poptimists | Poptimists Review of 2006: Genre Of The Year

What was the sound of 2006? That's what we're asking in the second of our end of year polls, discussing the genre of the year. Contenders - drawn from your nominations - include...

Teenpop: Teen confessional and pop narrative (a la High School Musical) drove the genre on in '06 - more teen than ever.
R&B: From Bouncy's hi-gloss dramas through Ciara and Justin's takes on the Prince legacy to Cassie's minimal precision.
Electro: Still the sound of the clubs in 06 (like I'd know) and with big high street traction too.
Emo: The comment box's friend and the parent's foe - whatever it is, it's selling.
Nu Rave: A shot in the arm for indie or a lame NME concoction? 2006's most enigmatic genre.

(A special note: I didn't put "POP" in cos it's all pop, innit. I went for Teenpop as a more specific option, and one picked by as many people.)

[Poll #891678]

You can still vote in yesterday's poll - and still nominate in the remaining 8 categories. Final results collated in the new year!

Tomorrow I'm at home, with YouTube access, which means it's a good day to do the Video Of the Year poll.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What about the teenagers who buy 50 Cent and Pussycat Dolls and Sean Paul records though?

I don't like to alarm anyone but I know quite a lot of boys who think 50 Cent understands their angst. Pussycat Dolls are basically the Spice Girls, only more obvious thus lots of teenage girls feel some kind of resonance, even if it's not per se understanding their angst.

Does anyone in the UK really buy Sean Paul records?

Well they did when he last released a big single which was about a year ago.

Of course teenagers will buy music which resonates with them but I'm hesitant to ascribe it all to angst - I mean, I remember when I was a teenager, angsty music was very much a minority pursuit. Emo gets press because it's a new thing, because it's very noticeable and conspicuous, and because the kids who do like it tend to be the ones who are most vocal about their music taste - same with any old indie kid who was picked on for liking obscure music at school, really. But most teenagers are probably listening to variants on the same sort of synthetic music teenagers have always preferred.

most teenagers are probably listening to variants on the same sort of synthetic music teenagers have always preferred.

Always preferred? I think you're neglecting the tuba craze that swept Mexico and the Caribbean in the 1850s.

I guess I used the term angst slightly loosely but the fact is that emo's effects are resonating everywhere; if you can't write the lyrics on your pencil case cus they're funny/sad/pretty/whatever, you can't show off how much you like a band and you need a certain amount of emotional engagement for that. Generally, teenagers are into angst and feeling like a band understands/accepts/whatever them- you only have to look at

musicsecret to see that kind of stuff manifested very pronouncedly. Even cheesy eurodance seems to have some kind of lyrical resonance with a lot of teenagers (observing my younger brother, who is nearly seventeen and his friends, anyway) and there's an active desire to relate to songs, rather than accidental, realisatory relation that characterises something about the way the kids are listening to music currently.

Obviously not all of them but a hefty majority of those who buy records, I suspect.

Emo is so big it's unbelievable- right through from pre-teens to people my age (nineteen) and older, it's not reflected in record sales, however, to a large extent because it appears to be ok to pirate emo due to it mostly being from the US and the CDs being hard to acquire (and kids preferring to spend their money on eyeliner) I suspect/expect it's a totally middle-class demographic but that's a big demographic and a lot of the record buying public.

Incidentally, I don't know how old you are but the effect of nu-metal is basically what's resonating in teenagers still; angst is extremely fashionable, rather than something weird and whilst it's not true that every kid's slashing themself up every night or whatever, there is a huge favouring of melodrama these days.

This may be my warped view of the demographic, due to being in it and hence not seeing it from the outside etc. but yeah.

What you're saying actually fits in with my post above about the commercial decline of the teen confessional teenpoppers. Disney has skewed teenpop younger; its listenership is mostly female and tops off at 14; Avril and Ashlee get some of these kids, but their basic fanbase was a bit older and watching 'em on MTV (Ashlee's breakout was on the heels of an MTV reality show about the making of her first album; Cheyenne Kimball tried to repeat the trick this year with much less success). But the teen confessional fanbase (like the adult confessional fanbase) is still basically female. Emo lets the boys in; remember, the genre began with DC area straight-edge harDCore punks deciding to sound emotional rather than to play tough. (Rites Of Spring was the first band to be called emo, but I think you can take the genre back to Minor Threat's "In My Eyes" and "Out Of Step.") Emo gets the boys who won't allow themselves to like an Ashlee or a Lindsay (or a Tori or an Alanis). Which means emo speaks to a lot more musicians and bands. Most girls still don't get themselves into bands. I'm sure there are far more teen musicians trying to sound like My Chemical Romance than like Ashlee Simpson.

Lyrical resonance isn't necessarily indicative of emo though - I mean I agree with everything you say about writing lyrics on yr pencilcase &c (which I did as a teenager!), but eg just because Cassie's lyrics resonate with me on an emotional level does not mean that Cassie is emo.

And while I don't deny that angst is big for teenagers I'm not convinced that overt angst (rather than angst sublimated beneath macho fronting or pop platitudes) is so dominant - the equivalent would be imagining everyone in my year at school being into Tori Amos and Courtney Love. (Although having said that all the boys did seem to like Nirvana.)

(Of course emo is dominant among teenagers on livejournal though!)

Poptimists Review of 2006: Genre Of The Year

Re: Boys on one side, girls on the other

Re: Boys on one side, girls on the other

Re: Boys on one side, girls on the other

Re: Boys on one side, girls on the other

Re: Boys on one side, girls on the other

Re: Boys on one side, girls on the other

Re: Boys on one side, girls on the other

Re: Boys on one side, girls on the other