Lynne Kiesling
Ray Gifford alerts us to a new blog from NY Post editorial writer Robert George. It’s called Ragged Thots. Robert seems to share my enjoyment of wordplay and language (and sports), but also seems to enjoy writing about politics, which I do not. So, the benefits of product differentiation … although I am more intrigued by Ray’s comment that Robert knows more than anyone about 80s pop music (although I personally shudder when I see the word “pop”).
Why do you shudder when you hear the word “pop”. I hope it is not a distaste for “pop music”. Personally, I have no problem with great pop music, like the Beatles, Motown or even some Mozart.
You’re right, my disdain is for the phrase “80s pop”, which I think is largely a result of my taste that runs from Duran Duran to Bauhaus to New Order to Killing Joke to Icicleworks to Sex Pistols to Police to Echo & the Bunnymen … you see my point. If “80s pop” includes bands like Mister Mister and Toto, then I shudder.
My current favorite pop music is late 1940s bebop. Although I’m also listening to a lot of Franz Ferdinand and Modest Mouse.
Lynne, we must live in very similar dimensions (perhaps — a la Earth-One and Earth-Two — just vibrating slightly differently)!
When I think ’80s pop, I definitely go for the Durannies, New Order, Yaz, Police, Icehouse, Dead or Alive, The The, etc. (plus post-punk types like the Clash, Godfathers, Shriekback, etc.). I also throw in the Prince-inspired stuff too, The Time, Sheila E. early Janet Jackson and so forth. Definitely NOT Mr. Mister (though I admit to having a soft spot for John “St. Elmo’s Fire” Parr and, uh, Ratt’s “Round and Round.”)
Ah, I could go on forever, but this is your blog, not mine! Thanks for the link! 😉
When you call late 1940s bebop “pop music,” then I shudder.
Swing was pop music in the 1930s and early 1940s. Perry Como and Nat King Cole were among the folks singing pop music of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
But bebop was decidedly un pop. It was jazz for the jazz enthusiast, not for the masses.
Yeah, you’re right. I’m really bad at keeping track of names, dates, etc. of “movements” in jazz. But I think this also reflects my preferences; one of the things that I think I like is a feeling of “in-the-know”-ness of music for the enthusiast, whether it’s late 1940s or early 1980s.