warning: may make Lex explode

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

(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?

Comments

Whip it on 'em, Jim

[koganbot]

Actually, I'm not clear on the concept, since what you're calling "Comfort Pop" means, "signifies as the sort of thing that a lot of people find comforting, without necessarily comforting Frank Kogan."

Back when we learned that the time for a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile to reach the lower 48 states of the United States Of America was estimated to be 17 minutes,* the immediate response of my friend Charlotte and I was, "Excellent! Just enough time to listen to 'Sister Ray.'"

Anyway, I if I said "the genre 'Comfort Pop'" most people would think of adult contemporary, or more like adult contemporary of twenty years ago, before the AC stations began playing tracks like Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life" or rousing dancers like the Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited." Maybe "smooth jazz" would be the immediate association. I like Sade's "Smooth Operator," but there's something icy and unsettling in the sound and I wouldn't want to hear it a lot.

My favorite song that (I assume) gets ongoing strong play on AC would be Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," which I love but I associate with the total pain of a particular breakup, and even if I didn't, the soft intensity of the bass and drums and the suppressed rage in the singing makes it feel more like "soft hard rock" than like the comfort genre.

Shannon's "Let The Music Play" takes a sense of devastating tragedy and loss (the music changed, the plan was rearranged, he went to dance with someone else) and promises deliverance from it (he tried pretending a dance is just a dance, but I see he's dancing his way back to me), is maybe the ultimate in comfort for me, even more than "Sister Ray," but is too ecstatic in its release to meet the qualifications for "Comfort Pop," probably.

*Subsequently was reduced to nine minutes

Re: Whip it on 'em, Jim

[petronia.livejournal.com]

The thing that happens with the bass and drums in "Dreams" is why I like it so much - it's almost motorik. (That and the suppressed rage were what Rilo Kiley played on in that one album where they sounded like Fleetwood Mac.) But then, motorik rhythms are probably the #1 thing I find "comforting" in the sense of this post, with tabla/bongo drumming being #2. XD;