warning: may make Lex explode
Aug. 20th, 2009 10:26 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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poptimists(Which reminds me, I should sort out the 20p music prize, shouldn't I?)
Mr PJ, regarding '1973' by James Blunt-
It contains all the best bits of a great pop song: wistfulness, nostalgia and references to dancing, music making the people come together and happier times, all with a very slight sense of emo clinginess and possible 'you really have to stop phoning me now' tendencies.
Now I know what you're all thinking, 'what the fvck are you posting that for?' and things but I think it's a jolly good description of one of my favourite musical genres: COMFORT POP. I'm not sure about you, Poptimists but it seems like a substantial part of the music-buying public is also after comfort pop at the minute (and indeed always) and I think it is worth a punt at a discussion.
I actually like '1973' quite a lot and not just because it has the same beat as 'Rock The Casbah' and appears to imply that Mr Blunt has discovered time travel but due to a general (irrational?) cuddly response to it. It's got a very warm feel to it that, which gives me a bit of the same feeling as, say, 'I Found U' by Axwell; something comforting and warm and fuzzy and generally hot chocolate-y about the whole business, whilst maintaining a sort of poppy level of danceability to some degree. A little like 'Heartbeat' by Annie (and indeed 'Heartbeats' by ver Knife) and millions of other songs that aim for the warm and fuzzies and yet don't abandon (or indeed fully embrace) being played in An Disco. Kylie is, of course, queen of this sort of business.
Whilst I'm admitting to liking a James Blunt song, I might as well throw out that my favourite comfort pop song recently was Just Dance by Lady GaGa -nominally a big stupid party song but actually all about being hopelessly drunk and needing the reassurance that it's all ok. Which is sort of super-sweet.
Obviously I also like terrifying noises, million-bpm boshfests and weird clicky things and Electrik Red and there's a markable difference between comfort pop and comfort rock but what think ye, Poptimists, is 'comfort pop' not so much a deliberate and definite genre as something that's an irrational emotional response to things that entirely personal or is it something more concrete? Is it, in fact, a significant part of what pop music is?
Mr PJ, regarding '1973' by James Blunt-
It contains all the best bits of a great pop song: wistfulness, nostalgia and references to dancing, music making the people come together and happier times, all with a very slight sense of emo clinginess and possible 'you really have to stop phoning me now' tendencies.
Now I know what you're all thinking, 'what the fvck are you posting that for?' and things but I think it's a jolly good description of one of my favourite musical genres: COMFORT POP. I'm not sure about you, Poptimists but it seems like a substantial part of the music-buying public is also after comfort pop at the minute (and indeed always) and I think it is worth a punt at a discussion.
I actually like '1973' quite a lot and not just because it has the same beat as 'Rock The Casbah' and appears to imply that Mr Blunt has discovered time travel but due to a general (irrational?) cuddly response to it. It's got a very warm feel to it that, which gives me a bit of the same feeling as, say, 'I Found U' by Axwell; something comforting and warm and fuzzy and generally hot chocolate-y about the whole business, whilst maintaining a sort of poppy level of danceability to some degree. A little like 'Heartbeat' by Annie (and indeed 'Heartbeats' by ver Knife) and millions of other songs that aim for the warm and fuzzies and yet don't abandon (or indeed fully embrace) being played in An Disco. Kylie is, of course, queen of this sort of business.
Whilst I'm admitting to liking a James Blunt song, I might as well throw out that my favourite comfort pop song recently was Just Dance by Lady GaGa -nominally a big stupid party song but actually all about being hopelessly drunk and needing the reassurance that it's all ok. Which is sort of super-sweet.
Obviously I also like terrifying noises, million-bpm boshfests and weird clicky things and Electrik Red and there's a markable difference between comfort pop and comfort rock but what think ye, Poptimists, is 'comfort pop' not so much a deliberate and definite genre as something that's an irrational emotional response to things that entirely personal or is it something more concrete? Is it, in fact, a significant part of what pop music is?
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Date: 2009-08-20 02:50 pm (UTC)Goldfrapp's album last year was strong in this factor, probably the best thing about it...easing off the sense of weirdness or menace hey had before but kept their pleasant lush sonic palette and stuck more widely appealing songs around that, with mixed results. Most of it wasn't danceable tho, and much of it was fairly twee.
I'll usually go to plush electronic dudes with girl singing for this tho e.g. the mellower tracks on Royksopp's 'Junior', maybe including 'You Don't Have A Clue' altho that might be too 'rushy' for this ha.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-20 10:52 pm (UTC)Speaking personally, the things I find comforting in music are so dispersed that it's hard to conceive of there being any useful sort of genre involved - a lot of "comfort" in music for me is a very soporific quality. Since one of my all-time most comforting songs is Artica's "Boemia", which is a meandering violin-riddled Italian goth-rock ballad (which my Italian-speaking friend says was about something involving blood and probable death), I may not be a good judge of this. I used to listen to 'Carnage Visors' to cheer myself up, FFS! OTOH, I am often absurdly cheered by very silly pop music indeed (last month it was Tigercity), so it's rather difficult to pull much of a connection out of that, although no doubt someone else may spot one.