I Love No.1's - 1994

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Last week showed the patchy knowledge of Poptimists where 1958 was concerned, however hip-wiggling burger fan Elvis was the winner with a respectable 29 ticks. Not so much love for Jane Morgan, who failed to receive a single tick! Bad luck, Jane. This week we fast forward to a year when, thanks to the age restrictions on Livejournal, I am 100% sure that all you lot had been born! It's one of my formative pop years - 1994.

[Poll #788245]

Comments

Re: IN MY DAY

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Although the devlopment and success of East 17 was quite calculated by Tom 'Tiny' Watkins, perhaps the inspired aspect was that it always felt accidental and quite shoddy, with Tony Mortimer as the more streetwise Gary Barlow from the wrong side of the tracks. It really worked!

Somehow the climate has changed but it's difficult to pinpoint quite why this approach wouldn't work now. Maybe it is just that people in power don't believe it's really credible (they are perhaps making the mistake in thinking credibility is as important as it is) - although East 17 enjoyed some sense of cred. among both (young) teenage girls AND boys (in a way that Bros initially did perhaps, only stronger), unlike Take That.

Re: IN MY DAY

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

east 17 were really credible to 9-yr-old lex, I chose them over take that cos they were street innit

('stay another day' is my favourite e17 song, though i preferred 'deep' back then)

Re: IN MY DAY

[(Anonymous)]

Stay Another Day is the best East 17 ballad and Deep is good but neither of them are a patch on House of Love or Its Alright or Steam or any of the other identical singles where they are FIRING ON ALL POP CANNONS!

Re: IN MY DAY

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Sorry - that was me.

Probably wrong things I have learnt about pop from Wikipedia:

1. The band was seen as a Pop group due to the marketing hype by London Records, but their lyrics and non single tracks showed otherwise. For example, the Ivor Novello award winning song - 'Stay Another Day' - was thought to be a simple love song, but was in fact a response from Tony to his elder brother, who committed suicide. Other titles were written about life after death, and one track even incorporated a part of The Book of Revelations into a futuristic rap song.

I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT ANY OF THIS.

2. E17 were very popular in the UK, but INCREDIBLY popular in Latvia. Presumably because House of Love articulated the defiance of living for decades under the shadow of the Cold War. And the bomb.