Thursday 11 November 2010

Pop picking – part 4 (bouncing through the 1990s... and still ignoring Madonna)

After yesterday's huge ramble through the 1980s I'll try to keep this short.

In 1990 I was 23 and already knee-deep in house music, rave culture, warehouse parties... whatever else you want to call it. For most of that decade I listened mainly to all the dance music that was kind of my reason for being in those years and I pretty much missed the rock/indie bands of the '90s (Britpop and all), though I quite like some of them now. Instead it was house (a huge genre in itself), techno, breakbeat, hardcore, hip hop, soul, trip hop, acid jazz, rejigged disco, chill-out... a very varied mix... more varied than you might imagine (it wasn't all just boom, boom, boom... it really wasn't!).

This does mean that picking a pop track from this decade is quite hard for me because I wasn't really paying pop/charts/mainstream radio much attention. Often the dance tracks that made it into the pop charts were not necessarily the ones that were most popular in the clubs (though it did happen). Some bands and singers from other areas got good dance remixes done and this helped them be popular in more than one zone, if you like (mixes of Björk tracks were huge in clubs I went to in the mid '90s, for example). So I could pick a track of hers, I suppose, for my '90s pop... I could... (especially as otherwise this is turning into a bit of boys week) but somehow that would seem fake to me (I do like Björk's music now but I wasn't a particular fan at the time). Or I suppose, with the same problem in mind, I could pick some Madonna today. You can't really ignore Madonna in any thoughts about pop music, can you after all (she's just kept herself there – centrestage - where she likes it, it would seem). And she did have some good singles in the 1990s – starting with 'Vogue' and working right through to the whole 'Ray of Light' thing (you can see them all listed year by year here). But the thing with Madonna is she's been SO ubiquitous that you just never feel she needs any more...exposure, do you? Plus all my favourites of hers are from other decades (1985's 'Papa don't preach', 1989's 'Express Yourself', 2000's 'Don't tell me'...). Luckily in the end an idea for '90s pop did come to me though - a band who were both huge in the dance clubs/festivals and in the pop charts (in the UK anyway). They were cool now and again but a lot of the time they were a bit looked down on, a bit too rough... and you couldn't get further away from the sugary sounds that often get the name 'pop' ('90s manufactured pop like the Spice Girls, they ain't!). No I picked the noisy, ugly, fairly uncompromising dance band that is... the Prodigy. They started as hardcore/rave but by the end they were really anything they wanted to be.

Now which track to go for – they had a lot of hits (more than you might think - names lead to videos if you're interested):

the very odd/ridiculous but distinctive 1991 surprise hit Charly

the 1992 track Fire

1992's Out of Space

1993's One love

1994's Voodoo People or

1995's Poison?

Instead of any of the above I went for this one from 1996 (and ignore all the substandard John Lydon posturing of one of the faces of the Prodge, Keith...in fact the band were really just about the beats...and the man who made them one Liam Howlett - in stripy jumper in this clip). This track was number one - so it must be pop, right? Number one in the UK anyway... and Finland... and Norway...




Back tomorrow for some noughties pop-talk... maybe even a woman or two. Oh and don't forget to listen to poet Ian McMillan on Desert Island Discs (here) if you can. He says some great stuff... particularly the bit about double glazing in the arse.

x

13 comments:

Kat Mortensen said...

Okay, now it's my turn to say I have never even heard of this band. The song in the video is certainly catchy and I'm sure if I had still been doing the club thing in the 90s I would probably have danced to this.I do find the lead singer pretty scary though.

Funny, I had the opportunity to see a recent Billy Idol concert on hd tv not long ago and I had to turn it off. He was still dressed exactly the same and took his shirt off (at one time this might have appealed, but his aging body and the buckets of sweat just made me feel ill). Actually, he kept changing his shirts throughout the concert and I got pretty tired of it. Even my fave song of his, "Eyes Without a Face" seemed SO tired, just like him.

Will be posting some Canadian pop later, but I've only advanced to the 80s.

Kat

Rachel Fox said...

What no Prodge? Disaster! Keith is not really the lead singer as such... he's one of the frontmen...dances a bit, kind of raps a bit (shouts...) on only some of the the tracks. Really the band is the quiet one (Howlett) and the others are just to feature in videos, stage shows etc. Just looking at one guy and a computer isn't really enough for Glastonbury etc.

I pretty much missed Billy Idol ('White Wedding'? I guess I've heard that once or twice). Wasn't he kind of fake pop-punk after punk? Or am I wrong?

x

Kat Mortensen said...

He was a member of an earlier punk band, Generation X. He had some great dancy stuff - lots of hooks.

I've posted a new Pop-picks for today (I'm into the 80s now), but it's on my resurrected, "Blasts From the Past" blog. I didn't want it to interfere with a Remembrance Day poem.

http://cultclipsgenx.blogspot.com/2010/11/pop-picking-episode-three-two-cans-of.html

Kat

Rachel Fox said...

Maybe I'm being unfair to him. I just remember his poster being in my Jackie magazine (when I was about 11) and not many punks were in Jackie!
x

Karen said...

I think in many ways, we are defined by our music. No association here before has made me feel so old as these posts. When I just saw your age, I realized that I have a child of the same age. Dear God, I'm hangin' out with babies! Thanks for letting an old gal in.

Rachel Fox said...

It's nice to be a baby to someone! I've just been at our daughter's parent evening at school tonight...
x

Dick said...

By the '80s it would have been undignified of me to have committed body and soul to the waves of new music breaking throughout. Embracing punk with relief and joy at 30 was bad enough! But that Prodigy clip is a classic of its time. And, as all feisty pop should do, it raised hackles at the time: establishment nabobs convinced it would foment teenage arson up and down the land. Just right.

Rachel Fox said...

I think we can respond to great music at any age, can't we? Glad you like it, Dick. 'Rave to the grave' was always one of my favourite sayings...
x

Rachel Fox said...

And did I not mention Tricky.. another '90s favourite. Start with this one maybe...
x

Ken Armstrong said...

I tend to *hate* stuff when it first appears and then I come around to loving it.

'Firestarter' was a prime example of that. The young fella I was working beside in Camden absolutely loved it and I abhorred it...

... now I think it's feckin' brilliant. :)

I like it when you do music now and again, you have a musical heart.

Rachel Fox said...

Thanks Ken.
x

undeleted said...

Just read your email about the Prodge. I'm sure there were many, many occasions when I played it to empty dancefloors but I can't remember any specific time in Bradford, maybe one of the dos me and Jez did at the 1 in 12?

Charly is a brilliant tune either way. As is Firestarter xx

Rachel Fox said...

I don't think it was in the 1 in 12... I think it was more like a pot-plant '80s throwback club kind of a place. But yes, Jez may have been there too. Maybe he'd remember where it was...
x