Why doesn't Britain produce good pop bands any more?

[kained&able]

No real boybands about at all even stateside. I think b2k were about the last ones to do anything.


Theres some good pop music but its all r&b based rather then guitar at the moment. So the op won't find what he is after.


dave

 

[_float_]

I'm 33. When I was a kid, pop music was completely run by Stock Aitken Waterman. Interesting? Not really. Aimed at 13 year olds? That was the upper rnage of their target age group, yes.

ages 10 to 16 = 1986-1992

My nominations for 'best british pop' for each year (given that I hated SAW):

1986 Pet Shop Boys "West End Girls", Housemartins "Happy Hour", Queen "A Kind Of Magic", Kate Bush "Hounds Of Love", The Smiths "Panic" & "Ask"
1987 Pet Shop Boys "It's A Sin" & "Always On My Mind", George Michael "Faith" & "I Want Your Sex"
1988 Yazz & The Plastic Population "The Only Way Is Up",
1989 Soul II Soul "Back To Life", Beautiful South "Song For Whoever"
1990 Beautiful South "A Little Time",
1991 KLF "3AM Eternal", "Justified And Ancient" & "Last Train To Trancentral"
1992 Shamen "Ebeneezer Goode"

sources:
http://www.everyhit.com/
http://www.wwwk.co.uk/music/hit-singles/years/index.htm

Not definitive - just an experiment to see what I would list for that period, confined to "british artists + hit singles"

 

[purplex]

Yes Westlife are still popular (I know they're Irish but let's include them)

Lets not eh

 

[chainsaw cat]

I'll tell you why, OP, the answer is Latte.

I will expand in a later thread.

 

[atitlan]

Who are you thinking of?

My personal definition of a classic 'pop' single:

Catchy lyrics.
Catchy tune.
Short length, traditional structure (verse / chorus / verse / chorus)
No x-rated content.
Plays well on a transistor radio (ie not super hi-fi music)
Isn't too hardcore dance, rap, rock.
Is usually happy and feel-good.
Not a ballard.

I have just done this list off the top of my head, so maybe people can give some examples which contradict this description?

Well, you already mentioned The Ting Tings who bizarrely are in the 'Rock' category in the iTunes cataloguing service. I'd add The Feeling, yes I know a lot of people don't like them, but to me they're in ELO territory which is definitely pop.

Also, I'd call Franz Ferdinand's new album and both of the Fratellis' albums pop as well. Both are dumped in the 'Alternative and Punk' genre in iTunes.

Stock, Aitken and Waterman have been mentioned - they definitely had an effect on people's notions of what pop was, as did the phase of dominance by boy/girl bands - the 'Take That' era. Both caused pop to be narrowed in definition to manufactured pop and other music with Abba in its DNA.

So in terms of your definition I'd agree apart from the 'not a ballad' bit. The ballad is definitely part of the standard pop catalogue (e.g Westlife).

For the defintion of modern pop I'd say that 'guitar driven' now automatically means something other than pop - which must be perplexing for anyone who was making pop music before synths became ubiquitous.

 

[atitlan]

ages 10 to 16 = 1986-1992

1986 Pet Shop Boys "West End Girls", Housemartins "Happy Hour", Queen "A Kind Of Magic", Kate Bush "Hounds Of Love", The Smiths "Panic" & "Ask"

Not definitive - just an experiment to see what I would list for that period, confined to "british artists + hit singles"

Interesting list and one I agree with - all great pop singles. Now look what the genre-ists have done to it - taking your 1986 list.

Pet Shop Boys "West End Girls - electronica / synthpop
Housemartins "Happy Hour" - Alternative and Punk
Queen "A Kind Of Magic" - Rock
Kate Bush "Hounds Of Love" - Alternative and Punk (!)
The Smiths "Panic" & "Ask" - Alternative and Punk

So there's the answer - good pop music hasn't died it's just been reclassified out of existence because the online world has followed the vageries of US radio where all that great British pop music ended up on college radio and hence fell into the 'alternative' stream.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Well, you already mentioned The Ting Tings who bizarrely are in the 'Rock' category in the iTunes cataloguing service.

They sound like pure indie to me

 

[atitlan]

They sound like pure indie to me

'Traffic Light' sounds like Fairground Attraction - Indie?

As for "That's not my name" - probably in the grey are where pop and indie cross over, so it's a matter of where you want to draw the lines.

Either way 'Rock' is a bizarre classification for them.

 

[Dillinger4]

There are lots of good pop bands about.

Those Dancing Days.

They are from Sweden.

 

[electrogirl]

They are from Sweden.

Oh yeah.

I forgot about that stipulation. Sorry.

Ok, The Saturdays then....

 

[Dillinger4]

Oh yeah.

I forgot about that stipulation. Sorry.

Ok, The Saturdays then....

I quite like them, actually.

I quite like girl groups.

The Pippettes are British and they make excellent pop songs.

 

[electrogirl]

I quite like The Saturdays too and that Frankie girl is one of the most gorgeous looking girls I have ever seen. She is just sexual.


I can't stop looking at her.

 

[Dillinger4]

I quite like The Saturdays too and that Frankie girl is one of the most gorgeous looking girls I have ever seen. She is just sexual.


I can't stop looking at her.

Agreed.

 

[Dillinger4]

Oh, and did somebody mention the Ting Tings?

I just found out that the girl from the Ting Tings grew up about 10 minutes away from where I am right now.

 

[atitlan]

I quite like them, actually.

I quite like girl groups.

The Pippettes are British and they make excellent pop songs.

I saw The Pipettes when they were at The Cockpit in Leeds last year. Really, really enjoyable gig - though I'd have enjoyed it purely from an eye-candy perspective even if I didn't like the music!

Rosay is releasing a solo album later this year. The single sounds good - more mature than The Pipettes.

 

[scifisam]

ages 10 to 16 = 1986-1992

My nominations for 'best british pop' for each year (given that I hated SAW):

1986 Pet Shop Boys "West End Girls", Housemartins "Happy Hour", Queen "A Kind Of Magic", Kate Bush "Hounds Of Love", The Smiths "Panic" & "Ask"
1987 Pet Shop Boys "It's A Sin" & "Always On My Mind", George Michael "Faith" & "I Want Your Sex"
1988 Yazz & The Plastic Population "The Only Way Is Up",
1989 Soul II Soul "Back To Life", Beautiful South "Song For Whoever"
1990 Beautiful South "A Little Time",
1991 KLF "3AM Eternal", "Justified And Ancient" & "Last Train To Trancentral"
1992 Shamen "Ebeneezer Goode"

sources:
http://www.everyhit.com/
http://www.wwwk.co.uk/music/hit-singles/years/index.htm

Not definitive - just an experiment to see what I would list for that period, confined to "british artists + hit singles"

Good list - most of those are top pop (but I thought Soul II Soul were always, well, soul). I wasn't listening to music much when I was ten - only got into it at secondary school. The rest of the charts while I was at secondary school were dominated by Stock Aitken Waterman, with a few decent tracks but most not.

 

[Dillinger4]

I saw The Pipettes when they were at The Cockpit in Leeds last year. Really, really enjoyable gig - though I'd have enjoyed it purely from an eye-candy perspective even if I didn't like the music!

Rosay is releasing a solo album later this year. The single sounds good - more mature than The Pipettes.

The Pipettes are my most seen band. I have seen about about 8-9 times, I think.

Rosay is definitely the best member. I went an saw her in Manchester last year. She is brilliant.

 

[matt m]

Saw the Pipettes twice. The first time they were funny for three songs, then irritating. The second time just irritating. Like being shouted at by a bunch of hockey-stick-wielding prefects from Cheltenham ladies college.

Ting Tings sound more contrived and manufactured than Girls Aloud do to my ears. That's partly cos Xenomania's production nicks ideas from a lot more places: it's forumulaic but adventurous with it. But it's mainly because the Ting Tings' music obligingly ticked all of 2008's boxes in terms of 80s influences and a post-punk-funk sound, which meant that music journalists didn't have to do any work.

They're a very lazy bunch, music journos, and will always prefer to champion things that they've already started writing about. The Ting Tings were even more obliging to them, providing 30something male music writers with a bloke the same age as them, who looked like them, and a pretty young blonde girl.

 

[chico enrico]

because kids become savvy quicker, older teens will go emo / indie / dance whatever sooner, this is true

yes. but why is it then that back in say the early 80s kids got into music as something they identified with EVEN QUICKER and an element were even more adventurous in their taste than kids are today, even with the myriad new media and avenues of discovering music open to them.

You only have to watch the 2 tone film to see the number of ten-12 year olds in a specials crowd.

I first saw Crass when I was nine or ten and had already seen Sham 69, the clash and the Skids plus loads of local punk bands. most of my mates (from PRIMARY school) were into punk back then as well and we can't have been older than ten. this wasn't any great abberation. back then music was one of the first things any kid got into. now i feel it's a few steps down the ladder after computer games. which is fucking sad.

 

[chico enrico]

Ting Tings sound more contrived and manufactured than Girls Aloud do to my ears. That's partly cos Xenomania's production nicks ideas from a lot more places: it's forumulaic but adventurous with it. But it's mainly because the Ting Tings' music obligingly ticked all of 2008's boxes in terms of 80s influences and a post-punk-funk sound, which meant that music journalists didn't have to do any work.

must say, i completely agree with the above. they seem like the ultimate 'manufactured' band to me and i'm sure I read the singer was in some sugarbabes type act a few years ago.

In fact, my old flatmate says they were also a jangly indie act undr some different name a while back too and swears his old band played with them, but i can't verify if that is true or not.

actually, probably the best 'pop' band i have seen for eons are the (now sadly no more) BIB who released the classic 'jobs on line' which you can hear here - http://www.myspace.com/bibspace (go on - check it out)

but as a Mute A+R guy said to me at one of their gigs "five years ago they'd have been massive but they won't get anywhere now as all everyone is looking for is indie boy bands"

 

[chico enrico]

anyway, i reckon the future and salvation of pop music lies only in the disparately large hands of hot trans: