I have to agree. Most K-Pop tastes manufactured to me. (Says the Monkees fan...)
I have to agree. Most K-Pop tastes manufactured to me. (Says the Monkees fan...)
Maka ki ecela tehani yanke lo!
Up thru the 70's Elton would have many styles on an album. It really wasn't until his 80's comeback that he became almost exclusively a ballad maker. Thats not to say there isn't a surprise here and there though.Originally Posted by progmatist
I read about a new Elton John box-set which has a lot of deep tracks, which are selected by Elton John.
https://www.eltonjohn.com/stories/jewel-box
Thanks. I'm hoping that he splits then up like Pink Floyd's Early Years box. I would like the 2 B-sides CDs. I would definitely want to hear the 3 early CDs before I paid for them. Usually demos stay demos for a reason. I still have to pick up some Tangerine Dream boxes, and Pink Floyds Delicate Sound of Thunder!
Like a more adult pop sound? Few do it better than the Pernice Brothers. Although a lot of Joe Pernice's songs are a bit samey, the quality is consistent.
Lucky thrift store find recently: Show Some Emotion by Joan Armatrading. Her three Glyn Johns-produced albums (this is the second) are musts!
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
I remember sitting in biology classs around 1976 and a friend commenting to me how much we dug Joan.
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound.
XTC
I suppose many stay within their comfort zone around these parts with Pop as with their Prog (prog, progressive) music.
Some newer pop and pop-like tunes that are featured in many of my summer pool days playlists... that will largely go unnoticed here:
a wonderful pop tune about the death of JFK and the world, with an odd beat pattern (for pop) that some might enjoy:
Last set.
fun video, cool tune... reminds me a lot of 80s videos with random choreographed dancing throughout.
I wish all her albums would be available on CD. I still miss several from my collection. Others I have 2 times, because the only way to get some albums was buying a small box-set with 5 CD in cardboard sleeves.
Heard two Sayer tracks quite recently, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, which is napalm to my ears, and Thunder In My Heart, which is a whole lot better.
Daltrey did a whole album of Water/Courtney songs in the early 70s.
I love ABBA. And Dusty Springfield. The Beach Boys. And those Phil Spector girlgroups from the early 60's. St.Vincent among the more contemporary artists. Also those 60's Motown acts, although they fall somewhere between pop and soul I guess.
^Most of the above I also love. Dusty is another one who is often on that pop/soul borderline really.
Well, I'm actually a pop music fan. I just happen to own about a thousand prog albums, pure coincidence, doesn't mean a thing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I like a lot of the 80s artists mentioned here. Joe Jackson, Herbert Grönemeyer, Tears For Fears for example. Others include A-ha, Blue Nile, Pet Shop Boys (their 80s material particularly), Chris De Burgh (yes, particularly albums like The Getaway, Man on the Line and Into the Light), Chris Rea, Tanita Tikaram (her first two albums) and Suzanne Vega.
Speaking of the last two, there have been a number of good female pop artists from Finland in the 2000s that I like, namely Maija Vilkkumaa, Astrid Swan, Hanna Marsh and Sanna "Litku" Klemetti. Okay, I cheated a bit with the last one, as Sanna Klemetti's first project was a prog band Jesufåglar (a name taken from Wigwam's Hard 'n' Horny) that made one album Matka ajan rannoille. One of her solo albums even has an autobiographical song called "Progetyttö" (Prog Girl), where she tells about dreaming of Robert Fripp and young Jukka Gustavson and wishing she had been a given a Mellotron instead of a piano as a matriculation present.
With only a very few exceptions, "straight up smart, tight pop" does not fill my prescription. And those exceptions only occur if I am switching radio stations, and an XTC or 10CC song happens to come on. I will give it a listen. I think I have the ability to recognize a well written and constructed pop song when I hear it, I just don't really care.
I already have problems finding enough time to listen to all the new (to me) artists, bands, composers, and musicians, among the various styles, genres and subgenres I really care about, to have time to spare to listen music I only have a passing intertest in. And I have a fair amount of time to listen.
Just keeping up with, and assimilating, all the new, great: contemporary classical music and composers, jazz, prog, avant-prog, fusion, etc, etc, is an ongoing undertaking. A great, and rewarding undertaking, for sure, but it doesn't leave any time for music I only have a passing interest in.
You can call me a music snob, if you want. And I will proudly mantle.
Last edited by simon moon; 12-10-2020 at 04:13 PM.
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
a 2 hit wonder
the other hit
Then there's contemporary pop. Most of the good stuff seems to be women: Gaga, Tayor Swift, a whole bunch. Even Katy Perry at times.
On the other hand, we are in an era where WAP can be the number one song...
Maka ki ecela tehani yanke lo!
One song that's drawn me in recently:
New Pornographers are a group that should have a lot appeal to the Prog crowd. Intricately woven vocal interplay, musicianship, melodies for days and rather unconventional song structuring. When I use the term songcraft, XTC and this band come to mind.
The training that these groups go through in order to be K-Pop stars is more grueling than you can imagine: extreme diet and exercise regimens and 10-hour days packed to the brim with training, little to no contact with the outside world, no relationships allowed, and very little sleep. There are numerous incidents where performers have collapsed from exhaustion from insufficient caloric intake, overexertion, and sleep deprivation. Parents are just as much to blame for this because they need to give their consent for their kids to be in these programs since most of them are minors when they begin training. On top of all this, many of the trainees, both male and female, are coerced into getting cosmetic surgery done to make them prettier. And as you might imagine, there is also sexual exploitation.
I personally don't find much to like in the example posted above. Outside of the K-Pop industrial complex, Korea does have loads of great artists making really catchy pop and many other genres of music, especially Indy stuff. I like my talent homegrown, with the rough edges left intact. There is a 27-year-old female artist called IU (real name: Lee Ji-eun) who started out as a young K-Pop singer in the usual way but gradually went on to do her own thing by composing and performing her own songs. She has the respect of young Koreans for being a gifted talent who is now outside of "the machine."
Oh, that's good. Very '80s sounding, but with a modern feel.
Maka ki ecela tehani yanke lo!
I have yet to grab Taylor Swift's new album that she released Friday. Hoping it's good. Gaga has some good moments. Katy Perry is one I can't stomach. Her yell-cheer-sing method is irritating.
The Weeknd has the best album of 2020, to me. I do like that he made an album that features only him and no guest vocalists.
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