How did the current trend of mainstream pop start?

[foosnark]

There has been a clear progress in mainstream pop. It was very much Glam-Rock, electronic and cheesy pop-tunes in the 80s.

Now somebody's gonna leap to the defense of Men Without Hats, A-Ha and Robert Palmer.

I was actually going to say, the last time I enjoyed pop music was 1989. I would quite gladly listen to Men Without Hats, A-Ha and Robert Palmer above the top 40.

But really... it's pop. You can only expect so much. Pop has always been about throwing talent into a blender with sex appeal, commercial salability, and trendiness. Not much of the talent survives the rotating blades.

My current problem with pop is that it feels like it hasn't evolved in the past 20 years, except maybe there are more songs that go "oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh" which to me is shorthand for "I was too lazy to write actual lyrics but needed something to fill the time to complete the formula."

[foosnark]

And replying to myself about "oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh": this is different from "whoa whoa whooooa whoa, whoa whoa whoa" as performed by Howard Jones.

[Roman Empire]

There has been a clear progress in mainstream pop. It was very much Glam-Rock, electronic and cheesy pop-tunes in the 80s.

Now somebody's gonna leap to the defense of Men Without Hats, A-Ha and Robert Palmer.

But really... it's pop. You can only expect so much. Pop has always been about throwing talent into a blender with sex appeal, commercial salability, and trendiness. Not much of the talent survives the rotating blades.

Dangit, so here I´ve wasted so much time on lots of music without talent throughout the years...

Best Regards

Roman Empire

[sfd]

I've this feeling that young people of today look much more into the past then what we did in th e80s.

Back then it everything was very much about the future. The sound of the future, the instruments of the future, the music of the future et cetera.

There was even a futurist movement.

Today, as it seems to me, people are asking for that 80s sound, that classic synth and so on.

There are even musical subgenres totally devcoted to the music of the past.

Isn't the whoel thing with Lady Gaga all about retro?

In case anything was retro in the 80s it was more retro-futurism. Like Kraftwerk. Illustrating the future from a view of the past.

Sure in the 80s some people looked 30 years back to the 50s. But there wasn't any obssesion about it. Not the way I feel it is today aout music made 30 years ago.

But I think it is a general trend appealing not only to music but to oru society as a whole.

We're still stumbling around in the beginning of th e new millenium. We have long ago passed that magic year of 2000. You know, the year when we whee supposed to have flying cars, travling to the moom on oru holidays and so on...

So, the decades prior to that we where very much focused on that very special future. Where year 2000 becaem some sort of symbol for that future.

Then year 2000 came....and left. And nothing happened.

And so now we are trying to find our identity in the new century.

And so we're sort of "lost in the future" trying to find the present by looking into the past.

[Roman Empire]

I've this feeling that young people of today look much more into the past then what we did in th e80s.

Back then it everything was very much about the future. The sound of the future, the instruments of the future, the music of the future et cetera.

There was even a futurist movement.

Today, as it seems to me, people are asking for that 80s sound, that classic synth and so on.

There are even musical subgenres totally devcoted to the music of the past.

Isn't the whoel thing with Lady Gaga all about retro?

In case anything was retro in the 80s it was more retro-futurism. Like Kraftwerk. Illustrating the future from a view of the past.

Sure in the 80s some people looked 30 years back to the 50s. But there wasn't any obssesion about it. Not the way I feel it is today aout music made 30 years ago.

But I think it is a general trend appealing not only to music but to oru society as a whole.

We're still stumbling around in the beginning of th e new millenium. We have long ago passed that magic year of 2000. You know, the year when we whee supposed to have flying cars, travling to the moom on oru holidays and so on...

So, the decades prior to that we where very much focused on that very special future. Where year 2000 becaem some sort of symbol for that future.

Then year 2000 came....and left. And nothing happened.

And so now we are trying to find our identity in the new century.

And so we're sort of "lost in the future" trying to find the present by looking into the past.

Hmm, IMO using old synths is a bit too much of a shortcut to sounding retro - if that´s the main purpose. If you´re right about this looking back thingy, then it´d be nice if they´d actually learn to master skills as musicians and songwriters of the past. Otherwise it´s like buying a cembalo and record your buttcheeks hitting the keys and telling people that you´re so baroque and inspired by the past.

Best regards

Roman Empire