Today's time waster
Jan. 15th, 2003 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaA while ago a friend of mine said that he considered The Rubettes' Sugar Baby Love[*] to be the perfect pop song.
I'm not sure what I would suggest...
A perfect pop song would need to be short (a good example of how being too long can spoil a song can be found in Kenickie's Punka - a great song, I think, but would be so much greater if they'd had the sense to stop about half way through).
I think it wants a chorus, almost by definition. And has to be something you can dance about like a twat to, if you're so inclined. Probably something you can recognise within the first bar and a half, across a dancefloor...
Any thoughts ? Defining "pop" is, of course, left as an exercise for the reader.
[*] at least, I think he did. Richard, if you're reading, am I right?
I'm not sure what I would suggest...
A perfect pop song would need to be short (a good example of how being too long can spoil a song can be found in Kenickie's Punka - a great song, I think, but would be so much greater if they'd had the sense to stop about half way through).
I think it wants a chorus, almost by definition. And has to be something you can dance about like a twat to, if you're so inclined. Probably something you can recognise within the first bar and a half, across a dancefloor...
Any thoughts ? Defining "pop" is, of course, left as an exercise for the reader.
[*] at least, I think he did. Richard, if you're reading, am I right?
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-16 03:36 am (UTC)That's just a snob's view of pop, though. "Pop" shouldn't be defined to be any music designed to appeal to the masses and which we personally don't happen to like. Vapidity is not a rquired characteristic of pop, it's just extremely common.
To me, a piece of music being a pop song depends more on the formula it follows and the tricks it uses than it depends on what the song happens to be about, but maybe I'm alone in this.
More examples of archetypal pop songs:
I Get Around, The Beach Boys
Love Me Do, The Beatles
Stand by Your Man, Tammy Wynette