When will 'Pop music' stop?

rogerthat wrote: lucas wrote: I suspect progsters to be allergic to the word "pop", I don't know why because prog rock is part of pop culture. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Even if it can draw influences from classical music, one has to admit that it remains pop/rock music.  Maybe they wouldn't like to acknowledge that pop also draws from classical music (e.g. ABBA) at times and a lot from jazz.  The difference is mainly in terms of form but rock music of the early 70s was shaped by the mid-late 60s psychedelic rock wave so they were more or less part of a common culture rather than originating from completely different sources.  This trend continued into the 80s and 90s and prog metal became the genre of choice for lots of new bands because metal was ruling the waves either in its full blooded form or in the form of hair/glam metal.  Maybe with retro becoming more and more popular, there is a disconnect now between popular culture and prog.

Where do you see retro becoming popular? Isn't there a "disconnect" because it is prog that is founded on retro, not pop?

Edited by Dayvenkirq - April 26 2013 at 21:04

Is 'retro prog' an oxymoron?  Should it be called Regressive Rock, or Reg for short?

lucas wrote: Gerinski wrote: lucas wrote: Given that prog rock was very popular in the seventies, i would also include it under the generic label of 'pop music'.  But I don't think ELP's Toccata or Yes Close To The Edge will come to mind to most people when they think about the term 'Pop music' . Neil Diamond's OST for 'Jonahtan Livingston Seagull' is full of orchestrations and certainly more "symphonic" than anything ELP or Yes released. So the argument of classical music influences is not valid.

I'm not really sure if anyone here is strenuously pushing this argument but Keith Emerson's adaptation of the 4th Movement of Ginastera's 1st Piano Concerto is what? an example of the sort of bowdlerization of the classics in the same vein as Nutrocker? (which ELP covered as a tongue in cheek encore of course) Is Toccata 'pop' because it was released when classical adaptations were a fad? Apres le fad, what is Toccata if judged on its own terms? I enjoy Neil Diamond's music for Jonathan Livingston Seagull certainly, but you are deluded as far as symphonic orchestral writing is concerned - these are pieces that obey to the letter pop song forms and structures albeit augmented by orchestral forces e.g. Scott Walker's songs will remain brilliant pop writing irrespective of the orchestral arrangements. I really don't believe you are gauche enough to believe that musical composition that obeys the strictures of symphonic form is invalidated by being realised on Hammond Organ and Moog synth. Practically the whole of Brain Salad Surgery was constructed in this fashion and the musical ideas and themes are treated and developed in the same manner as they might be approached by Sibelius, Bartok, Stravinsky, Copeland et al. (Electricity appears to have much to answer for)


Edited by ExittheLemming - April 27 2013 at 03:35

There was me thinking I typed that verbatim but hey ho, perish the thought, you must not spread your brilliance too thinly

When will the pop stop??? God. I hope right now. Genesis used up all my love for a pop sound in music. I'm spent. Invisible touch is the most I can take. :)

Soundtrackery is not pop?

In the 50s the soundtrack album of "South Pacific" was Number One for 115 weeks (including the whole of 1959)


In the 60s the soundtrack album of "The Sound Of Music" was Number One for a total of 70 weeks. (twice in '65, 3 times in '66, 5 times in '67, and twice in '68)

In the US, the best selling album of the 60s was the soundtrack album of "West Side Story"

In the 70s, the soundtrack album of "Saturday Night Fever" was Number One for 18 consecutive weeks and spawned lots of hit singles.


etc etc etc

King Crimson776 wrote: Music keeps getting simpler. I'm not sure you actually want to hurry the death of pop. Then again, the post about retro being popular now is kind of true. It guess it has to be, if you get me.

Edited by jude111 - May 05 2013 at 09:29

^^^ Re music getting simpler, it depends on what you call pop music.  Muse's 2nd Law album has already 1.6 million copies worldwide.  Everything Everything's sophomore effort has done well on British charts.   Irrespective of how aesthetically elegant they may or may not be, they are not particularly simplified (esp not Everything Everything).