"Pop" is yet another one of those terms that has as many definitions as there are music fans. Half the bands I listed in my earlier post aren't "pop" in the classic sense of the term, but since I saw others blurring the lines before me I decided to do so as well.
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
H'mmmm. So "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", "Saturday In The Park" and "Colour My World" (to pick three almost at random) are rock songs rather than pop songs? Really, Hugues??
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
16 Horsepower wouldn't be considered pop for sure but it's not progressive by the standards of most here. Their cd secret south is phenomenal.
The moral of the story is; there's lots of good pop music that really isn't pop music.
Regards,
Jon
I guess you're right that the actual musical boudary between pop & rock is very blurry... I'd say that it is more in the intention of the band/artiste... Whether they (or the labels) were pushing singles or albums... Nobody here will call Zep a "pop" act, but they had enough songs that could've sold bundles in the singles format.
Well, I was a little too young to know which songs were hits (as in singles) in the early Chicago
the shortest track on CTA are 3:22 and 4:33 (Does Anybody)... on their second album, this is a little easier since there are five or six songs below 4:30, including Wake Up and Where Do We Go From Here. But the two obvious hits are 25 and Fancy Colours, both corca 5 minutes.
On their third album, only three (out of 4) stand-alone tracks are below 5 minutes (all three on side 1). So despite having hits, they were hardly a singles band. Now of course afterwards, there are plenty of tracks fitting below 5 minutes (even on the first disc of VII). By the time of Chicago X, their longest track (If You Leave Me Now) is below 4 minutes
16 HP seems to be climbing up every tree (amazingly enough, this Denver band had two Frenchies on board)
I tend to prefer Wovenhand, though there are too many sonic similarities between the two to really treat them apart, IMHO
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Does the "pop" have to have "prog" moments or can it just be good pop?
Michael Jackson - Off the Wall
Carole King - Tapestry
Sade - Diamond Life
Sorry I've been busy, but I love when I leave a post for a couple of days and found a lot of responses, thanks a lot for all the suggestions. Yeah what I meant is really good pop music, interesting, a bit outside the box, albums that you have listened for years and you never grow tired of them. I'm 41 years old and I've been listening to music proactively for about 25, 26 years and I've realized that still there's a lot of stuff out there that I haven't explored. That's the beauty of music.
I live in an ephemeral eternity
Oh, can't believe I missed what is nearly the ultimate, if you can find this:
'Say It In Slang' by M Coast. There isn't even any youtube clips for it except the opening track. A shame, such a gem.
Planet P Project: King For A Day, Why Me
Russ Ballard: Voices
Red Box - The Circle and the Square
Don't bother with any other Red Box releases, after that they went very bland and boring.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
I like the layered keyboard work of the following:
Thompson Twins - Into The Gap
Howard Jones - Dream Into Action
Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless
Steve Winwood - Arc of a Diver
"Normal is just the average of extremes" - Gary Lessor
Surprised no one has mentioned Paul Simon, Gino Vanelli, October Project and Joe Jackson. Besides me no one has mentioned Todd Rundgren either.
Most releases by 'Not Drowning...Waving' might fit.
Very cool Australian band doing pop with Aboriginal instruments and some ambient moments.
And if there were a god, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence - Russell
Also try Thoroughbred, my vote for her best album after Tapestry. It’s all deep tracks (even the “hit,” “Only Love Is Real,” will be unfamiliar to most modern listeners, despite being utterly wonderful) and it’s all brilliant. And Really Rosie is one of the best albums of children’s songs, ever (collaborating with Maurice Sendak helps).
I wasn’t aware that they had any releases other than Motive. And I didn’t even know that existed until recently. But I’ll offer a second thumbs-up to TCATS, a superb disc of pure pop with “world music” (largely African-style choir and percussion) influences. A nice companion piece to Paul Simon’s Graceland.
Well, I just mentioned Graceland, so consider it mentioned now. Gino’s early stuff was definitely prog-adjacent, what with the synth-chestrated suites (or the actually orchestrated “Pauper in Paradise Suite”) and such. If you’re looking at a most odd intersection between Stevie Wonder, Rick Wakeman and Tom Jones, try one of those early discs. A Pauper in Paradise in particular is a solid album, but The Gist of the Gemini does have the incredible “War Suite” (beware: some of the A-side is lethally cheesy, though; “A New Fix for ’76” is especially torturous to sit through!).
Last edited by Progbear; 10-31-2014 at 08:05 PM.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
For fans of modern sympho-lympho I wholeheartedly recommend these complex pop gems from the toughest 80s:
This is the epic version here, and juzza lokkat'em Lizard'y blowhorns of masculine flesh bliss:
And this. The intense dance part between 01:07-01:12 reminds me a bit of Jon, Steve, Robert and Teddy:
Last edited by Scrotum Scissor; 10-31-2014 at 08:59 PM.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
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