This might be an age thing, but me and Mrs Sprocket were music shuffling earlier on and Somewhere In My Heart by Aztec Camera came on.
“You know something?” said Mrs S “I can’t remember the last time I heard a new pop group. You know a song played on instruments by an actual band which is poppy and singable.”
And you know something? Nor could I. I could think of hip hop, dancy programmy stuff, but nothing guitary which was pop from recent years.
Has there been any that I’ve missed? Or is this a skill which is largely gone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4pWcVPUybE
Moose the Mooche says
Aztec Camera after about 1985 weren’t a pop group… they were Roddy Frame and “guest artistes”. So it’s his fault* for killing off groups.
*entirely.
ganglesprocket says
Maybe, but Somewhere In My Heart is “pop” and played on a guitar with actual instruments around it. I only posted that because it’s the tune which sparked off the thought…
Moose the Mooche says
It’s a guitar and a lot of machines, if you listen to it.
Don’t mind me, it’s still a wonderful record, and so is that album (especially How Men Are), and I’m a pedantic twinnock.
Billybob Dylan says
… and Christine Collister & Clive Gregson’s cover version of ‘How Men Are’ is magnificent, too.
mikethep says
Perhaps a lot of what was once 3-guitars-and-drums pop has now been subsumed into Indy. I imagine that when 4 young lads/lasses get together in a garage or wherever, they don’t have any ambition to be thought of as pop, do they?
ganglesprocket says
Not really thinking of ambition, just the result. Has this decade had a There She Goes that I’ve missed? We’re seven years in and I can’t think of one. This is what I’m edging towards here.
ernietothecentreoftheearth says
Not sure there is much Indie nowadays,not in Britain anyways. Festival bills used to be a reliable bellweather. As has been remarked before, many look pretty much unchanged for one or two decades, at least when it comes to the top end of the poster.
Hawkfall says
I think the last pop group in the UK who at least pretended they were playing along to the music on instruments were Bros, and they stopped that when Ken left.
I think New Kids on the Block killed the old pop group model. Why have a bassist and drummer if you can have all the band as singers?
badartdog says
Any more recent than McFly?
I think the Vamps play instruments, but I couldn’t name any of their songs.
Ed Sheeran may be as much a group as Roddy was?
Gary says
I think there are lots. The 1975, Fun and Vampire Weekend are the first three that sprang to my mind. This is only three years old and an absolute corker of a pop song:
Bingo Little says
The Killers.
Dodger Lane says
These two.
The Len Price 3.
Les Kischenettes.
muffler says
What a lovely surprise to see Les Kitschenettes pop up here. Former Guitarist Francis is a pal of ours, and has popped over from Paris to Brighton for top mod gear buying trips on occasion ( he’s very possibly the best turned out man in France ). Les Ks are a tremendous live band – v good and all that but, crucially, don’t take themselves too seriously.
Black Celebration says
Well, moving into the mainstream, it could be argued that Maroon 5, Coldplay and Train fit the brief and have had poppy, tuneful hits in the 2010s.
This is from Avalanche City in 2012 and it really grabbed me due to its simplicity and good-times guitar poppiness. As an aside, My daughter has played ukekele to this song along with the band and a few hundred other children at a charity event in Auckland.
Leedsboy says
I love that song. As does absolutely everyone in our house (ages from 9 to 50). A proper pop song.
Black Celebration says
I remember you quite liking the song and I also like it when someone appreciates a recommendation so thanks for that. I have a question though, I was back home in Woking about a year later and was in a costa coffee place – and this song came on. I was thinking – “oh good! I’m glad it’s a hit in the UK too”. A bit later I remembered that the owner was a Kiwi and played other NZ songs too. Did it actually become a song that could be described as a “hit” in the UK?
Leedsboy says
Not that I recall. I’ve never heard it in the U.K. unless I’m playing it.
Friar says
I know it from it being on the playlist in my local caff, so yeah, it definitely has profile over here.
Kaisfatdad says
Avalanche City is very poorly represented on Spotify: just the single Inside Out.
Maybe Spotify is not very big in NZ and Oz? As he’s had two Number 1 singles, you’d think there would be a few more tracks.
Kaisfatdad says
Guitars, hair, catchy, toe-tapping tune…..
Haim!
moseleymoles says
Aussie instrument-wielding boyband 5 Seconds of Summer – an endangered species but there still a few prime species out in the wild..
Sewer Robot says
The Magic Numbers?
They’ve had actual top 20 hits with their breezy guitar-based harmonies. This is fairly recent:
(Shot In The Dark)
Family Of The Year?
Exactly the sort of thing that used to perk up your post-Friday-night self on Swap Shop (or equivalent) back in the old days..
(St Croix)
Their last eponymously titled album, which I push on the AW whenever I get the opportunity, is a wee guitar pop gem which everyone should hear.
Kaisfatdad says
Anoher vote for Family of the Year who I had the pleasure of seeing live a few years ago. They tick all my boxes for classy pop: catchy tunes, lyrics you want to listen to and a sense of fun.
Here’s another pop pearl from them.
Leedsboy says
The first of two from me. This is absolutely a pop song by a band.
Leedsboy says
As is this.
Kaisfatdad says
Scandinavians are rather good at producing catchy pop.
Denmark has several bands who know how to write a catchy tune.
Like synth pop duo Quadron
Uncle Mick says
If I can point you in the direction of The Ragamuffins
and The Computers
Both had very good albums released last year.