Great Pop

[Midas]

[quote="telefunker"]to me, pop would be defined by the construct of the song.. so pink floyd could not be considered pop, or king crimson, or pop-rap stuff like snoop dogg as it isn't strictly sing-a-long verse chorus verse stuff

"waterloo sunset" and "you really got me" are 2 of the best pop songs ever written.. sure if they were written today they'd probably synthesized with a drum machine behind them, and you wouldn't call them "pop rock", but they are absolutely pop music

i only listed surrealistic pillow by jefferson airplane as it's the only one of theirs i've heard which is strictly pop.. volunteers and after bathing at baxsters are not strict adherents to the pop construct[/quote]

The Kinks made some great pop songs like "Tired Of Waiting For You" and "Sunny Afternoon". The early Who made some great pop records like "I Can't Explain" and the "Kids are Alright. The Stones also created a lot of great of pop records. All three bands made great pop/rock records.

[Mr. Shankly]

The definition of pop has changed much over the years. It's short for popular music, but I don't think that's entirely accurate as a a lot of pop isn't on the charts and some stuff that is on the charts isn't really pop. If you've seen High Fidelity, you know the character Rob defines it pretty broadly, as do I. The question becomes when does pop become rock? For example, You Really Got Me really fits into both categories.

Pop to me is any kind of music that is melodic and hook oriented and that also conforms to to the standard pop song structure of verse, chorus, verse, bridge etc. I classify most of what I like as pop actually. And call me the Mayor of Simpleton, but I'll take an intelligent well-crafted pop song over some 20 minute free jazz improvisational jam most days of the week. Some may argue the latter requires more talent, but I'd argue they both take talent, just different kinds of talent. Usually musicians that spend most of their time jamming aren't very good at crafting pop songs. Just saying.

Someone said Pink Floyd isn't pop. For their 70's period I would mostly agree, but some of their early 60's songs with Syd Barrett, such as Arnold Layne, are definitely pop songs.

In the area of traditional pop, The Beatles are the kings. I know there are some naysayers on here, but in the are of pop, I don't think this is disputable. Not too many other bands can boast the level of consistently memorable songs as they could. The Kinks are also great, but they weren't as great throughout their entire career so their second or third or maybe even fourth on the list. The Who are often considered a rock band, but early on, they had great pop singles and are another great pop band. Who else? The Smiths were a consistently great pop band. They're probably in my top five ever. R.E.M. is another from that period. Belle and Sebastian has great 60's influenced pop songs. The Jam and the Buzzcocks were great pop/punk bands. The Ramones were basically a pop band that played loud and fast. Glam is an offshoot of pop and David Bowie reigns supreme there. I mean try to write a pop song as good as Life on Mars. New Wave was another pop offshoot. Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, The Talking Heads, XTC, and Blondie--all had great pop songs. I'm rambling but hopefully you get the idea what I think pop is and how I value it.

[Mr. Shankly]

Looking at the first post. it would appear some of us have distorted the original topic (that sounds familiar). Anyway, to be fair, as for your list Naples, Frank Sinatra and Dusty Springfield are probably the only two artists I would put on to listen to. I could deal with Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, and Dean Martin if I heard them somewhere. I don't think I'd hang out too long to listen to Barbara Streisand though.

[Norman Bates]

[joannajewsom]

Piper at the Gates of Dawn is pop? Wait, wait...how- and how broadly- are we defining pop?

[Mr.Music]

U can call Floyds period after Syd Barret pop but not the period when he was in the band. Never!

[joannajewsom]

Really? Very popular rock (a form of popular music) group, sure. But working in the pop genre? I wouldn't call any Floyd period pop, although the Barrett period could, at least, be considered psychedelic pop.

[1234567890]

"Vocal might be a good name, but Mancini is instrumental!"
Sue me.

[Midas]

[quote="joannajewsom"]Really? Very popular rock (a form of popular music) group, sure. But working in the pop genre? I wouldn't call any Floyd period pop, although the Barrett period could, at least, be considered psychedelic pop.[/quote]

"See Emily Play" is certainly Psychedelic Pop.

[Midas]

[quote="Mr. Shankly"]The definition of pop has changed much over the years. It's short for popular music, but I don't think that's entirely accurate as a a lot of pop isn't on the charts and some stuff that is on the charts isn't really pop. If you've seen High Fidelity, you know the character Rob defines it pretty broadly, as do I. The question becomes when does pop become rock? For example, You Really Got Me really fits into both categories.

Pop to me is any kind of music that is melodic and hook oriented and that also conforms to to the standard pop song structure of verse, chorus, verse, bridge etc. I classify most of what I like as pop actually. And call me the Mayor of Simpleton, but I'll take an intelligent well-crafted pop song over some 20 minute free jazz improvisational jam most days of the week. Some may argue the latter requires more talent, but I'd argue they both take talent, just different kinds of talent. Usually musicians that spend most of their time jamming aren't very good at crafting pop songs. Just saying.

Someone said Pink Floyd isn't pop. For their 70's period I would mostly agree, but some of their early 60's songs with Syd Barrett, such as Arnold Layne, are definitely pop songs.

In the area of traditional pop, The Beatles are the kings. I know there are some naysayers on here, but in the are of pop, I don't think this is disputable. Not too many other bands can boast the level of consistently memorable songs as they could. The Kinks are also great, but they weren't as great throughout their entire career so their second or third or maybe even fourth on the list. The Who are often considered a rock band, but early on, they had great pop singles and are another great pop band. Who else? The Smiths were a consistently great pop band. They're probably in my top five ever. R.E.M. is another from that period. Belle and Sebastian has great 60's influenced pop songs. The Jam and the Buzzcocks were great pop/punk bands. The Ramones were basically a pop band that played loud and fast. Glam is an offshoot of pop and David Bowie reigns supreme there. I mean try to write a pop song as good as Life on Mars. New Wave was another pop offshoot. Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, The Talking Heads, XTC, and Blondie--all had great pop songs. I'm rambling but hopefully you get the idea what I think pop is and how I value it.[/quote]

To me Pop/Rock is for example The Beatles: style of music pop-rock.. and power pop. It wasn't R&B, country, or traditional jazz-pop), The structure of many of the Beatles songs since my band plays some of their songs are verse/verse/ bridge. A lot of their songs don't rely on a chorus instead using a bridge in which many times they would either change time signatures or chords. The Kinks used this structure also as many British Invasion bands that were not really blues based as the Stones or the Yardbirds.