Why the most good British female pop singers are forgotten now ?

 

I can write many names here, from early 60s to late 80s. Some singers were very popular in past (Olivia Newton-John, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, Kim Wilde ...), another a little less (Sandie Shaw, Kathy Kirby, Lynsey De Paul, Clodagh Rodgers, Mary Hopkin, Kirsty MacColl...).

 

It's only the main question. The disscussion can be even more wide. Why modern rock fans have the interest in retro rock music, but 99 % of pop fans are sticked with the current pop scene and don't want to explain their music knowledge ?

 

Because a lot of music buyers dont care, AlexRange. They just buy whatever is marketed to them.

And whichever modern female pop star who shows the most flesh is the one that gets in the papers the most

 

 

(Adele being the wonderful exception to this of course)

it helps if you have a classic hit that stays popular, like Kirsty Maccoll, or have rock stars revere you, like Morrissey did with Sandie Shaw, or have films, like Olivia Newton John. Best of all have a great body of work, like Dusty, but sometimes even a good run of singles gets overtaken by image - Cilla was great then spent decades being family TV host and no-one took her singing career seriously. A lot in your list are Eurovision acts Eurovision has always been the nail in the coffin for the UK public, there is this constant stigma attached to it that few acts manage to shake off, you talk to anyone in the Uk about it and the reaction is almost always the same - veterans can do it and cope with the follow-up, but younger acts it's rare to survive afterwards (Lulu, Bucks Fizz, Brotherhood Of Man - and they all had to win to succeed, and Lulu only managed it by becoming a musical chameleon, revived by David Bowie!).

 

You're right though, pop fans have always mostly been interested in the here and now while rock fans will do a bit more digging into the past, I think people get more likely to listen to old music as they get older and tastes widen a bit.

Pop music by it's very nature is often a throwaway, disposable product that is representative of the times. Take the late 80s for example where many UK Pop hits were produced by SAW. Think Kylie's I Should Be So Lucky, Bananrama's I Want You Back, Sinita - So Macho, Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up etc.

All big hits but Pop music has moved on so much that they do sound very quaint by today's standards

Now take a look at the big 80s Rock hits (at least among Rock fans) - GNR - Sweet Child O Mine, Iron Maiden - Can I Play With Madness, Metallica - One. Or if you want less heavy Rock - U2 - Desire, Queen - I Want It All etc.

Frankly, to me, they don't sound half as dated as the Pop contemporaries.

From this you could argue that Rock hasn't changed but just a quick look at the modern scene with bands like Bullet For My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, Rammstein or if you consider it Rock - The Killers, Arctic Monkeys and others suggest that Rock is equally as capable of change as Pop.

 

Because the nature of Pop music is so heavily of the time I can't imagine that in 20 years time people will look at Katy Perry's Roar (for example) as little more than a fun, catchy but cheesy Pop hit whereas I can imagine Arctic Monkeys Do I Wanna Know? being listed as some form of 'classic'.

 

For me personally there's a 'lyrical depth' issue too. For 60 years the Pop single has - despite many notable and varied examples - predominantly been based on the ever popular love song. Boy meets girl, break up, first love, unrequited love etc. All well and good but after a while there's only so much to be said on the matter and most artists don't look for a new angle on it. f course there are many great Pop hits about love but when over half of the Pop songs ever recorded are about the same subject matter it can fairly be described as less mentally stimulating. Rock music tends to have a broader basis for it's subject matter and for this reason people can find more depth and new things to discover in older songs much easier.

 

Don't go getting me wrong, there are many old and new Pop songs I love but I would consider myself to be more open minded than the general populace and from a quite young age considered music and its history to be my favourite subject. There will always be a place for both Pop and Rock. I just feel one is a little more disposable than the other and that's not necessarily a bad thing

 

 

Many great points, Severin.

Good points there tho pop will always be based on being on love cos there are always new teens coming along experiencing love for the first time and it speaks to them at that moment. Love is also a timeless subject matter from Shakespeare onwards. Variety of topics is great too tho and new ways of expressing love breakdown are still around.

fancying someone, being in love, getting over someone and going dancing on a Saturday night are the staples of pop music.

Maybe, whether justified or not some female singers are taken less seriously musically - maybe because they make saucy videos or they dont play any of their own instruments..

It's intresting, but some not young American female singers are still popular. And I even don't talk about Madonna. Cher and Barbra Streisand have good results with their last albums. For British singers even 40+ years age is a limit. Nobody don't care about Dido and Geri Halliwell anymore. From British females achievements I can remember only Vera Lynn's # 1 album in her 90+ years.

Edited October 25, 201311 yr by AlexRange

male pop stars are no more useful than female ones - for every Miley Cyrus there's a Justin Bieber.

 

 

male pop stars are no more useful than female ones - for every Miley Cyrus there's a Justin Bieber.

Disagree, there is many old British male singers, which are popular enough today. Elton John, Sir Paul, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Tom Jones. Maybe I forgot about someone.

Even oldest ESC participant Engelbert Humperdinck, he had some very successful concerts in my home country.

Edited October 25, 201311 yr by AlexRange

My point was directed at fiesta saying that females make saucy videos. So do males, maybe not to the same degree.

Edited October 25, 201311 yr by AnthonyT

It's intresting, but some not young American female singers are still popular. And I even don't talk about Madonna. Cher and Barbra Streisand have good results with their last albums. For British singers even 40+ years age is a limit. Nobody don't care about Dido and Geri Halliwell anymore. From British females achievements I can remember only Vera Lynn's # 1 album in her 90+ years.

Kate Bush remains extremely popular and well regarded too but its true that female singers do tend to decline in popularity after a cetain point regarding the single. Whether that is down to age or producing the sort of music that doesn't appeal to the largely youth based singles buyer or not I couldn't say for sure but album sales tend to hold up much better generally.

There's certainly a tendency for the more 'serious minded' performer to continue successfully well into later years whether male or female. The aforementioned Kate, Annie Lennox, PJ Harvey, Siouxsie Sioux have all continued having hits albums well past the 10 year mark.

 

Another possible issue could be that female singers will take a break to have children and whilst this is no barrier to continued popularity (Madonna) many will take a good number of years out to raise a family and when they do return have been largely forgotten.

It's intresting, but some not young American female singers are still popular. And I even don't talk about Madonna. Cher and Barbra Streisand have good results with their last albums. For British singers even 40+ years age is a limit. Nobody don't care about Dido and Geri Halliwell anymore. From British females achievements I can remember only Vera Lynn's # 1 album in her 90+ years.

Yes I can't recall many UK female veterans still having chart successShirley bassey may be the only one. Kate Bush is the next one. Neither are pop I suppose tho.

Kate Bush remains extremely popular and well regarded too but its true that female singers do tend to decline in popularity after a cetain point regarding the single. Whether that is down to age or producing the sort of music that doesn't appeal to the largely youth based singles buyer or not I couldn't say for sure but album sales tend to hold up much better generally.

There's certainly a tendency for the more 'serious minded' performer to continue successfully well into later years whether male or female. The aforementioned Kate, Annie Lennox, PJ Harvey, Siouxsie Sioux have all continued having hits albums well past the 10 year mark.

 

Another possible issue could be that female singers will take a break to have children and whilst this is no barrier to continued popularity (Madonna) many will take a good number of years out to raise a family and when they do return have been largely forgotten.

It's really good post.

How I can forget about Annie Lennox, she had not bad result with her last album :) I didn't know, that Siouxsie Sioux continues her music career.

Maybe it's a huge shame for me, but who is PJ Harvey ? I didn't heard this name.

Edited October 25, 201311 yr by AlexRange

It's really good post.

How I can forget about Annie Lennox, she had not bad result with her last album

 

 

If you can call making Number 16 in the album charts, I guess so. She hasn't had a top 5 album since 2003.

And Alex avoids commenting on the genius of Kate Bush. :lol:

True music fans will always appreciate the music of the past

 

Sheep who just go and buy what Simon Cowell tells them they should be buying are not true music fans

True music fans will always appreciate the music of the past

 

Sheep who just go and buy what Simon Cowell tells them they should be buying are not true music fans

 

I'd say they are casual music fans, not obsessive about it like me (and others), and since TOTP died there are few opportunities for the casual music fan to get to hear new stuff. Or younger enthusiastic fans - I'm not going to buy anything XFactor necessarily (though Olly Murs is consistently good and I buy his now and again), but enthusing young people into music is worthwhile as they mature and get more adventurous. I'd guess almost everyone got into pop/rock/dance/whatever when they were 13 or younger. I was 5.....