The Historiography of Pop Part 9 aka TEH FINAL

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Right, after 72 polls and a squidillion votes it's come down to this. In one corner the Pet Shop Boys, in the other Pulp.

I would do pictures of them but we all know what they look like.

[Poll #806433]

Please answer both questions!

Comments

[koganbot]

Though I ticked "Always On My Mind" in the semis, I think that the PSBs are disco dulled down so as to accommodate bohemian sensibilities and sidestep disco's outrageousness and glamour and intensity; alternately, they're Europop dulled down for people who can't take Europop's bread-and-butter immediacy and catchiness. In other words, PSB too PBS. (But to qualify this opinion, in general I think a little bit of PBS is better than no PBS, and I think a lot of disco and Europop may not be PBS enough, that at least some of it could gain energy from a smattering of social ambition; I just find PSB's ambitiousness too placid; I mean, sounds like R.E.M. Depeche Mode are better. [Pet Shop Boys are the R.E.M. of disco; Depeche Mode are the Simon & Garfunkel of disco.])

[koganbot]

Oh, and could someone who speaks British as a first language translate PBS into British, as I don't feel qualified to?

[koganbot]

people who can't take Europop's bread-and-butter immediacy and catchiness

Or who can take it but won't vote it up in polls.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

pbs = open university late-night bbc2 programming

??? :\

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think Pet Shop Boys is disco for - or at least by - people who love disco but know they can't aspire to its outrageousness, glamour or intensity. I find it deeply identifiable-with from that perspective: Neil Tennant is probably the pop star I feel closest to (there are others I might aspire to more, or envy more, or who spark fiercer feelings one way or the other).

[koganbot]

This makes sense.