How Exotica Conquered The ’90s
1. What is Exotica, anyway? (more…)[…]

This is a reply by Paul Pasquerella to the original “Smile Special” series of articles.
The current “hipness” of the Beach Boys, a total reversal from the time from about 1967 to 1985 (or so) when it was the kiss of death to b[…]

Richard Ashcroft used to be in a band called Verve, as you possibly know. The thing about Verve was that the word – with its connotations of lightness, cheek and speed – was the last thing you’d have flashed on when you heard the band�[…]

“Love will get you like a case of anthrax”: the Gang of Four’s cheery advice sets the tone for twenty-plus years of on-off punky alternative disdain for love songs. Andy Gill and company took a hardline leftist tone – songs ab[…]

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The cod-philosophical question at the centre of pop fandom is this: is pop a genre or a state? Not all records designed to be ‘great pop’ – in the sense of being good for the feet, the heart and the bank balance – […]

For a while – maybe even a week – after New Year’s, I could still glance at the top of newspapers and feel a quiet, thrilling jolt at the date. Of course I hadn’t thought anything would change when the year did, but even so there was briefly […]

If you want to know about pop music, ask a pop star. Jyoti Mishra, in his guise as a regular poster on uk.music.alternative, is friendly, intelligent, enthusiastic and a pop savant of considerable taste. Jyoti Mishra, in his guise as White Town, is a[…]

So what happened in the 1990s? Trying to put a lassoo round a decade is difficult and dumb, and never more so than now, when all the critics seem to be talking about ‘fragmentation’. The best way to read ten years’ worth of entrails[…]

Low’s Christmas tree is a simple one, with eight plain wooden baubles. The band write four tracks themselves, offer interpretations of two carols and crooners’ favourite “Blue Christmas”, and nobody’s bothered to take credit for “Taking D[…]

Tom Ewing’s Top 100 Singles Of The 90s
Why? Because I still believe in the pop single as a public event, and “Common People” was on every station, every channel, every show in Summer 1995, and because it was wonderful each time you[…]