Back in the early 90s when the slump following the 80s Thatcherite boom bit hard, youth sought solace and escape in rave, and found expression to their discontent in the sardonic, nihilistic gestures of grunge. It’s amazing what a financial crisis can do for the state of the charts. But then something came along to change all of that: a recession. Their grimly competent indie-rock seemed destined to ensure that pop would see out the decade in the most mirthless way imaginable. The Kooks, The View and The Frattelis exerted a stranglehold on the pop consciousness. How did we end up in this musical climate? Just three years ago “landfill indie” dominated the Top 40. Bands like Hot Chip and Empire Of The Sun exhibit the same imaginative ambition that made ABC and Duran Duran so exciting. La Roux is androgynous and eye-catching in the same way that Annie Lennox was in her Eurythmics heyday. It doesn’t feel like revivalism, it’s more that we’re witnessing the return of flair, wit and elan in pop.
Much of the best recent pop seems to take the early eighties’ “New Pop” explosion as its template like the stars of yesteryear, 2009’s most hotly tipped acts are creating forward-looking, glamourous pop. Listening to recent singles like La Roux’s surprise hit In For The Kill, or Empire Of The Sun’s Walking On A Dream, you could be forgiven for thinking that you had been transported in a time machine to 1982. Widescreen, epic, ambitious: 2009’s best pop harks back to the glory days of New Pop, writes Ciarán Gaynor. (A version of the below piece appeared in Analogue Magazine in 2009.)
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