The Best Pop music - part III The 80s

So, in the interests of actually completing a series on this blog I am putting in the next instalment of my little series on Pop music. This series was inspired by the fact that I do not want children everywhere listening to Justin Beiber and thinking that that is all there is to music. In fact, I do not want children, adults or anyone else thinking that music is confined to Justin Beiber, Pop Idol, X factor or any other kind of that manufactured rubbish. There is great music out there that isn't long haired seriousness, black clad intensity or street wise aggression.

It can be called pop, or in fact you can call it whatever you want to call it. But to me it is good music and good music needs to be listened to, otherwise it withers away like a silent tree falling to the sound of one hand clapping.

The 80s. Ah that much maligned decade where everyone now looks back and snorts about the lack of variety and the silly clothes you (OK we) used to wear. I like the 80s as I wrote here reasonably recently. Well it seems recent to me, but that is because time flies. The fact now that some of this music is 30 years old is rather depressing. It certainly doesn't seem that long ago does it?



I do not want to sound ridiculous, but it does seem to me that pop music came of age a little bit in the 80s. I know very much that there was pop before the 80s, I wrote abut it remember. However, the advent of music television and use of the video to get across the visual stylings of the music certainly seems to be a far richer area for pop than it perhaps had before.

I recently watched a music documentary on the way that the electric music came from the very alternative and the experimental to the mainstream, particularly in the UK. Where a lot of it originated. This is quite dark music when it comes to pop. A lot of it is about the heart rendering loss of love, or the isolation of modern life. Like this

That is a good song I think. A friend with somewhat dubious music taste lists it as his favourite track of all time. I pity him this, but it is catchy. A song I always put into the same category is this

That is the 12" remix version of that song. I quite like the old 12" remix at times. I guess you still get it a bit, but it is much more a DJ doing a song in a different style, rather than just a rather long extended version of the same song. Some songs lend themselves to it but others do not. That one, well it is a long version of a listenable song.

As always , in my world anyway, the best part of Pop , or metal, punk, indie, electonica, is the less than mainstream. The guys doing something different that is so good that eventually it becomes the mainstream. Being the hipster who was into that sound well before everyone else is something I take a quiet pride in. I have never actually got it right, but am looking forward to that feeling as it seems to those that have as being almost as addictive as crack cocaine. . . I digress, I wanted to talk about New Order. New Order were the band that formed when Ian Curtis killed himself and Joy Division disintegrated.

I have heard in many different places that New Order were a shadow of Joy Division and could never live up to  the legacy that they had. I think this is rubbish and indeed a number of my favourite 80s tracks are by this great band. Such as this one.

I love the lyrics of that track, also isn't it a great video. I am not sure how people can hear that and talk about decline? they're crazy as a coconut frankly.

Now I want to enter into an area of argument that I have had a lot of beating in. The Pet Shop Boys. Do you know which British act has the second most hit singles after the Beatles? Yes, The Pet Shop Boys. As you can imagine, liking the Pet Shop Boys when you are also quite into Metal and the like , was not the easiest thing to explain. I also know what you are thinking, because some many people have taken the time to explain to me when I bring this up, how wrong I am. However, hold your judgement and listen to this song

Now, you tell me that is not the equal of the New Order song? it is, it may even be a little better. yet, because of their many more pop songs that are very much in the mainstream, people discount them.

This is a short look at the 80s, as I said here , it is a massive topic and that previous post I covered, Michael Jackson, Duran Duran and The Go Go's. Today's effort was a look at the darker side of the early to mid 80s UK scene. An area where there was some ridiculous good, dark and catchy music written.

Any ideas on other good dark pop?