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#1
11-20-2005, 11:25 PM
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The Essential Music Library: Pop
The Essential Music Library project is an attempt to get the many musical minds of the SDMB to sit down and discuss what works are absolutely necessary for a well-stocked musical library. There will be roughly 20 threads detailing a variety of genres so that we can get the depth that would be missing from a single-threaded discussion and the breadth necessary to cover what's out there.
This thread's topic is pop. Anything ever recorded is fair game--don't just stick to the Beatles and on. Previous threads: Project Planning | Classical | Rock | Jazz | Modern Rock | Blues | Punk/Post-Punk/New Wave | Opera/Choral Music | Rap/Hip-Hop | Gospel | Electronica | Contemporary Classical 
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#2
11-20-2005, 11:42 PM
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How about Prince?
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#3
11-21-2005, 12:05 AM
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Hot August Night - Neil Diamond
Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack - BeeGees and others What's Going On - Marvin Gaye Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John My Name Is Barbra - Barbra Streisand By the way, I absolutely loathe two of the albums listed above. But they are essential to a complete collection.
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#4
11-21-2005, 12:33 AM
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Silenus, which two?
I just got What's Going On yesterday and would have added it, but I wasn't sure if it belonged. It's a great album though.
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#5
11-21-2005, 12:39 AM
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Thriller and Off the Wall by Michael Jackson should absolutely be at the top of this list.
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#6
11-21-2005, 01:04 AM
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Saturday Night Fever and My Name Is... Just not to my taste in music, but I recognize the place in musical history each holds, and acknowledge the professionalism of the artists involved.
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#7
11-21-2005, 01:29 AM
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The thing is - what is pop?
There's good pop by good artists (Squeeze - Tempted), and there's good pop by One Hit Wonders (Edison Lighthouse, Lipps Inc.) Finding solid Pop albums is very very hard, as many of the very best songs are from OHW. Anyway, for very good Pop Albums, I nominate (and I'll have to include some Greatest Hits compilations, as including the original albums would add too much dreck): Blondie - Parallel Lines Prince - 1999 Bee Gees - Their Greatest Hits: The Record ABBA - The singles: The first Ten Years The beach Boys - there are too many compilations, pick a good'un. Carpenters - The Singles Phil Spector - Back to Mono The Supremes must have a place here, but there are too many crappy compilations - make your own. Frank Sinatra - Come fly with me Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swinging Lovers (or good compilations from the Capitol years and the Reprise years, there are excellent, but pricey box sets out.) Have to get to work - will come up with more.
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#8
11-21-2005, 02:27 AM
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Every woman I've ever known has worn out at least two copies of Carole King's Tapestry.
I tend to dislike "pop" music, but I think you have to include something by Genesis, Fleetwood Mac (Rumours, maybe?) and Sting. Off the top of my head.
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#9
11-21-2005, 03:19 AM
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New Order - The Best of New Order
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life The Beatles - The Beatles Madonna - True Blue
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#11
11-21-2005, 08:05 AM
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ABBA--Thank You For the Music. The four volume set.
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#12
11-21-2005, 10:01 AM
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Constructing an "Essential Music Library" is a terrific project, but I'm disappointed with the way it's been undertaken thus far, to the point where I'm reluctant to post any more recommendations until what I see as a fundamental organizational problem gets straightened out. Frankly, the way the OPer is only gradually unveiling his categories is steadily pissing me off.
What I want to see is a list of forthcoming EML thread topics from the OPer before he solicits any more musical recommendations. A while back, I posted a crapload of early-80's suggestions to the "Alternative Rock" thread, not realizing that a new thread for Post-Punk/New Wave would soon cover those same bases. Had I known that, I would have held off for the more appopriate rubric... I'm sure that as soon as I post a recommendation for, say, Blur's Parklife, there'll be the announcement of a new Essential Music Library thread on "Brit-Pop".   And while I'm on a tear, it's worth mentioning that the term "Pop" is ridiculously over-broad -- so much so that it signifies nothing in a precise historical context. "Pop" encompasses everything from 60's girl bands (like The Chiffons) to the Japanese girl bands of the 90's (like Shonen Knife), to just cite the range and extent of the international "girl band" phenomenon. A lot of what's already been suggested as "pop" could more narrowly be classifiable as 70's Singer-Songwriters, Classic Soul, Post-Motown R&B, etc. So, how about it? Are you going to show us your cards now, or are you going to continue to let us fall over our own feet guesstimating the eventual parameters of your precious music categories?
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#13
11-21-2005, 10:15 AM
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The categories have always been listed in the project planning thread. If you want to know what's going on with the project, you could read that.
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#14
11-21-2005, 11:48 AM
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A few albums over a range of decades:
Beatles, Revolver Nick Lowe, Basher Michael Jackson, Thriller Britney Spears, Greatest Hits Something from the Carpenters belongs here, but I don't know what.
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#15
11-21-2005, 12:11 PM
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Where's David Bowie? His early 70s albums seem to be regarded as massively influential on subsequent pop music; Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust etc. He's one of the architects, maybe you have already got him covered him in an earlier rock category?
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#16
11-21-2005, 12:14 PM
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Green Day - Dookie
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom *NSYNC - No Strings Attached ELO - The Essential Electric Light Orchestra Chicago - The Very Best Of: Only the Beginning
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#18
11-21-2005, 01:54 PM
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Quote:
"Pop" is such a nebulous, all-encompassing term that there's bound to be substantial overlap between this and some of the other genres (such as rock). An attempt to define "pop" or its precise relationship to "rock" would probably derail this thread (plus I think it's been discussed before around these parts). I'll just suggest to anyone planning to post here that, if anything clearly and obviously belongs in one of the other "Essential Music Library" threads, it not be mentioned here too. And if ultrafilter or someone else is feeling really ambitious, they could go back later and sort through all these threads and maybe move some around so that all the suggestions appear in the thread in which they most belong. I can think of nothing to add right now, but I endorse many of the selections already mentioned. I notice there are a lot of compilations listed, which makes sense, since pop in general is more oriented towards singles than albums. I hope some people who know what they're talking about will come along and make sure the first half of the 20th century is adequately represented.
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#19
11-21-2005, 03:37 PM
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Billy Joel - The Stranger, River of Dreams, and pretty much his entire library. (I see Billy already was mentioned in the Rock thread, but he's right in the mainstream of pop, while showing that 'pop' doesn't have to mean 'infantile.')
John Mellencamp - Scarecrow and The Lonesome Jubilee for starters. The Turtles - Golden Hits
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#20
11-21-2005, 04:35 PM
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A New World Record & Out of the Blue - The Electric Light Orchestra
The Singles 1969-1973 - The Carpenters Super Hits of the 70's - Have a Nice Day Vol. 1-25 - Rhino Records
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#21
11-21-2005, 08:29 PM
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Prince-Purple Rain
Nirvana-Nevermind The Cure-disintegration Counting Crows-August and Everything After Nick Drake-Pink Moon Jimi Hendrix-Are You Experienced White Stripes-White Blood Cells Bob Marley-Natty Dread The Smiths-Singles Velvet Underground-White Light, White Heat and Loaded Bjork-Debut U2-The Joshua Tree Weezer-Weezer, also called "the blue album" Beach Boys-Pet Sounds Buddy Holly-hell, one of those collections Ramones-Leave Home James Brown-hmm, pick one Dave Matthews Band-Under the Table and Dreaming Cowboy Junkies-The Trinity Session Uncle Tupelo-No Depression I'm sure those guys from Liverpool go in there somewhere, but where do you put Zappa?
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#22
11-22-2005, 01:16 AM
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Myler Keogh, I love David Bowie, but I don't know if any of the albums you mentioned would fit best in pop. Maybe Young Americans would. who, me?, I don't think most of the stuff you listed would be considered part of the genre "pop". And I'm totally baffled by your inclusion of VU's White Light/ White Heat. That's their least poppy album.
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#23
11-22-2005, 01:56 AM
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Blur - Parklife, definitely.
Pulp - Different Class Sloan - Twice Removed And I tentatively submit The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead - tentatively, because there may be a better album for this list, but it's the one I consider "essential", personally.
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#24
11-22-2005, 02:03 AM
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Talon Karrde
Well, I guess it depends on your definition of Pop music. to me, most styles of music you're going to find on the radio are pop. Regardless of whatever tagline the stations choose to use, "Today's hottest country!!" is pretty much the same as "the only station that really ROCKS", when it gets down to nuts and bolts. Most rock/pop bands have a core consisting of drums, bass, 1 or 2 guitars, vocalist, and auxiliary instruments such as piano or horns. The rhythms and chord progressions also tend to be used and re-used variations on a basic theme. Contrast this with Jazz, which makes a virtue out of completely changing the song structure in favor of spontaneous improvisation, sometimes with completely off-the-wall instrumentation (bassoon, anybody?). Of course, in classical music (and modern classical, and any non-tonal music for that matter), all bets are off. Not that I think that's a bad thing. I really enjoy most of the above bands, I just tend to think of them all as "pop with a ____ flavor"
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#25
11-22-2005, 02:31 AM
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Fountains of Wayne - Welcome, Interstate Managers
The Eagles - Hotel California. Or better yet, their greatest hits Vol 1. It's the best-selling CD in history. Jackson Browne - Running on Empty There's a pretty fine line between pop, modern country, and rock. A lot of these acts could probably wind up on several lists.
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#26
11-22-2005, 07:20 AM
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#28
11-22-2005, 01:36 PM
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who, me?, I personally think of a lot of that stuff as "pop", but there's also Pop as a genre, which I don't think includes all poppy music.
But still... I wouldn't call WL/WH pop of any kind. 
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#29
11-22-2005, 04:19 PM
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great! I was getting butterflies in the stomach at the thought of actually having to fight on such a mundane subject.
so, would someone like to define pop, so that we can get the ball rolling on the main purpose of the thread? Bob Dylan-Highway 61 Revisited, pop? Talking Heads-Stop Making Sense, pop? Saturday Night Fever Sdtrk., pop?
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#31
11-22-2005, 04:56 PM
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A lot of so-called pop is better described by another genre tag--pop punk, hip-hop, country, etc. The rest defies easy recategorization, unless you just want to describe it as some flavor of rock. That's not good, because rock is really too broad a category to be a useful descriptor, and that's the wrong label for synthpop and similar genres.
I think that AMG's take on pop/rock is a pretty good statement of what I'm after: Quote:
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#32
11-22-2005, 06:11 PM
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Ultrafilter
That still seems like a fairly loose definition of pop. Since you are the one who is taking the burden of putting the Essential Music Library (EML for short?) together, though, I will bow to your judgement. Are there any bands/albums I've listed so far that you don't think mesh well with your definition of pop music? I'm just searching for a little clarity, so that I don't brainstorm stuff that'll get rejected anyways. Thanks.
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#33
11-22-2005, 06:44 PM
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No Pop collection would be complete without at least one Barry Manilow album. And don't forget about Hall & Oates, particularly Voices
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#34
11-22-2005, 07:08 PM
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#35
11-22-2005, 10:33 PM
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I think he could fit into other categories. I first heard him with the song Heart of the City on a punk compilation. That song would definitely fit into early punk. I would probably call him New Wave. Though, I admit, my view of modern music is kind of punk-centric. All right, I'll try to stop nitpicking other people's posts. I don't want to be the kind of person who does that.
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#36
11-23-2005, 12:03 AM
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Any discussion of good pop groups that leaves out The New Pornographers is incomplete.
Pop = good beat required, can have some limited amount of funk, very small dose of soul is acceptable
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