Get Happy!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Scouting For Girls, Jack Penate, The Hoosiers -

where did all this upbeat British pop come from?

how come it's doing so well?

why do we all seem to hate it? (Judging by the Year In Pop polls)

how come the word "skiffle" keeps coming to mind?

Comments

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I believe it came from the Electric Light Orchestra, your Honour. Pianner pianner pianner pianner pianner o-hi-oooooo.

ALSO IT IS ALL GRATE BUG OFF HATAS

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Having finally listened to Scouting For Girls I feel the hate is a BIT misplaced. I would not have ticked any necessarily but it's not that bad. Perhaps listening to the Jack Penate alBUM and hearing his "philosophical" cuts has lowered my standards catastrophically.

Grincore set at poptimism then??

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I dunno, the things people say they hate about Scouting for Girls are things that are completely lauded in other acts - ie "fake sincerity"! I guess from what I've heard that they are pretty one-dimensional, but being straightforwardly happy about something lovely isn't so bad. Ch! People will be saying they hate the Lightning Seeds next.

I don't know owt about Jack Penate though.

I've heard two songs by the Hoosiers and I like both of them. The superhero video is genuinely fantastic!

Grincore maybe. ELO DEFINITELY.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I spent AGES last night making a playlist of all the stuff I want to play next Poptimism. It is a bit nindie but very upbeat.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

TBH I forgot until this morning that someone put me down for it! I keep going through phases which are ZOMG MUST PLAY THIS, but then I get home and think about it and I've forgotten everything! Haha!

The more I type on this thread the BETTER SFG becomes in my head.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

someone? i didn't see you objecting at the time...

it was decided by The Proper Means.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Oh no! No objection, I volunteered! But I forgot there was even the Proper Methodology... for some reason :)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

JUST A BIT OF FUN

DIE

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Lex you should hear the Penate track where he is starting beef with Dizzee!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh please let Penate start beef with Dizz, and then let him get STABBED.

Actually these days Dizz would probably just do a track with him.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I don't know!
I don't know!
I don't know!
HOW I'LL MAKE IT THROUGH THIS!

(how he'll make it through "thinking a girl is lovverly"?? LOL BOYS).

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Upbeat usually means music I like to dance to. I guess there are a lot of dudes out there who
- like dancing
- don't like electronic beats quite so much
- like singing along whilst they're dancing (to feel less awkward about their lack of dancing skill?)

The last point could be down to more people being DRUNK instead of OFF THEIR NUT.

I don't hate the Hoosiers at all! I'd dance if you played them at Poptimism :) I don't like SFG or Jack P very much because their words seem much clunkier and obtrusive to the melody - the Hoosiers (and the Feeling) sing words that SOUND NICE when you speak them & compliment the tune, rather than words that MEAN SOMETHING but spoil the jaunty song. (That's because I don't really give a shit what they're talking about, as long as it sounds good.)

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Re: electronic beats - I'd take any of the above over the electronic beat using Bloc Party single any day innit.

Also I ph34r no-one reading this community has ANY dancing skill.

(Although I seriously am considering going to HIP HOP DANCE CLASS in a few weeks!)

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Actually point 2 is just speaking for myself as it has occured to me that EVERYONE can dance better than me and I should stop projectin'

*desperately backpedals* :)

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

hmmm, i think there's some sort of indie miserablism anti-happiness thing at work as well, not that this is a bad thing ;)

is pinata particularly upbeat? sounds like gnash the couple of singles i've heard.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

He has his sad moments but the singles so far have been very jolly. Mind you no more upbeat than the Housemartins all of whose records were about the dark evil of Toryism.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

it was the 80s = ALL records were about the dark evils of toryism.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

The video for She's So Lovely really brings out the worst aspect in the song, the super-indie "Whyyyy won't she be miiiine" and not the - hang on, is there another side to the song? I suspect the thing is that this sort of puppy dog ism is acceptable in boys, but I'm processing them as a band of Lads, where it just seems immensely creepy and stunted.

i blame the buzzcocks, also jazz

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

the idea that "everybody's happy nowadays" is a good thing is kind of antithetical to almost every branch of popular music isn't it?

happiness = bland = stupid is the usual sort of equation AND it goes back to the N*ck H*rnby "was i sad so i listened to pop music or did pop music make me sad" thing...

Re: i blame the buzzcocks, also jazz

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well boshin euphoria seems to go down pretty well along certain branches of the big pop tree.

I think this lot are all bittersweet rather than ridiculously happy anyway - they're optimistic guys facing the twists and turns of life's path with a smile on their faces etc.

Re: i blame the buzzcocks, also jazz

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

yeah, i think THAT is the problem. euphoria we* can actually deal with, now i think about it. see also proper big b4st4rd love songs. it's [aha] like all the tiny indie you were talking about last year with added "mustn't grumble"...


*yeah whatever

Re: i blame the buzzcocks, also jazz

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

it's all a bit "whistle while you work", isn't it...like the person in the office who's unfailingly smiley and enthusiastic and who you end up wanting to nail to the wall.

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

I think my moaning about it is mostly to do with thinking their songs are gash, to be honest. And that Scouting For Girls dude doesn't help himself with all that luvverly crap.

Some indie types are hung up on the lack of authenticity thing, which is a bit odd to me. It's like it's okay for any other kind of pop to be all nicely produced, carefully packaged and heavily marketed, but when it comes to something that has guitars and drums in, that's immediately terrible and wrong. I'm not sure if I get that.

And then, these bands get slated for having no ideas and a load of songs that do exactly the same thing - but half my favourite indie bands do that too.

Goodness knows where skiffle comes into it though.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think skiffle might be "just me".

I can totally see why a fan of Bloc Party or the Courteeners or Foals or Reverend And The Cockfarmers might hate them but I wonder why this community, which you'd think would be more open to "YAY UPBEAT POP", is so opposed. I honestly hadn't heard SFG before today and was expecting some completely obnoxious comedy records. I mean, they're not a million miles away from Scando poptasticness but with more pianos.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

(I don't know why I'm making such a fuss about it because I don't think I'm going to like any of it!)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

My beef with SFG is purely the singer & the words he is saying. I like piano pop!

But back to skiffle: I guess this is down to the stripped down production style* that's in vogue at the moment - making the songs appeal to all the bedroom kids with acoustical guitars trying to play & sing along. That's absolutely fine (cf me & Elastica!) but hardly aspirational.

*Which also seems to involve not being able to play in time or tune.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

My beef with SFG is purely the singer & the words he is saying.

And the name! Don't forget the name!

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

it's all Dadmusic for kids. Retro cobblers. Elvis ain't dead? Oh yes he bloody well is danke - too bad he didn't take Cliff with him on the toilet bitchiz.

SFG suffer from the same thing the Zutons had with their first album - a TV advert where each song played just seems to be the title repeated over and over again in the chorus.

they only seem about a tenth as good as even the Zutons tho.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

They are better than the Zutons. Let's not get carried away here.

[koganbot]

Fwiw I hated Scouting For Girls on first listen without even attending to the fact that they were happy. So I actually don't recall what they sound like other than I hated it.

[koganbot]

I quite like the Hives' "Tick Tick Boom" and Switches' "Drama Queen" (though nothing else on Switches' MySpace) and the Automatic's "Monster," all of which I'd probably classify as "power pop": which is to say it's melodic and you rev up the guitar roar. Also, there's something swishy in it. (Switches list the Cars as influences. That may have something to do with why I like them.)

Also, I don't understand the Mika hate around here, but it's evidence that you don't have to be indie to be happy and hated on poptimists.

Also, I don't get the impression that the Hoosiers are all that hated in these parts, or by me. The Hoosiers have more "musical hall" tendencies than the Hives-Automatic-Switches, which makes their sound "smaller" in a way that makes it worse. By "music hall" I probably mean a certain type of piano playing.

[thenipper.livejournal.com]

Alphabeat = grincore for youse poptimists.

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

I've heard the Scouting For Girls album whole at least three times in the office – it's an absolute shocker: at least three songs have exactly the same chorus as She's So Luverly. I mean, I grew up on the Ramones and have no great issues with lack of variety, but really...
I think it's their perky, puppyishness, rather than them being happy that irks. Also, I think skiffle (as an idea), early British rock'n'roll, Merseybeat (particularly Freddie & The Dreamers) and the Housemartins (who I never liked back in the day) are all decent reference points. But none of that explains quite why I hate this new bunch so much, but by god I do (& while conceding that the Hoosiers are slightly different in nature, I hate them, too).

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

They all remind of airhead! And SforG come across as an emo Frank and Walters, their happiness is faux.

Jack Penate is the worst.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Frank And Walters! GOOD SPOT.

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

Yes!