Continuity, Fandom and Pop
Anyone with more than a passing interest in the geekier elements of mass culture – superhero comic books or genre TV, for instance – will be aware of the idea of continuity. (more…)[…]

Why No.1s? asked Steve M when I started Popular. ‘They’ve lost their power’. He suggested I write about all the records that had got to No.2 instead – a less familiar and, maybe, better selection of songs.
It’s a common and […]

The Rebirth Of Freaky Trigger
When I was small, one of my favourite TV programs was Blake’s 7. It was a sci-fi series about a group of rebels in space, fighting against oppressive regimes. I liked it for all sorts of reasons: it was exciting; it ha[…]

Tom Ewing’s Bit
THE RAPTURE
Almost everybody else I was with hated the Rapture. I loved them. I know the songs on the much-leaked album quite well, but that wasn’t why. The thing was, by Sunday afternoon I was sick of Glastonbury, I just […]

Introduction & Nos. 20-16
Welcome to the Eighth Freaky Trigger pop music Focus Group.
What’s all this then? We took twenty recent hit singles and got a focus group to rate them each out of ten and comment on them. You were allowed to play […]

John Otway plays every year at Glastonbury in the Cabaret tent, but no one ever goes to see him. He had a novelty hit single called ‘Cor Baby That’s Really Free’ in the late ’70s and has reputedly been living off that in a rat[…]

Instant Nostalgia, Not Quite Planned In Advance
The big summer hit, the summery pop song, the type of thing you listen to when you’re out BBQing or on the beach or merrily killing all the mosquitoes around you that adore your very presence, etc[…]

If I were a painter I would spill great splashes of yellow and
red over the end of this trip
Because I am quite sure we were all a little mad
And that a raging delirium was bloodying the lifeless faces of
my travelling companions

Blaise Cendrars, La[…]

And I’d finished this so I sent it to my girlfriend and she called me back and said, “um, err, I don’t, understand.” So after sulking for a bit, obviously upset, I explained. And she understood. I asked her if she could write a short […]

t.A.T.u.
For Melissa Witkowski. It’s all your fault, of sorts.
I
Because when I want to explain to myself Bjork’s “Pagan Poetry”, I can’t think here, in my world, the song seems too simplistic when measured, the merest cursory g[…]