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Europop

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What does the term Europop mean to you? The Eurovision Song Contest? Novelty hits clogging up the charts all summer as bought by sun-burnt families returning from package holidays in Torremolinos? Perhaps you picture tunes sung by a “Johnny Halliday” type: overly beige men with the complexion and hair-style of a wrinkled scrotum who suddenly appear on TOTP dressed like a dodgy uncle from the 70s who’s been enjoying life in the Costa Del Crime but has come back briefly to remind us all of the good life in the sun. Or maybe it’s the female equivalent who springs to mind, the “Sabrina” type: erotically charged women with no concept of sexual repression, parading the most vital of vital statistics and promising the type of moral depravity and undercooked steak your mother warned you about as an impressionable teenage boy.

On its day, Europop often delivers fabulous 4 minute summations of what makes a great pop song: something you can hum along to, something to swing your hips to, something carefree to enjoy without any notion of being hip. Here’a a case in point, the rather lovely looking and deeply sounding Greek lady Monika and her song Secret in The Dark. I think I fall in love at the point she skips back to the front of the stage at the 3’30” mark. This is great Europop in my book. Anyone got any others?

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Comments

  3. “Don’t be so gloomy. After all it’s not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock….”

    …and Double

    The Captain of Her Heart

    …and Yello

    The Race (12″)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TVfokLE15A

  5. Kaisfatdude ? You are a musical hussy – a relentless stockinger wind blow thread regardless. That is of course, lovely. It is NOT possible to influx thee Checigarheadresser (native American hint there) I know. I have ingested the knowledge of the Snow Fox and had a turbulent yet fruitful relationship with a Siberian Shaman ( Shaman – as in Shar not ‘shay’ – man – first test for bongo rebirthing idiots, as in ‘Crowley’ as in bird and Irish pubs etc – pronunciation is IMPORTANT ).

  6. Here’s some great German Europop courtesy of Humpe & Humpe (no giggling at the back!).

    Careless Love

    Late 80s, but no worse (no wurst?) for that.

  7. @kaisfatdad – your notion that “this thread could run and run……” seems to have been the kiss of death! This thread could run …… out of steam, more likely!

    However, let’s try to keep it alive. Here’s a Hungarian song that I’m very fond of.

    The quality of the video’s a bit ropey, but the tune is good. Starts slow. Those with a short attention span should kick on to 0:30.

    • I promise you @pajp, I have not even got started.

      @Hawkfall‘s comment was interesting. Maybe some UK artists have got a little snooty about the value of producing tuneful, toe-tapping pop with catchy hooks? I blame the disappearance of TOTP!

      The Europeans have no such problems. Sebastian Tellier managed to sing for France in the ESC without losing an ounce of cred. Catchy song that he did with great panache.

  8. The thing is, once upon a time we looked down at the continental Europeans for their Europop hits. All those palomas blancas and Renees and Renatas. However, I’d argue that for the last 20 years or so, the UK hasn’t been producing pop music that’s any better than what’s coming from other European countries. The Scandinavians in particular seem to be more innovative, with acts like Bjork, Sigur Ros, Little Dragon, the Knife etc. Then, there’s the French, with Keren Ann and Coralie Clement etc. British pop and rock seems conservative in comparison.

    In retrospect, perhaps Abba in the 70s were the equivalent of Puskas and the Mighty Magyars showing the England team how it was done on 1953. It should have been a wake up call but was ignored. And now look at us.

  10. Manu Chao can still attract a very big crowd at Roskilde. Quite rightly too. He puts on a great show.

    Based in Barcelona, he’ll mix Spanish, French and Spanish, sometimes in the same song like here.

    I’m sure that all the young Scandos don’t understand every word, but that’s nothing strange over in mainland Europe.

  11. If you are a Norwegian band with a potential audience of 4 million like the Kings of Convenience, it’s a good idea to sing in English. And it does no harm if you can produce a song as irresistibly catchy as I’d rather dance with you.

      • Glad you enjoyed Deolinda @pajp. They are extremely popular in Portugal and an excellent live act, even in chilly Stockholm. I chatted to them after the show and they are charm personified.

        Here, hot off the presses, is their excellent new single.

  14. Too classy? I’ve been called many things on the AW but that is definitely a first Tim.

    Spotty playlist definitely in the Euro-pop-pipeline. Along with one for the Thin White King, Rob the First, monarch of Boho-hemia.

  16. Here’s another example of Europop being a condensed summation of pop/rock trends. Roxette’s Joyride sounds like their attempt to blend The Paisley Underground in the US with the UK’s indie dance/baggy scene. It makes even more sense as an idea on the 12″ remix with its breaks and dub-leaning bass

    • In 2015, many Icelandic acts (Björk, Sigur Ros, Mum etc) have a strong international profile. But when Mezzoforte had an international hit this was a first for an Icelandic band (as far as I know).

      Of course I wanted to find out more and came across this article about the early punk scene.

      http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/08/northern-souls-the-anarcho-punks-who-made-iceland-a-pop-powerhouse

      Some interesting stuff:

      “the first punk in Iceland was a 14-year-old Einar Örn. He says he had read about Johnny Rotten vomiting on an aeroplane, then realised that if he parked his mother’s Sunbeam car in the right place, “on a clear night, I could listen to John Peel, playing the Ramones”.

      And then there’s “the Icelandic sweater trick” which also helped a certain Danish TV cop.

      Here’s a clip from the 1982 documentary that is mentioned, Rock in Rejkjavik.

      The band look about 12 years old.

  24. Italian pop princess Laura Pausini has a gorgeous set of pipes and is a real polyglot: she has released versions of her albums in French and Spanish. To the chagrin of her record company and my delight, she has failed to crack the English-speaking market. I’d far rather hear her singing in Italian.

    Here she is looking wistful with her dogs on the beach.

    Talking of puppies on the beach, how can we forget her countrywoman Sabrina? From the sublime to the XXL?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhBa00J0w14

  25. Can you hear that noise? It’s the sound of my brains being wracked over a period of days to trace the most obscure Europop hit I can remember. And it’s this – from Spanish group Meccano in 1982. I spent a few weeks there and was exposed to this song everywhere I went. It was just a question of going through their considerable catalogue to unearth it.

    • Mecano were enormous in Spain. And rightly so. Thoughtful, well-arranged pop songs.

      One more from them, an old favourite: The Force of Destiny.

      And while we’re doing quality pop from Spain…..

      Presuntos Implicados (The Usual Suspects) from Valencia

      Como hemos cambiado (How much we’ve changed)

  26. Sabrina led to me Spagna, another Italian lass who had a mega-hit with Call me. Quintessential 80s Euro-pop. Big hair, lashings of mascara, a bloke with a Walkman and a horn section doing a wacky dance.

  28. Then there’s the Europop that makes absolutely no sense at all.

    Take the German band Scooter. This lot have sold over 30M records over the past 20 years. They’re like a low budget KLF on steroids. All their songs follow they same pattern. Kidnap the latest EDM/dance club bangers, feed them 24/7 with the carcass of a long lost pop song, put a nappy on them to catch the resultant bowel movement and then scrape out and mould the stinking infantilised fecal monster that has been dumped.

    Here’s two of their Teutonic Turds

    Ramp! The Logical Song

    Jumping All Over The World

    • So, you’re a fan then, Bisto?

      A classic pop story. You don’t have access to the real thing so you do it yourself.

      While we’re in Germany. let’s have some Propaganda.

      Heaven give me words.

  29. They may not be so well-known on the AW (who is?), but many artists mentioned here have had long, interesting careers.

    So here’s some more Miguel Bose

    Aire Soy with Ximena Sarinana

    and Presuntos Implacados paying tribute to Billie Holiday

  39. Several of the songs on this list are Europop: radio-friendly hits that a DJ probably wouldn’t play to get people dancing. Others are also definitely Eurodance. Here’s a useful list of the latter with little flags to tell you which country the artist comes from. Not the kind of thing that I’d listen to at home but good for a wedding reception perhaps?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eurodance_songs

    The first song on the list is this monster-hit . There was no escape from Ride on time by Black Box in 1989.

  40. Come on @gary! You must have a few Italian pop earworms that would fit in here.

    While you think about it and to inspire you and us, here’s the late, great Pino Daniele’s Napule.

    Not Europop? It may not be dunka dunk, but this is certainly pop(ular) music.

    • Nooo! Not my area at all KFD! I like some Italian music (De André and Pino Daniele above all) but nothing that really falls into the Europop category. I suppose I’ve always had a soft spot for Marco Mansini’s Vaffanculo, which is kinda trashy.

          • As above live concert shows Vasco is quite popular here, KFD* (or at least was – dunno about yer new yoof). For an Italian he has a real understanding of rock and has done some great songs. Well worth checking out more if you’re interested in Italian rock. As well as the beautiful Albachiara (probably his most love song) I recommend the songs Vita Spericolata, Ogni Volta, Vivere Una Favola and C’è Chi Dice No.

            *That ‘tagging’ thing doesn’t seem to work anymore. I type in @kaisfatdad and nothing special happens. How’d you do it?

      • Any Venditti-esque Italian power ballad that is called Fuck off is bound to interest me.

        And when he references La Strada in a video, how can I not be interested, Gary?

  41. For me @gary Europop is music which is popular in a European country, not just some ESC or Eurodance monstrosity.

    Why do Italian pop stars often look like university professors, eh? Maybe because there’s a lot of intelligence at work and not just a beat.

    Franco Battiato – Cuccurucucu

    Claudio Baglioni – Strada Faciendo

    Antonello Venditti – Ricordati di me

    If you enjoyed that here’s the official video, a wonderful no holds barred extravaganza. Nuns, centurions, thousands of adoring fans: the full Monte!

    And let’s end with some strangeness. Here’s a vid that starts like a Dario Argento parody and then gets wackier.

    Elio e le storie tese – Parco Sempione

    Probably not a Top 10 hit!

  42. What better way to start a rainy Saturday morning than some melodious, laid-back Spanish pop?

    Don’t answer that!

    Rosana – El Talisman from her wonderful debut album Lunas Rotas.

    There’s a lot of flamenco in Ketama’s music, but also a lot of pop, jazz and other elements too. They ´did too albums together with Toumani Diabate and Danny Thompson.

    Mienteme (Lie to me)

    Esclarecidos (the enlightened ones) from Valencia, another band with a broad range of styles.

    Y subimos

    El ultimo de la fila another band with a fair dollop of flamenco, singing a song about a donkey.

    A younger band now, Los Aslandticos – Lagrimas sobre el cafe. (tears in my coffee). A wonderfully inventive video.

  44. Just watched the film ‘The German Doctor’ about Josef Mengele during his exile in South America. At one point there is a dance sequence around the juke box, I recognised the tune but not the German. Realised it was a German version of Sheb Wooley’s “The Purple People Eater”.
    Here it is;

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