If you don't like this record you don't actually like pop music...

[Johnny Yesno]

Good song, but for me it verges just a little too close to 'novelty' to be considered a great pop single. See also 'Money' by The Flying Lizards.

Bit confuzzled here. Doesn't the best of pop music aim to be a novelty? If there are no novel features about a song there is nothing for the ear to latch on to and no instigation for repeated plays.

I absolutely loathe the term 'novelty record'. It's just a trite way of handwaving away music that's popular but doesn't fit with the ideas of so-called tastemakers. Money by the Flying Lizards is a good example of this. It's plain to anyone who gives the Flying Lizards album a listen that this is avante garde music.

Trouble: https://youtu.be/-jZXu0pUukg?t=32m16s
The Flood: https://youtu.be/-jZXu0pUukg?t=27m18s
Russia: https://youtu.be/-jZXu0pUukg?t=11m14s

Fourth Wall has got some excellent avante garde music on it too.

Flying Lizards - Hands 2 Take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqkzAaJsQjg

There's a bunch of luminaries on both albums but notably Michael Nyman is on Hands 2 Take. Novelty record lol.

[Dannyhood91]

I'm going to go modern and say Juice by Lizzo

It has all the funky adrenaline and sass of Prince in his Dirty Mind era

https://youtu.be/XaCrQL_8eMY

[Cuellar]

Do all these people genuinely like Carly Rae Jepsen

[Delete Delete Delete]

I'm going to go modern and say Juice by Lizzo

It has all the funky adrenaline and sass of Prince in his Dirty Mind era

https://youtu.be/XaCrQL_8eMY

That song is really annoying.

[Captain Z]

Do all these people genuinely like Carly Rae Jepsen

I really really really really really really like her.

[Howj Begg]

- Mickey and Sylvia - Love is Strange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mvN05MSa48

- Elvis' sun sides

[Howj Begg]

the Flying Lizards album

I've never listened to this album before and it is glorious. Thank you for posting it. "Her Story" is an immediate favourite.

Do you like James Chance and the Contortions? Buy is a great album.

Edit: "Russia", certainly a dialogue with Talking Heads going on there. Remain in Light was next the next year, wasn't it...

[Johnny Yesno]

I've never listened to this album before and it is glorious. Thank you for posting it. "Her Story" is an immediate favourite.

It's a great album and one it took me years to get round to myself due, in no small part, to their records being viewed as novelty records. Her Story is excellent. I wonder if This is Not a Love Song by PIL is a reference to it.

Do you like James Chance and the Contortions? Buy is a great album.

Yes indeed. I saw them earlier this year. It was not a great gig. James Chance is old, unfortunately, and a bit too fond of ballads these days. Melt Yourself Down and Contort Yourself were banging, though. I must get round to buying Buy.

Edit: "Russia", certainly a dialogue with Talking Heads going on there. Remain in Light was next the next year, wasn't it...

There is a similarity, yes. It reminds me more of Fear of Music, though, which is from the same year. Also, the vocals put me in mind of the Residents.

[Howj Begg]

It's a great album and one it took me years to get round to myself due, in no small part, to their records being viewed as novelty records. Her Story is excellent. I wonder if This is Not a Love Song by PIL is a reference to it.

Yes indeed. I saw them earlier this year. It was not a great gig. James Chance is old, unfortunately, and a bit too fond of ballads these days. Melt Yourself Down and Contort Yourself were banging, though. I must get round to buying Buy.

There is a similarity, yes. It reminds me more of Fear of Music, though, which is from the same year. Also, the vocals put me in mind of the Residents.

:) Glad you saw him, I haven't. The way you describe him, he sounds like what Bob Dylan's doing, with those vintage songs.

Love TH. Not really got into The Residents, to be honest, though I have tried!

[Howj Begg]

"The Slider". "Baby Strange". "Metal Guru"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clawpee1YXE

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I absolutely loathe the term 'novelty record'. It's just a trite way of handwaving away music that's popular but doesn't fit with the ideas of so-called tastemakers. Money by the Flying Lizards is a good example of this. It's plain to anyone who gives the Flying Lizards album a listen that this is avante garde music.

But some novelty records are novelty records. Comedy cash-ins, daft pieces of ephemera released in the hope of grabbing a quick buck. As you say, the Flying Lizards are a bad example as they're an avant-garde art-pop group, but the likes of Shaddapp You Face by Joe Dolce and - one of the first singles I ever bought - Chalk Dust: The Umpire Strikes Back by The Brat are pure novelty records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTlebiY_F-4

[a duncandisorderly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT4iGmVlwS8

[Absorb the anus burn]

Van McCoy: The Hustle.

The Rattles: The Witch.

The Housemartins: Happy Hour.

[DrGreggles]

As irritating to watch as it is catchy to hear:
https://youtu.be/FeISAc9j0WE

[Sebastian Cobb]

Simple Minds - Glittering Prize

[Johnny Yesno]

But some novelty records are novelty records. Comedy cash-ins, daft pieces of ephemera released in the hope of grabbing a quick buck. As you say, the Flying Lizards are a bad example as they're an avant-garde art-pop group, but the likes of Shaddapp You Face by Joe Dolce and - one of the first singles I ever bought - Chalk Dust: The Umpire Strikes Back by The Brat are pure novelty records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTlebiY_F-4

Pretty much all of pop music produced under the capitalist system is released in the hope of making a quick buck. But it all means something to someone.

How do you categorise non-comedy cash-in's like (Everything I Do) I Do It For You by Bryan Adams? It's a promo for a film, but it gets a free pass for being earnest, right? What about Doctorin' the Tardis by the Timelords? That track was definitely a cash-in, according to the KLF's agenda at the time. But they did it as art music producers.

It's a pointless distinction to make, and one which discourages further analysis of what's actually going on.