The Trouble With Pop
Freaky Trigger And The Lollards Of Pop is broadcasting a “Pop Special” tonight, entitled THE TROUBLE WITH POP. I’ll be hosting, there will be contributions from Mark Sinker, Kat Stevens, Tim Hopkins and a special letter from Frank Kogan, and we’ll be talking about genre drift, horrible people making good records, referential pop songs, as well as hunting for the Swedish Lily Allen and the Iranian Rihanna. There may even be a quiz!
It’s at 7PM, on Resonance 104.4 FM if you’re in the South Bank area and at www.resonancefm.com if you’re not - broadcast over the internet and then podcast afterwards on www.freakytrigger.co.uk. Also tomorrow there should be a special post with some of the more obscure things we discussed in MP3 form, so you can hear them without our yap on top.
And here’s a special plea from Ed Baxter, head of Resonance FM. Make your own minds up as to whether it’s a worthwhile one (though we think so!):
As you may be aware, Resonance FM was established by London Musicians’ Collective. LMC’s remit has been, for thirty years now, to support avant-garde music, that supposedly “difficult” stuff that gets lampooned as elitist noise in the popular press and on the “Today” programme. Tbe list of its achievements would take up many pages (a tiny fraction is at www.l-m-c.org.uk). Suffice to say, Resonance FM was entirely the creation of the LMC Board and emerged directly from its work. No other organisation would have realised such a project: no other organisation did.
LMC’s grant from Arts Council England’s Music Department has now been entirely cut. The radio station is not immediately threatened, as it is financed directly by the Visual Arts department (Music having never expressed interest in Resonance whatsoever). But to have one without the other is, as you can imagine, a little pointless to those of us who set up Resonance FM.
This year, ACE has managed to find £1.7million to underwrite the launch of a new music umbrella body, “The New Organisation.” LMC was excluded from the discussions about this quango, the stated ambitions of which sound remarkably like what we have been realising on a daily basis for the last five years: the maintenance of a hub which encourages, nourishes and broadcasts the work of musicians of every stripe from our locale and beyond, etc etc (only couched in the language of marketing consultants and apparently to be manned by people devoid of originality or vision). Meantime, too, the sequel to LMC’s best selling CD, Peter Cusack’s “Your Favourite London Sounds” plays in ACE’s lobby as a permanent audio exhibit!
I wonder if you would help me by writing a short email to the people at ACE Music, expressing your support for LMC? And ask for an acknowledgment of your email. If they receive five or six thousand emails, maybe they will be prepared to reconsider this crisis of their own making.
Please address your email to the following persons:
graham.knight@artscouncil.org.uk (Assistant Officer, Music, London)
helen.sprott@artscouncil.org.uk (Head of Music, London)
moira.sinclair@artscouncil.org.uk (Director, London)
peter.hewitt@artscouncil.org.uk (Chief Executive, National)Please make the subject “From ” rather than something generic that can be easily ignored. Bear in mind, these are public servants: they work for us and you can, I think, insist on a response. Don’t be surprised to receive an Out of Office automatic reply initially: of course everyone responsible will be heading to the hills!
Please cc it to “plea@resonancefm.com” so we have a copy on file. All emails sent to this address will be treated in strict confidence.
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FT's Tom on December 19th, 2007
Incidentally, preparing for this show, plus fulfilling assorted end-of-year commissions and polls, plus sorting out a house move, plus finishing off my real actual work, is why I haven’t written a Popular entry in a while. Rest assured that the next two at least will be up before Jebus has his birthday, and then probably a break for another few weeks while the actual house move happens!
Marcello Carlin on December 20th, 2007
Starting off with the “Swedish Lily Allen”: the record also made me think of Bjork, but a 1968 Bjork brought under the wing of Tony Macaulay to try to make her accessible to Pop Kids (bit of “Something Here In My Heart”’s canter about the tune). I agree that the singer was trying a bit too hard to be shambolic, as though method acting.
The Avril record is another example of one of those records I hear and like enormously until the DJ/someone else tells me who it is and then it flops right down I can tell you. And the video is ghastly, even on an ironic level. Is “Mickey” the most influential pop record of the last 25 years? Don’t quite think Larkin’s Law excuses her, I’m afraid, but then I have the same relationship with M.I.A. as Tim has with Toby K, i.e. I don’t agree with her (and am not sure that she does either) but the music somehow transcends all of that.
The “Push It” debate was entertaining but since that record in turn borrowed/pilfered heavily from both “Whip It” and “You Really Got Me” I don’t think it can complain. Great record, though. Vocally, I think Timbaland should act as both Phil Spector and Ike Turner RIP and lock himself out of the studio whenever he feels like doing his next “baby doll” instalment. Shame we don’t have split stereo productions any more so you could stick his gurglings on one channel and turn it down/off when he comes on.
Fascinating perspective on “Umbrella” from Mark; agree with a lot of what he says (in good ways), disagree that there isn’t a resolution but I’ll wait until he comes on here to discuss further.
Finally, Kogan sez young girls are the future, earth revolves around sun, &c. ;-)