New pop

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New pop is a loosely defined British-centric pop music movement consisting of ambitious, DIY-minded artists who achieved commercial success in the early 1980s, aided by platforms like MTV. Rooted in the post-punk movement of the late 1970s, the movement encompassed a wide variety of styles and artists, including acts such as Orange Juice, The Human League, and ABC.

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The term "rockist", a pejorative aimed at those who rejected this type of music, [4] [5] became associated with new pop. [2]

"New music" is a similar but slightly more expansive umbrella term [6] referring to a pop music and cultural phenomenon in the US tied to the Second British Invasion. [7] [8] The term was popularized by the music industry and American journalists during the 1980s to describe emerging movements such as new pop and New Romanticism. [9]

Characteristics

Many new pop artists created music that blended less commercial and experimental elements with a pop appeal. [2] The concept of entryism became popular among groups of the time, reflecting their attempts to infiltrate mainstream culture with unconventional styles. [2]

New Music acts were characterized by danceable rhythms, an androgynous aesthetic, heavy use of synthesizers and drum machines, and lyrical themes exploring the darker side of romance. These acts were predominantly British and drew inspiration from rockabilly, Motown, ska, and reggae, incorporating African rhythms to create what was described as a "fertile, stylistic cross-pollination." [7]

Author Simon Reynolds observed that the new pop movement represented "a conscious and brave attempt to bridge the separation between 'progressive' pop and mass/chart pop – a divide which has existed since 1967, and is also, broadly, one between boys and girls, middle-class and working-class." [1]

The terms "new music" or "new pop" were used loosely to describe various styles and artists, including synth-pop groups such as The Human League, soul-disco acts such as ABC, new wave performers like Elvis Costello and the Pretenders, [6] and jangle pop bands like Orange Juice. [2] American MTV stars, including Michael Jackson, were also associated with the movement. [8]

Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote that New Music was more about the artists themselves than their specific sound. It attracted teenage girls and males disillusioned with traditional, "phallic" guitar-driven rock. [10] New Music was a singles-oriented phenomenon, emphasizing both 7-inch and the then-new 12-inch formats, in contrast to the 1970s emphasis on album-oriented rock. [11]

Etymology

During the late 1970s, "New Musick" [ sic ] was one of the labels applied to certain post-punk groups. [12] The term "post-punk" was also used interchangeably with "new wave". [13] In the New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock (2001), "new wave" was described as a "virtually meaningless" term. [14]

By the early 1980s, British journalists had largely abandoned the term "new wave" in favor of more specific descriptors such as "synthpop". [15] In the United States, the term "new music" had become the preferred label for this genre by 1983. [16]

History

Producer and New Musical Express writer Paul Morley (left), a pivotal figure in new pop Christopher Austin Paul Morley.jpg
Producer and New Musical Express writer Paul Morley (left), a pivotal figure in new pop

In the wake of the punk rock explosion of the late 1970s, the new wave and post-punk genres emerged, driven by a desire for experimentation, creativity, and forward momentum. Music journalist Paul Morley, whose writing in the British music magazine NME championed the post-punk movement, has been credited as an influential voice in the development of new pop. Following the decline of post-punk, Morley advocated for "overground brightness" rather than underground sensibilities. [2] Around this time, the term "rockist" gained popularity as a disparaging label for music that favored traditionalist rock styles. [2] According to Pitchfork 's Jess Harvel, "If new pop had an architect, it was [the writer] Paul Morley." [2]

As the 1980s began, many musicians sought to broaden these movements to appeal to a more mainstream audience. In 1980, the New Music Seminar debuted as a platform designed to help young new wave artists break into the American music industry. The event grew rapidly in popularity and encouraged the shift from using the term "new wave" to "New Music" in the United States. [17] Unlike in Great Britain, early attempts to introduce new wave and music videos to American audiences had achieved mixed results. However, by 1982, New Music acts were appearing on the U.S. charts, and clubs that played their songs were consistently packed. [7]

"I hated the phrase 'new wave'. It sounded too trendy and could be gone in a year."

—Dennis McNamara, program director who oversaw Long Island, New York radio station WLIR's 1982 shift to a New Music format. [18]

In response to New Music's rising popularity, album-oriented rock (AOR) radio stations increased their rotation of new acts, and the "Hot Hits" format emerged. [7] By 1983, with half of the new artists emerging from the New Music movement, [19] acts such as Duran Duran, Culture Club, and Men at Work were dominating the charts, creating an alternative musical and cultural mainstream. [7] Annie Lennox [20] and Boy George were among the figures most closely associated with New Music. [8] [21]

In a 1983 interview with CBS News about the Second British Invasion of New Pop acts in America, singer Martin Fry of ABC described the phenomenon as "an explosion that came out after punk rock swung through Britain – a whole generation that was kind of interested in making music that was more polished. That obviously led to a golden age with Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, The Human League, ABC, Depeche Mode, many bands like that. We were all a little bit flamboyant." [22]

Criticism and decline

Criticism of new pop emerged from supporters of both traditional rock and newer experimental rock. Critics viewed new pop as overly corporate, prioritizing commercial success at the expense of rock music's anti-authoritarian tradition. They argued that new pop’s embrace of synthesizers and music videos often masked a lack of musical talent. For example, the heavy metal magazine Hit Parader frequently used the homophobic slur "faggot" to disparage New Music musicians. Similarly, the 1985 Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing", which reached number one in the United States, included the line "The little faggot with the earring and the make-up" and used the term multiple times. [23] According to lead singer Mark Knopfler, the lyrics were inspired by the language of a New York appliance store worker he overheard while watching MTV. Assistant professor, author, and musician Theo Cateforis cites these examples as manifestations of homophobia used to defend "real rock" against New Music. [24] [25]

In the mid-1980s, a reaction against European synthpop and "haircut bands" began to emerge in the United States, marked by the rise of heartland rock and roots rock. [26] Richard Blade, a disc jockey at Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM, reflected on this period, stating, "You felt there was a winding-down of music. Thomas Dolby's album had bombed, Duran Duran had gone through a series of breakups, the Smiths had broken up, Spandau Ballet had gone away, and people were just shaking their heads going, 'What happened to all this new music?'" [27]

Theo Cateforis argues that New Music eventually evolved into modern rock, which retained its uptempo feel while diverging stylistically. This evolution continued to draw influence from the rock disco/club scene. [28]

In the UK, indie bands adopted the jangling guitar work that had typified new wave music. [29] The arrival of the Smiths was characterized by the music press as a "reaction against the opulence and corpulence of nouveau riche New Pop" and a "return to a different vision of 'new pop,' the Postcard ideal." [30]

Related Research Articles

New wave is a music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles from the 1970s through the 1980s. It is considered a lighter and more melodic "broadening of punk culture". It was originally used as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged after punk rock. Later, critical consensus favored "new wave" as an umbrella term involving many contemporary popular music styles, including synth-pop, alternative dance and post-punk. The main new wave movement coincided with late 1970s punk and continued into the early 1980s.

Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues, rhythm and blues, and country music. Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock is typically centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a 4
4 time signature and utilizing a verse–chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s.

Synth-pop is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic, art rock, disco, and particularly the Krautrock of bands like Kraftwerk. It arose as a distinct genre in Japan and the United Kingdom in the post-punk era as part of the new wave movement of the late 1970s.

Alternative rock is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge subgenre in the United States, and the Britpop and shoegaze subgenres in the United Kingdom and Ireland. During this period, many record labels were looking for "alternatives", as many corporate rock, hard rock, and glam metal acts from the 1980s were beginning to grow stale throughout the music industry. The emergence of Generation X as a cultural force in the 1990s also contributed greatly to the rise of alternative music.

Power pop is a subgenre of rock music and form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and cheerful-sounding music underpinned by a sense of yearning, longing, despair, or self-empowerment. The sound is primarily rooted in pop and rock traditions of the early-to-mid 1960s, although some artists have occasionally drawn from later styles such as punk, new wave, glam rock, pub rock, college rock, and neo-psychedelia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Romantic</span> 1970s popular culture movement originating in the UK

New Romantic was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New Romantic movement was characterised by flamboyant, eccentric fashion inspired by fashion boutiques such as Kahn and Bell in Birmingham and PX in London. Early adherents of the movement were often referred to by the press by such names as Blitz Kids, New Dandies and Romantic Rebels.

Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1980s built on the post-punk and new wave movements, incorporating different sources of inspiration from subgenres and what is now classed as world music in the shape of Jamaican and Indian music. It also explored the consequences of new technology and social change in the electronic music of synthpop. In the early years of the decade, while subgenres like heavy metal music continued to develop separately, there was a considerable crossover between rock and more commercial popular music, with a large number of more "serious" bands, like The Police and UB40, enjoying considerable single chart success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British rock music</span> Rock music from the United Kingdom

British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded by the Beatles, British rock music has had a considerable impact on the development of American music and rock music across the world.

Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college and commercial rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockism and poptimism</span> Ideological arguments in music journalism

Rockism and poptimism are ideological arguments about popular music prevalent in mainstream music journalism. Rockism is the belief that rock music depends on values such as authenticity and artfulness, which elevate it over other forms of popular music. So-called "rockists" may promote the artifices stereotyped in rock music or may regard the genre as the normative state of popular music. Poptimism is the belief that pop music is as worthy of professional critique and interest as rock music. Detractors of poptimism describe it as a counterpart of rockism that unfairly privileges the most famous or best-selling pop, hip hop and R&B acts.

Dance-punk is a post-punk subgenre that emerged in the late 1970s, and is closely associated with the disco, post-disco and new wave movements. The genre is characterized by mixing the energy of punk rock with the danceable rhythms of funk and disco. It was most prominent in the New York City punk movement.

Post-punk revival is a genre or movement of indie rock that emerged in the early 2000s as musicians started to play a stripped down and back-to-basics version of guitar rock inspired by the original sounds and aesthetics of post-punk, new wave and garage rock. It is closely associated with new wave revival and garage rock revival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neo-psychedelia</span> Music genre

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This article includes an overview of popular music in the 1980s.

British pop music is popular music, produced commercially in the United Kingdom. It emerged in the mid-to late 1950s as a softer alternative to American rock 'n' roll. Like American pop music it has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, as well as that of the Singles Chart usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs. While these basic elements of the genre have remained fairly constant, pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, particularly borrowing from the development of rock music, and utilising key technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. From the British Invasion in the 1960s, led by The Beatles, British pop music has alternated between acts and genres with national appeal and those with international success that have had a considerable impact on the development of the wider genre and on popular music in general

Post-punk is a broad genre of music that emerged in 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experimental approach that encompassed a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-rock influences. Inspired by punk's energy and do it yourself ethic but determined to break from rock cliches, artists experimented with styles like funk, electronic music, jazz, and dance music; the production techniques of dub and disco; and ideas from art and politics, including critical theory, modernist art, cinema and literature. These communities produced independent record labels, visual art, multimedia performances and fanzines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second British Invasion</span> 1980s cultural movement

The Second British Invasion was a sharp increase in the popularity of British synth-pop and New Pop artists in the United States. It began in the summer of 1982, peaked in 1983, and continued throughout much of the 1980s. MTV began in 1981. Its popularity was the main catalyst for the second British Invasion. According to Rolling Stone, British acts brought a "revolution in sound and style" to the US.

Art pop is a loosely defined style of pop music influenced by art theories as well as ideas from other art mediums, such as fashion, fine art, cinema, and avant-garde literature. The genre draws on pop art's integration of high and low culture, and emphasizes signs, style, and gesture over personal expression. Art pop musicians may deviate from traditional pop audiences and rock music conventions, instead exploring postmodern approaches and ideas such as pop's status as commercial art, notions of artifice and the self, and questions of historical authenticity.

Avant-funk is a music style in which artists combine funk or disco rhythms with an avant-garde or art rock mentality. Its most prominent era occurred in the late 1970s and 1980s among post-punk and no wave acts who embraced black dance music.

A microgenre is a specialized or niche genre. The term has been used since at least the 1970s to describe highly specific subgenres of music, literature, film, and art. In music, examples include the myriad sub-subgenres of heavy metal and electronic music. Some genres are sometimes retroactively created by record dealers and collectors as a way to increase the monetary value of certain records, with early examples including Northern soul, freakbeat, garage punk, and sunshine pop. By the early 2010s, most microgenres were linked and defined through various outlets on the Internet, usually as part of generating popularity and hype for a newly perceived trend. Examples of these include chillwave, witch house, seapunk, shitgaze, and vaporwave.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Reynolds 2006, p. 398.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Harvell, Jess. "Now That's What I Call New Pop!". Pitchfork Media . 12 September 2005.
  3. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1990). "Postpunk-Postdisco Fusion". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN   0-679-73015-X.
  4. ↑ "Embarrassment Rock". Pitchfork. 20 February 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  5. ↑ "Rockism - it's the new rockism". The Guardian . 25 May 2006. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  6. 1 2 Reynolds 2005, p. 338.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Michigan Daily - Google News Archive Search". News.google.com. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 Denisoff, R. Serge (1 January 1986). Tarnished Gold: The Record Industry Revisited. Transaction Publishers. ISBN   9781412835565 . Retrieved 3 September 2020– via Google Books.
  9. ↑ Cateforis 2011, pp. 12, 56.
  10. ↑ Reynolds 2005, p. 308.
  11. ↑ Cateforis 2011, pp. 56–57.
  12. ↑ Cateforis 2011, p. 26.
  13. ↑ Jackson, Josh (8 September 2016). "The 50 Best New Wave Albums". Paste .
  14. ↑ Cateforis 2011, p. 11.
  15. ↑ Cateforis 2011, p. 254.
  16. ↑ Cateforis 2011 , p. 56
  17. ↑ Cateforis, pp. 43–44
  18. ↑ WLIR, Denis McNamara ushered a wave of new music, Newsday , November 13, 2010
  19. ↑ Cateforis, p. 57
  20. ↑ Reynolds 2005, p. 342.
  21. ↑ Reynolds 2005, p. 258.
  22. ↑ Chiu, David. "A look back at 1983: The year of the second British Invasion". CBS News. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  23. ↑ Dire Straits - Money for Nothing (Official Audio) - RHINO on YouTube
  24. ↑ "CANADIAN BROADCAST STANDARDS COUNCIL, ad hoc NATIONAL PANEL, Review of the Atlantic Regional Panel decision in CHOZ-FM re the song "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits". Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  25. ↑ Cateforis p. 233, reference number 28
  26. ↑ Reynolds, p. 535
  27. ↑ "KROQ: An Oral History by Kate Sullivan - Los Angeles Magazine, November 2001". Radiohitlist.com. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  28. ↑ Cateforis pp. 65–67
  29. ↑ Nickson, Chris (25 September 2012). "Indie and the New Musical Express". ministryofrock.co.uk. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  30. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (26 September 1987). "The Smiths: A Eulogy". Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip Hop. Catapult. ISBN   978-1-59376-460-9.

Bibliography

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