Does pop music matter now, or has it turned into pap? I find myself increasingly asking this question, and fear that I'm becoming an archetypal anti-youth, middle-aged specimen myopically revisiting a mythical golden era. But am I?

 

It was 30 years ago when my family moved from the countryside to the town and I plunged headlong into the pop realm. It was the same year Smash Hits and the Sony Walkman were launched. I was eight years old and religiously taped the top 40 every Sunday. Though I didn't realise it then, there was a revolution happening in pop, usurping the tired old guard.

 

A cursory glance of 1979's top 10s shows that sandwiched between Elton John's Your Song and Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond's horrendous duet You Don't Bring Me Flowers, was Ian Dury and the Blockheads' Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick at No 6. We didn't understand the song's playful connotations then, but the line "I like to be a lunatic" was appealing.

 

Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2), an unlikely Christmas No 1, became a playground chant for us nascent rebels: "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control." In our Victorian primary school, we deliberately kicked our feet so we didn't have to eat spotted dick with pink custard. And as for the frequent corporal punishment, at least we had Roger Waters to stick up for us. By November 1979, the mod revival was in full flow with the Jam's Eton Rifles. At the same time 2 Tone fully reared its head, with the Specials, Selecter and Madness all appearing on the same Top of the Pops show, and new wave reached critical mass with Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Gary Numan and the Pretenders filling Smash Hits' pages. The Skids and XTC flexidisc given away with the first issue underlined the mass appeal of the new pop aesthetic.

 

Pop and minimalist nihilism became bedfellows with M's Pop Muzik and the Flying Lizards' Money, while Tubeway Army's Are "Friends" Electric? and the Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star both marvelled and feared a future shock. Pop was, as the Police's No 1 suggested, like Walking On the Moon.

 

While 1979's pop revolution negated the tacky glam-pop formula, the counter-revolution of Stock, Aitken and Waterman in the mid 80s turned pop back to meaningless manufactured mush. Never before had so many outlandish ideas as those of 1979 been so mass-consumed, and at a time when single sales were at a peak. The pop world that my eight-year-old daughter now inhabits is sadly bereft of Smash Hits and Top of the Pops, and instead is suffocated by the utter schmaltz of X Factor and High School Musical, with only the occasional, rather faux-radical, rehash of 1979-style music (yes, you, the Enemy) hitting a largely irrelevant hit parade. Given that the 1979 pop revolution coincided with the reign of Margaret Thatcher – new-funk escapism and anthems of tangible anger – our only hope now is that David Cameron's assent to PM spurs on a new dawn of hard-biting pop gems as the Tories proceed to wreck the nation.

 

Blog article from the Guardian

 

Not sure if 1979 was the last great year as 1980 & 1981 were good too, but he has a good point.

Just another rose-tinted spectacle look back at the 'good old days' as far as I'm concerned.

 

Trust me, in 2039 we'll have articles like this pouring over the legendary 'golden age' of Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas. It's gonna go on forever.

Just another rose-tinted spectacle look back at the 'good old days' as far as I'm concerned.

 

Trust me, in 2039 we'll have articles like this pouring over the legendary 'golden age' of Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas. It's gonna go on forever.

 

true...

 

what that blogger highlights is what ive always said... the 'best era for music' was when the individual first got into music, their music of their generation/youth.

 

nope, there was variety in 79, but there was utter cack... lena martell anyone?

Nah, early 80's had some genuinely great chart stars - Specials, Madness, Blondie - hey, even The Clash were known to hover near the top 10 on occasion. There was loads of bollocks too (Joe Dolce, Rene and Renato, The Tweets, Black Lace...) but there always was. The 90's were terrible, but not a patch on the 00's. As far as I'm concerned, the charts have never looked as bad as they do now. I couldn't find a single song I would buy / download out of the entire top 100 this week.

As far as I'm concerned, the charts have never looked as bad as they do now. I couldn't find a single song I would buy / download out of the entire top 100 this week.

 

interestingly, theres a dude on digital spy music forums who reckons todays music is the best and most diverse its ever been! :rofl:

 

 

That doesn't surprise me at all. Digital Spy has to reassure people that they're making the right decisions to keep alive whereas on my 'zine I'm very happy to tell people they're making appalling decisions!

This is a Totally subjective opinion. Personally, I think there has been loads of great pop records since 1979.

Not quite.

 

IMO the last great era was the mid 90s

Especially the dance and techno that came from mainland Europe

 

Personally my favourite era was from around 1964-1971

I went off music then when glam rock and then punk came along.

I like the 80s for US rock.

 

I don't like most of the rubbish today which is mainly monotonous tuneless R&B and Rap

Some acts I do like today are Little Boots - Duffy - Lily Allen

Edited August 14, 200915 yr by Euro Music

79 was a great year for pop - but, like any other year, it had its fair share of musical abortions.

 

79, for me, was the year of all the greatest Stiff records.... the birth of 2-Tone, the death of disco. Wasn't 79 also the year of the Sparks / Giorgio Moroder collaboration?