn't everything

[identity profile] lockedintheatti.livejournal.com 2006-06-07 05:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Likewise. Apart from getting punched by my big sister when I recorded 'Seven Tears' by the Goombay Dance Band over 'You're So Vain'

She had good critical faculties for a 9 year old, and I learnt a valuable lesson that day.