Wonky Pop

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,2277201,00.html

Guardian piece on the "Wonky Pop" tour (Alphabeat and some other people) making an assortment of points:

- Grass-roots pop is coming back
- A desire for pop stars to be individual eccentrics rather than production line stars
- Pop marketed to adults not kids
- Buyers and fans who grew up on Busted and who like performers writing their own material.
- An increased UK openness to European pop*

I get the impression the bulk of the community here are into this kind of thing, with some notable dissenters (of whom I might well be one). So what do we think - are thinks really looking up for pop?

*if you yourself are feeling open to European pop, go and VOTE in Europop 2008: France v Holland and Italy v Romania [/hype]

Comments

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Off topic, I am pleased with the rise of the term "landfill indie".

I think "rather than" is overstressing it - the great thing about pop is that it can incorporate many different types of people as long as the records are good! Though that might be a minority opinion as well.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

"They moved on to indie and emo, but have tired of the glut of Identikit indie-rock bands and have come back to what they know: pop artists who write their own songs and play their own instruments."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

*splutter*

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Dreadful on every level is my first impression. I only know Alphabeat's records, and this IS JUST INDIE. Indie by another name, but still fuckin' INDIE.

retro-fitting of music and image, to hark back to earlier indie-ists (Belle & Sebastian) harking back to earlier indie-ists (Creation era) harking back to wierdly selective version of 60s. TICK

lame ideology of keeping it 'real'. TICK

undialectical opposition between faux-serious (indie) and faux-light (nu-nu-pop) music. TICK

inevitable dialectical hipster response to overground success of 'alternative' styles. TICK.

[datura800.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I can't really see Popjustice being overly fussed whether or not the acts it promotes are 'manufactured' or write their own material. And rightly so. Once we go down the route of 'Alphabeat are great because they are a REAL BAND' then we're steering very close to horrific muso territory. I find Alphabeat completely uninspiring and they are no more or less pop than Bis were. That article seems to have a very narrow, specific definition of 'pop' and it's not one I agree with.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I feel like a bit of an indieist saying 'argh that is NOT THE IDEA AT ALL' but ARGH THAT IS NOT THE IDEA AT ALL, somehow.

Well, it is, some of the idea. Some of the things said there make perfect sense but there's a sort of pervading sense that this "grassroots pop" is better than "proper" pop and it's just sort of... ugh. I should write something more coherent but all I can feel is this overwhelming sense of 'wrong' and dread that this kind of thing is going to become very all-pervading in the media. I don't know... I s'pose a lot of it doesn't differ that much from many things I'd say but there's something about it that puts my nose out of joint.

I think, actually, the article might be very likeable were it not for the mention of that PiL cover on the Alphabeat album and the fact they sound like utter dickheads talking about it. Meh. PiL were a fvcking pop band, you can't start saying punk's not pop these days when it very clearly has become such, even if it was once intimidating. It's like saying Megadeth are still edgy or something.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

i have ~been~ in the cardiff barfly and no band which performs there can remotely be considered pop! here i apply the "what would mariah do?" rule.

obv i hate this whole trend, and the whole argument, and have hated it for a while, and it's the kind of thing which makes me not want to say "i like pop" b/c people will assume you're into this shit rather than good music.

i think i want to live in the usa. i really don't like europop.

i know, instead lets talk about

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

why the (real actual) kids (like actually at school still) absolutely LOVE hadouken. and why it sounds mostly like noise and shouting to everyone else. hurrah

[koganbot]

They misspelled Keith Levene. (That, perhaps, can be blamed on a subeditor. The rest of this, not.)

I only got halfway through the piece. What's wrong with it seems pretty obvious. But I'm in the mood to be obvious so, um, well, it uses the term "identikit"!

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

I alway say that Busted are absolutely crucial to the redefinition of pop. I am happy that it's OK to like jolly music again, but at an ideological level it's terrible, as it's implanted this idea (that only songs written by the artist and involving guitars are worthy of success) in kids from a very young age. This is in total contrast to the music I grew up on, and I think it will lead to quite a close-minded new generation of music fans, who are incapable of seeing the value of music that doesn't fit this criteria. I think this affects middle class kids more than working class ones though, as the pressure to like good quality music is much stronger there, whereas with the working class the emphasis is more directly on being cool, without this mediator of supposed authenticity.