pop

[beddoes]

Of all the major record forums I've found this is the one that understands pop best, I think.

Does anybody else out there feel that, curiously -despite your great love of so many different and more rarefied musics-, many of your most transcendent experiences of music transpired while listening to pop?

"Dancing Queen" through distant speakers when I rode a ferry to Alaska in 1988. It would have been amazing but not -somehow- as memorable or moving if I'd heard something less mainstream. It felt like discovering a seam of gold in the sidewalk.

[beddoes]

Or, I heard "Superstar" at the Portland airport after Sonia, my girlfriend of four years, left me. Devastating. I made a mess of myself.

[beddoes]

I guess I want an explanation.

[ginghamkitchen]

Of all the major record forums out there this is the one that understands pop best, I think.

Does anybody else out there feel that, curiously -despite your great love of so many different and more rarefied musics-, many of your most transcendent experiences of music transpired while listening to pop?

"Dancing Queen" through distant speakers when I rode a ferry to Alaska in 1988. It would have been amazing but not -somehow- as memorable or moving if I'd heard something less mainstream. It felt like discovering a seam of gold in the sidewalk.

Definitely - the best pop ('Dancing Queen', 'Be My Baby', The Shangri-Las) is like a shot of pure exhilaration for me - no matter how knowing or engineered it might be, there's something about three minutes of simple, songwriting genius and production that gets to me every time, often made all the more exciting by hearing it in odd contexts where you don't expect to hear good music - shops, weddings, taxis, etc. The really great stuff taps into your emotions as well as your central nervous system - one of the most evocative commercial art forms there is, I think.

Sometimes I think 'thats it, I'm just listening to jazz and classical from now on' then I start thinking about Smokey Robinson and think 'not just yet'...

[ginghamkitchen]

I guess I want an explanation.

Oh, I can't explain it. It's either made by people more sensitive and emotional than me or more manipulative and knowing - maybe both - but I can't express myself like that - I can't even feel like that unless prompted...

[beddoes]

Now that I think about it, I guess I'm also talking about one's DISCOVERY of pop. I was nineteen on that ferry to Alaska and listened mostly to industrial music, Beefheart and Nuggets/Pebbles stuff. "Dancing Queen" took me by surprise. For a few hours I felt weird. Am I gay?

[Col Wolfe]

ringtones are the new pop in the UK, Mark

[beddoes]

my girlfriend hates my ringtone, hook me up

[ginghamkitchen]

Now that I think about it, I guess I'm also talking about one's DISCOVERY of pop. I was nineteen on that ferry to Alaska and listened mostly to industrial music, Beefheart and Nuggets/Pebbles stuff. "Dancing Queen" took me by surprise. For a few hours I felt weird. Am I gay?

Everybody's gay when it comes to pop, except the dead and those that have to pretend all the time.

[john stapleton]

Everybody's gay when it comes to pop, except the dead and those that have to pretend all the time.

You forgot the old and jaded....

[ginghamkitchen]

You forgot the old and jaded....

I hope I'm never old and jaded to the extent that I can't marvel at a piece of perfectly constructed pop music and get a little emotional buzz from hearing it - but then I'm a bit of a soft touch, so maybe I'm more receptive to it.

[Striker]

when it's done right pop's a formula that's been honed to push your emotional buttons, you can try to deny it but you can't hold out forever.

[beddoes]

when it's done right pop's a formula that's been honed to push your emotional buttons, you can try to deny it but you can't hold out forever.

And why should you? We --most of us- enthusiastically embrace OTHER drugs.

[jakartajive]

Billie (piper).
Becuase we want to.

Perfection.

[Expiry2011]

For me its a question of context
When I was getting into music in the 80s I soon stopped listening to pop and tried more 'grown up' music
But somehow I still know all the word to the music on the radio
When I hear Slave to the Rhythm or Relax or Don't you Want Me it takes me back and as I'm older I can appreciate the music better rather than just the pleasure of listening
I'm always picking up 80s 12s in chazzas
But nowadays pop hardly registers with me unless the Mrs gets on it