after what feels like an age of dry singer/songwriter and 90s dance reswizzles dominating the charts this year has seen two pure pop #01s in ellie g and years and years and probable future #01s from jess glynne and carly rae jepsen. kelly clarkson has also seen surprising success with 'heartbeat song'.

 

so, the question is, are we finally seeing a shift into more euphoric, purer pop? do you think this'll continue through summer?

 

i truly hope so <3

I'm thirsty for an R&B revival but I'll take pop. I'm hoping 1989 continues to be a huge success reminiscent of the Teenage Dream era..

I'd say it was more synthpop that's become popular in the last few years. Chvrches, Clean Bandit and Years & Years are all very much production-heavy, but the lyrics and vocals are still on point and the choruses catchy.

 

I wonder how many 'new' artists will be able to ride on this success though. If "FourFiveSeconds" is anything to go by, Rihanna will be avoiding "Only Girl"-type music on this upcoming album (which I'm glad of). Sia has said her next album will be even more pop than the current album though, and it seems Carly Rae Jepsen will do well from a lack of other big pop tracks around.

Is King pure pop? I was thinking they were Electronic pop/dance (and Jess Glynne)?

I love pop. I think it gets a bad rep and lots of the general public don't buy into it because of it being 'uncool' when there's actually a lot of artistry in making a good pop song.

It's quite hard to define 'pure pop' as I think it's probably the genre that has the most influences from other genres and in turn, could be classified to many songs. I would say Jess Glynne and Years and Years are more lined to dance & synth pop.

 

I don't think pop ever went away really, it's one of music history's most prominent genres, it might have been a tad overshadowed by the deep house craze last year and meld in with other genres, but I think it will always hang around.

King certainly isnt pure pop, its dance-pop.

 

We may be getting more "pure pop", but certainly nothing like the late 90s/early 00s era where it dominated (along side by side with dance). I think usually dance and pop pull each other up, usually when one is popular the other is too.

Edited March 22, 201510 yr by Euphorique

I'm predicting it will be a mixture of pure pop and dance with some outliers like "Hold Back The River", rather than just that type of music bombarding the chart. With Conor and Carly out in the same month again, it will seem like 2012 all over again :P

I think pop is slowly creeping back, Jake! With the likes of those you've mentioned and Charli/Rita - Doin' It, it has seen a bit of a mini revival! The dream would be a mix of pure euphoric pop, R&B with a bit of dance as well!

I hope so. Bring me pop anyday compared to RnB shit.

King seems like it's going to be the biggest dance-pop-ish chart hit in ages (maybe since 2012? There's Wake Me Up and Timber, but those wouldn't have been #1 hits if it weren't for the folk influences imo).

 

But one big hit doesn't mean it'll cause a comeback. For example, Baby Cakes was a #1 hit in 2005 or some time around then, but it didn't kick off a revival.

 

But I'm not sure if it'll start making a comeback yet, it still wasn't that long ago when it was dominating, other musical trends take much longer to make a comeback usually (like this minimal house music trend, it was last a big force in the charts in the late 90's(?), so it was a very long time before it made a major comeback).

 

I'm thirsty for an R&B revival but I'll take pop. I'm hoping 1989 continues to be a huge success reminiscent of the Teenage Dream era..

 

I think R&B has been doing pretty well in the charts the past couple of years. Not dominating, but I'm happy that there can be big R&B chart hits again now. The main thing I noticed though is that it's usually the retro-sounding or adult R&B songs which do well. The modern electronic R&B that dominates now doesn't really do that well in the charts (with a few exceptions like Drunk In Love or Loyal), and it'd be nice to see more of that over songs like Suit & Tie, Happy, etc. Even ones like Talk Dirty and Problem are retro sounding with their brass instrumentation, reminding me of stuff from the 00s like Amerie, J-Lo, Beyonce. I think the old-sounding ones just have broader appeal.

I really want R&B to come back in a big way - especially Tinashe making it big :kink: Hopefully Natalie La Rose's Somebody kicks off an R&B revolution by being a hit <3

 

But pop is my passion, I'm liking seeing a few more pop songs doing really well compared to the same derivative house songs. I'm getting fed up of not just that but also male singer-songwriter MOR, as much as I've loved Hozier and Ed Sheeran over the past year or so.

Pop never goes away, it just appears more prominent as the chart goes from one genre of the month to the next. It probably won't be long before tropical house becomes as prominent as deep house did.

Hopefully Natalie La Rose's Somebody kicks off an R&B revolution by being a hit <3

 

I heard that song on Capital FM. It might be one of those songs they only play at night-time though, but if it gets day-time airplay on Capital it should get in the charts. But yeah, this is the sort of modern-sounding electronic R&B I prefer over the retro ones (although I still enjoy most of those too).

Edited March 22, 201510 yr by Eric_Blob

I usuaully love pop, but not this basic trite pop we've had since 1989.

 

Real, quality-made pop like Teenage Dream, yes, but stuff like Really Like You and 1989, no.

Most, if not all, of these other genres mentioned are sub-divisions of pop anyway in my book.

Most, if not all, of these other genres mentioned are sub-divisions of pop anyway in my book.

 

I agree, however this thread is specifically about *pure* pop which is distinct from the other genres mentioned.

I asked myself this question back when Carly Rae Jepsen smashed with 'Call Me Maybe', which is about as pop as you can get. But alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Yeah I would have thought the same circa Call Me Maybe, you had Steps returning to #1 on the album chart (and undertaking a huge sell-out tour) plus the return of boybands such as One Direction and The Wanted doing absolutely massive - I thought a bubblegum pop revival was imminent, but it never quite happened.

 

It's really difficult to class what is and isn't 'pop'. Looking at the last 15 years you had the kid-friendly Britney/Steps/S Club 7 era at the start, then it all became very R&B-influenced in the early-mid noughties, then indie-pop dominated until 2008 and then the Gaga/Guetta/Calvin madness began - you could go from S Club 7's 'Reach' to Liberty X's 'Just A Little' to Scouting For Girls's 'She's So Lovely' to Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face' to Taylor Swift's 'Blank Space' and call all of it "pop" music, just adapting based on the era and style that was relevant at the time.

As long as it isn't a return to the dreafulness of 2009-2012. 2013-2015 has been such an improvement on that era at least.