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"Brilliant" "Fun" pop music everyone loves that you can't stand

Started by 23 Daves, May 26, 2006, 05:18:28 PM

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23 Daves

We all know about albums we're supposed to like because they're "classics", of course.  We all know that we're dolts if we don't like "Astral Weeks" (which I can't stand, incidentally), "Pet Sounds" or "Revolver".  If we say of these things "I do not like them!" we must be prepared for long counter-arguments to arise with people who have shocked expressions on their faces.  One's corner has to be defended.

Less discussed, however, are those moments of "pure pop" that everyone talks about as being "great" that some people can't stand.  The kind of things that inevitably get shoved on at parties for their fun factor to cheers of approval that cause a minority to sulk in the corner quietly for fear of being called party poopers.  

There's one artist who has this effect on me constantly.  Kylie Minogue.  Smiley, bouncy, charisma void Kylie.  She splashes through puddles beneath rainbows whilst she skips merrily through her latest pop ditty which is almost always, without exception, lacking.  Her voice betrays no emotion, sounds flat and fun-free, and the tunes always sound nastily clinical and calculated, scrubbed within an inch of their lives.  She has never once in my life made me want to dance.  She has either been an irritant or something to be ignored as background muzak.

Try saying that aloud, though.  People look surprised, and think you must be one of those horrible, serious musos who only has "classic rawk" in your collection at home.  A Real Ale man with a collection of belt buckles who wants to Keep Music Live.  It's got me thinking, though... is there any "great pop" music that actually deeply irritates you lot?  Do you balk when Girls Aloud come on the radio, or get aggravated when a Duran Duran record comes on at a party?  Examples, please.

the midnight watch baboon

A lotta people liked it at the time, but I fucking hate 'Love Shack' by the B-52s, 'specially the part when 'Love shack money!!!' is sung with undeserving glee at the end. It makes me want to cook my own heart.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

I agree with your views on Kylie. What's worse is we're supposed to take her seriously now she's a mature lady and is fighting cancer. Sorry love- but your musc has always been shit. What I find more annoying is the idea plenty of people have that A)She is good looking and B)Has a good singing voice. My Dad calls her the whinging wombat.

Robbie Williams can fuck off as well. Someone who we're all 'supposed to like'. Coldplay and Oasis too.

I live in studentville so it's pretty hard to say you don't like Arctic Monkeys without people pulling strange expressions. Someone I don't even know accused me of trying to be deliberately contrary in order to get attention. Even though he asked me the question!


Darrell

What Do I Have To Do, Never Too Late, and Wouldn't Change A Thing are all thrilling pop records which do really interesting things with melody and chords.

And if Give Me Just A Little More Time had been released in 1967 by Dionne Warwick then it would be hailed as a classic.

More recently, I think Please Stay is a bloody smashing record too.

(for balance, like)

boki

'Reach' by S Club is particularly smelly pile of vile, particularly that rising chord sequence right before the first verse that feels like they're pouring the BIG HAPPY right down your throat and there's something seriously wrong with you if you don't LIKE IT.

Phew.  'Dancing Queen' can fuck right off too.  How people can go to the same pubs every weekend and always hear it at exactly the same time and never get sick of it is totally beyond me.

Ciarán2

I love Kylie, but was thinking today about how dull a lot of her albums are! I love her first album, and I think "Fever" and "Body Language" are both excellent. But i'm aware that this isn't a Kylie thread.

"Young Hearts Run Free" by Candi Staton is one of those party staples that always bores me. I've never liked that record.

Darrell

Quote from: "boki"'Reach' by S Club is particularly smelly pile of vile, particularly that rising chord sequence right before the first verse that feels like they're pouring the BIG HAPPY right down your throat and there's something seriously wrong with you if you don't LIKE IT.

Another reason why that record annoys me is that it's EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE THEME TUNE TO DUCKTALES.

Emergency Lalla Ward Ten

This is a related thread, although I was talking about euphoric songs which are depressing rather than just plain bad:

http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=4675&start=0

The Mumbler

Radio 2 would melt if it lost its copy of either Dancing Queen or Young Hearts Run Free.

Darrell

Musicologists cream themselves over 'Dancing Queen', I always notice.

Never quite made my mind up whether it's an amazing song/record/production hiding behind a misleadingly mediocre veil, or whether it's just rubbish.

The Mumbler

S.O.S., Knowing Me Knowing You and The Name of the Game are all sublime, though.  Aged six, I liked Dancing Queen - we had a tape of Arrival at home, but KMKY was the one, I thought.

lankinpark

Groove is in the Fucking Heart[. The song's bad enough but the video makes me want to commit violent acts.

I never managed to love Summer of '69 or that Chesney Hawkes one, even in the ironic way most of my mates at uni did.

Do Lordi count?


Bert Thung

What a cathartic thread!  Serious rock critics eulogising pop music makes me sick, always has. Screw them and their "burrits great pop". They've just never known the sheer magic that is Deep Purple In Rock.

The Mumbler

Quote from: "Darrell"And if Give Me Just A Little More Time had been released in 1967 by Dionne Warwick then it would be hailed as a classic.

It was released in 1970 on Motown offshoot Invictus by Chairmen of the Board, though...!

I was always rather fond of Step Back in Time myself.

Ciarán2

No, there are tracks on her debut which blow that out of the water - namedly, "Turn It Into Love" and particularly "Look My Way", which is a classic. "Kylie" is one of the most underrated pop albums ever made. One of the biggest selling LPs of the 1980s too. Rightly so.

dan dirty ape

I had a prolonged and  pointless drunken argument with my old flatmate about Robbie Williams after he said something along the lines of "you have to respect him for being a showman, he's good at what he does". I'll concede the appeal of most pop songs and singers that some smug 'serious music journo' type will tell you are "actually quite good, if you listen" but not old Robbie, who churns out the same alternation between grating novelty songs with shit lyrics and unremarkable ballads with shit self-pitying lyrics year in year out. But he's got a half dozen other people's stage moves down pat so it's alright, he's "a showman". I'll see Darrell's S Club 7/Duck Tales and raise him Rock DJ/the theme from fucking 'Wizbit'.

'Dancing Queen' I have no problem with. It's a weird record in that it's supposed to be celebratory and it just sounds depressing. The 'having the time of your life' bit sounds like they're trying to convince you that the dancing queen is having the time of her life, but really she's pig sick of dancing and wants to go home. If nothing else, it inspired 'Oliver's Army''s keyboard sound and convinced Costello not to chuck it away or bung it on a b-side.

23 Daves

I will defend "Dancing Queen" to the grave - well, alright, I might not take it that far, but it's certainly a brilliant track.  I take exception to a lot of other Abba works, though.  "Fernando" is utter shite, for example, the worst kind of Andrew Lloyd Webber musical lighters-aloft ballad there is.  "Thank You For The Music" is equally unnecessary, dripping in showbiz schmaltz.  The list goes on.  Certainly there's large volumes of their output that's worthy of acclaim, but I think the bad parts of their catalogue (many of which, lest we forget, were singles, not obscure buried album tracks or B sides) tend to get ignored... "Super Trouper", there's an awfully irritating track as well.

As for "Turn It Into Love", Ciaran, wasn't that Kylie's inferior rushed cover of a song SAW originally gave Hazel Dean as an A side?  I don't remember it as being that great.  

Kylie has the same effect on me that The Fall have on other people.  I do not get it.  I don't fancy her - I was even accused of being gay at school for not liking Kylie, which is ironic given the size of her gay following these days - the best her music can do is pass me by as background noise, and she just doesn't seem to have any noticeable charisma or depth at all.  Her continued success is utterly baffling to me.  The most interesting aspect of her career for me was that when she became "Indie Kylie" she actually sounded twice as bad!

The horrible thing is that I keep forgetting to turn Audioscrobbler submissions off when I'm finished with ITunes, and my other half loves Kylie, so she's got the number one most played track on my profile and she's a top five artist.  I can't tell you how much that irritates me, regardless of how cool and all-embracing having Felt and Kylie in the same Top Ten might look.

Darrell

Quote from: "The Mumbler"
Quote from: "Darrell"And if Give Me Just A Little More Time had been released in 1967 by Dionne Warwick then it would be hailed as a classic.

It was released in 1970 on Motown offshoot Invictus by Chairmen of the Board, though...!

Ha! Bloody hell, I didn't know that.

The Mumbler

Quote from: "Darrell"
Quote from: "The Mumbler"
Quote from: "Darrell"And if Give Me Just A Little More Time had been released in 1967 by Dionne Warwick then it would be hailed as a classic.

It was released in 1970 on Motown offshoot Invictus by Chairmen of the Board, though...!

Ha! Bloody hell, I didn't know that.

Kylie even approximated the 'Brrrr' trill on her cover version.

jeffjeff

RE:Give Me Just A Little More Time

Is this the same song that Gabrielle sang? As the if it "had been released in 1967 by Dionne Warwick then it would be hailed as a classic." works perfectly for that as well.


The Mumbler

Quote from: "jeffjeff"RE:Give Me Just A Little More Time

Is this the same song that Gabrielle sang? As the if it "had been released in 1967 by Dionne Warwick then it would be hailed as a classic." works perfectly for that as well.

No 'Just' in Gabrielle's title.  It's a different song.

Ciarán2

There was a great Chairmen Of The Board song on St Etienne's "Songs From Mario's Cafe" compilation called "I'm On My Way To A Better Place", it's like Christian northern soul. I've been meaning to explore The Chairmen ever since. Anybody familiar with their stuff?