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Archangel Foster Group: Members Posts: 215 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Dec. 21 2000, 06:23 I was wondering the other day, what was Mike's first pop tune? I was listening to Guilty and this is definitely the first time he, under his own name, has done anything so danceable. The logical result of this is Platinum, which then might (just might) be considered his first pop album. Or would you go back further? Would you count something from Kevin Ayers as 'pop'? Or even from Sallyangie...? Or would you say that Mike only really began to do pop music with songs like 'Family Man' or 'Foreign Affair'? Or is Tubular Bells pop music??? Or... PS. Considering Mike did a real proper disco tune as early as '79, why are so many of us - me included - so irritated by the fact that he's turning towards techno now? PPS. How come I (or anyone) like Guilty but don't like Outcast? While you may say the two pieces aren't that similar, both are powerful, energetic, repetitive pieces with a beat to them. Hmm... Back to top

Pacha Daddy Group: Members Posts: 85 Joined: Sep. 2000 Posted: Dec. 21 2000, 08:47 People don't like Outcast? Surely you jest--that piece rocks! Back to top

CarstenKuss Group: Musicians Posts: 362 Joined: Nov. 1999 Posted: Dec. 21 2000, 15:51 Hi Archangel, having difficulties with classifications, I really can't tell if something is 'pop' or 'non-pop'. But listen to the Exposed version of TB: In some parts, the bass and drums play a standard rock style, quite unlike the original TB. (Quite danceable, too.) Maybe that was a test how people would like that... -------------- -Carsten- Back to top

Archangel Foster Group: Members Posts: 215 Joined: Oct. 2000 Posted: Dec. 22 2000, 13:44 So then, couldn't one say that this and Guilty were the starting point of a new era for MO, still being Mike but venturing out into new territory? Contemporary music, to be exact? If so, then the only albums you could talk about as 'old' MO albums would be TB, HR, O and Inc.! Consider the long break before Inc.: the master composer was preparing his last magnum opus before setting out to unknown destinations... PS. I've listened to the Exposed TB version once again and he actually is astonishingly up-to-date there. And I love that version! And looking at it this way: TB '73 - TB '79 - TB '92 - TB '98 - it all makes sense! It's a shame we don't have a version from '85... Back to top

The Bell(end) Group: Members Posts: 1051 Joined: July 2005 Posted: Aug. 13 2005, 08:10 I count pop as anything popular (I think that's what it stands for but has become it's own genre for some reason) So, Tubular Bells could well be counted as pop seeing as it sold 16 million copies!   -------------- When the night's on fi-ya, do you need love's arms to hold yew? :D Back to top

Taurus Outcast Group: Members Posts: 69 Joined: June 2004 Posted: Aug. 16 2005, 16:50 Quote (Pacha Daddy @ Dec. 21 2000, 08:47) People don't like Outcast?  Surely you jest--that piece rocks! amen to that, outcast is pure emotion unleashed! Back to top

jeremyroberts Group: Members Posts: 139 Joined: June 2005 Posted: Aug. 16 2005, 17:11 Quote (Pacha Daddy @ Dec. 21 2000, 08:47) People don't like Outcast?  Surely you jest--that piece rocks! Outcast is a copy of 10cc's Hot Sun Rock (which also includes parts of Weighless - I think - from TB2). Don't know if it's a coincidence, or if Mike knew that piece of music... Listen to it and you will know that I'm right   It was probably not meant to be a copy, though. Could easily be a pure coincidence, since they're not really distinctive pieces of music. Back to top

larstangmark Group: Members Posts: 1767 Joined: Mar. 2005 Posted: Aug. 17 2005, 10:34 The Piltdown Man section of the original TB sounds like rock/pop to me. I think only HR and Ommadawn lack rock/pop moments (Incantations part 3 has sections that could be considered "rock"). More subjectively, I think Mike was thinking commercially when composing as far back as 1979 (with Platinum). Then Mike headed little by little into pop/rock areas. Interestingly, this process wasn't straightforward. Ca 1981-84 the two sides of Mike's music (instrumental/pop) seemed to merge together into mini-symphonies like FMO (the title track) or full-blown rock/pop symphonies (like Crises), but in the following years the two sides became separated. Eventually the two sides seemed unable to co-exist and needed separate albums. The big merger came again in 1992 with TB2, and there was no longer two sides to his music. With a few exceptions (Man in the Rain, To be Free), Mike's music has become slightly more commercial versions (some would say parody) of the instrumental, folk-based formula he established 32 years ago. BTW, Guilty was a very clever way to "go disco". It's based on the Incantations main theme, and whatever people thought at the time they couldn't claim it was musically "simple" (and that what disco-bashing progsters used to say about disco in those days). I think it's a great single, but if I would have been a fan back then (I was only 7! I would propably wouldn't have liked it a lot. Lars T -------------- "There are twelve people in the world, the rest are paste" Mark E Smith Back to top

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