60's Top Of The Pops

[lankeela]

If you gave me a million pounds I couldn't tell you what was number one today but I can sing along to all the sixties hits! Even got up and danced round to some of them!

[andy-hughes]

As a music writer, and music fan, I do spend time analysing and considering the changes in taste, and the reasons for it.

Comparing modern pop with the sixties and seventies is about as valid as comparing a cloth hankie with a paper tissue - they both do the job, but one lasts better than the other.

Pop has never been designed to last, or be meaningful.

The two major differences between then and now is that millions more people bought records then, and music was part of the fabric of their lives, and now it is simply in the ether, and not considered important, or a soundtrack to growing up, which is why we will always remember the music of our youth, and today's youth will remember little if any of it at all.

It's easy to dismiss today's pop as samey and throwaway, but that's what pop is - it's simply built and delivered differently now.

Decades ago, pop stars wrote and sang their own hits, and toured them - today that job is done by schools of producers who construct a track from computers, and find an anonymous voice to front it.

There are exceptions of course - but the Top Twenty is now in that mold, and likely to remain there for the foreseeable future.

We can only embrace it as our children do, or ignore it and grumble about it as our parents did.

Pop moves on - which is why we no longer think Mantovani and Jim Reeves are hep cats, and amen to that!

[Theland]

Andy, what music have you composed that we might recognise?

[Mamyalynne]

Andy writes 'about' music - I don't think he's a composer.

[andy-hughes]

Apologies for the confusion Theland - as Mamya points out, I write about music, I do not actually write music, which merely increases the boundless admiration for people who do.

[Theland]

O.K.

[Theland]

You must have a good ear for it.

[andy-hughes]

Theland - // You must have a good ear for it. //

I believe that I do.

I can tell the difference between a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster (guitars) by the sound they make - I just can't play either of them!

I also know that there is a song in the chart - forget who it's by - that uses Don't Go by Yazoo as its instrumental riff, and they have changed just one note, which leaps out at me every time I hear it.

That's how my mind works, and with an insatiable desire to ask questions to musicians, I have a forty-year |(and still going! freelance career out of it.

Or 'scratching around for pennies' as one of our more sour and probably jealous AB'ers would have it!!!!

[Theland]

That is so interesting.
I bet there is a good story of how you got into it.
I was in the traditional straightjscket, apprenticeship, and a life in engineering.
No musical openings that I can remember.

[margarettom]

How interesting to read your reply at 22.23. I find it quite sad that music is not part of the fabric of young lives. It has always been important to me even from a young child and given me so much pleasure. Even though I don't listen to modern pop now, I did listen to new music until it became too robotic and I lost interest. But I still listen to music and it really is an important part of my life. I found your reply very insightful.

[Mozz71]

Andy, what song is it that samples/plagiarises Don't Go? I'm not so knowledgeable with the current chart, but 1982 was my era.

[maggiebee]

Just returned from a wonderful day at my son's house. They were still singing along to karaoke when I left. Great mix of songs, but I must admit that, although my grandchildren, aged 15 and 11, were giving it their all, I didn't recognise many of the modern songs. Ah well, I was happy singing along to Elvis, Simon and Garfunkle etc. Must be getting auld.