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Electropop comes back, but is it '80s revival or a logical progression? by MIREILLE SILCOTT
Mishra's number one single, "I Could Never Be Your Woman," a sprinkly, pip-pip of a robotic pop song, has been merrily clinking its effeminate synth keys around my head for the past two months. I read about the song before I heard it. By the time I got the CD, the track had been accused of sounding like Taco, Falco, and probably many other novelty o's from the '80s. And when I played it I understood why. It was, as all the journos said, a cheery, Well-Crafted Pop Song. Very summer on Ste-Catherine Street, circa conspicuous consumption. Kind of like the Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star" or M's "Pop Musik." Made you want to go out and buy a Rhino New Wave collection and draw your own conclusions. The question is: why is Robert Miles, who hit Top 40 radio paydirt with his similarly plinky (but instrumental) trance single "Children," not the closest point of reference? Why is Miles's atmospheric music called "post-rave" or "dream-house," while Mishra's Tinker Toy sounds can't even snag a passing trip hop association?
It's interesting that both Straw and Mishra talk a lot about the '80s but neither of them talks much of revival--of this so-called '80s movement that magazines from Vogue to Q are slapping all over White Town and betting this summer's charts on. The fact is, Mishra never thought of yo-yoing back 15 years for musical inspiration (in fact, he prides himself on using 1930s records for samples). In fact, the most deeply '80s thing about Mishra's music is that he's on American rock radio sans rock guitar. "I am a revolutionary," says Mishra, picking up the word with silver tongs. But really, he's not all that. He's just a progression. Electropop didn't start with "Pop Muzik"'s video game heartbeat and end with the spunky flash of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. "Simply put, dance culture has dominated in the U.K. for the longest time and America has finally caught on," says Straw. "The rock stronghold is crumbling fast. The values of pop are once again triumphing over the values of rock. Soul and new soul is triumphing over gangster rap, pop on modern rock stations is triumphing over typical angry rock, everything is back to good songs and rhythm. And in that context, good synthesizer stuff like White Town sounds a hell of a lot better than some earnest pack of boys with goatees. I mean, how long can people continue listening to the same old stupid sad bands from Halifax?" Five Electropoppy dates not to miss this summer Kurtis Mantronik: at Megabyte party, June 14 (info: 981-8488) Faithless: Sona, June 22 Bran Van 3000: June 26, Foufounes Électriques Carter USM: July 26, Foufounes Électriques Herbie Hancock (hope he plays "Rokit"): June 27, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts, $35-58 |
Jyoti Mishra, known as the one-man pop band White Town, has got subtext coming out the wazoo. And as the apparent Top 40 spearhead to a style called electropop, or '80s electropop, he's practically farting printed text to go with his subtext. As are other synth pop acts as diverse as energy-dance duo Savage Garden or the resurfaced Prefab Sprout.
"Today, electronic music is usually associated with mood, ambience or atmosphere and not with getting little shivers because something sounds futuristic, like a robot," says Will Straw. Straw is a professor of communications at McGill University who enjoyed dancing to Visage enough to write his PhD on the topic of Top 40 music from 1975 to 1985.