Pop Music Through The Decades (Part Two)

It’s time for another trip back through time, from the decade of my birth to the present day. Once again, I have trawled through my ageing brain, selecting a favourite pop song from every decade I have been alive.

I hope you like them.

1960’s – Ike and Tina Turner – River Deep, Mountain High



I love a strong female voice and, let’s face it, they don’t come much stronger than Tina Turner. When River Deep, Mountain High was released, I was four years old and it had such an impact that I actually remembered loving it at that tender age. Tina Turner’s voice never seemed to lose its impact and she was still working until around the year 2000.

She has a great voice and this is one of my favourite songs from the 1960’s.

1970’s – The Stranglers – Five Minutes

It’s time for a bit of punk rock, folks.  While punk rock wasn’t (and isn’t) my favourite musical genre, I cannot deny that there were some outstanding songs from that great period in the late 1970’s. The Stranglers, in my opinion, were more than just a punk band and changed their style to match the changing fashions in music. I have to say that I really love their early songs and Five Minutes was the pinnacle for me.

The song is hard, with slightly controversial lyrics for a chart friendly 1970’s audience. If you watch the video, it makes you think that the song is really five minutes long but in reality it only lasts about three and a half minutes. Maybe they were being rebellious, but I think that I would have made the effort to draw it out to the correct length of time.

But that’s just the perfectionist in me.

1980’s – Talk Talk – It’s My Life

Talk Talk are one of the most underrated bands of the 1980’s. When this song was first released in 1984, it barely made the top 40 in England. However, it was re-released in the early 1990s and reached the top 10.

I remember it from the first time around and I loved it. And so did most of the rest of Europe where it fared a little better on the continental mainland.

I love the first line of the song:

“Funny how I find myself in love with you”.

It’s My Life isn’t the only song I like by Talk Talk and I may expose you to a couple more in future posts. However, I have to say that this song epitomises the kind of pop music I love.

1990’s – Depeche Mode – I Feel You

I remember back in the early 1980’s when the charts were full of nice electronic pop songs, produced by squeaky clean pop groups, sometimes with weird haircuts and even weirder clothes. Depeche Mode were one of those bands; inoffensive and singing radio friendly and very catchy little tunes.

I started taking notice of the band in the late 1980’s when they created my second favourite pop album of that decade.

Why did I take notice? Because they evolved into something much darker and far more in tune with my tastes.

They reached the peak with I Feel You, which is arguably my favourite song by the band. I can’t fault it and it as close to hard rock as the band have been.

 2000’s – Kasabian – Shoot the Runner

Perhaps at my age, the pop music of the 2000’s seemed to be taking a distinct turn into tediousness and monotony, with the charts being dominated by rap and computerised dance music.

Fighting the corner for more accessible pop music were (and are) bands like Kasabian, who wrote and continue to write pop songs that have some appeal to me.

In particular, Shoot the Runner has a bit of a glam rock feel to it, which is evident in the colourful and slightly psychedelic video. With bands like this around, there is hope for us yet.

2010’s – Gotye – Somebody That I Used to Know

When pop music started to be driven by the accompanying video in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, a part of me began to despair. It seemed that the video itself would become more important than the song -  and in a lot of cases this was definitely true.

I have always preferred to listen to music, not to picture the accompanying video in my mind’s eye as I listen to the words.

Nevertheless, occasionally a video has acted as a great introduction to a song as in this case.

I hate adverts and when there is a commercial break, I inevitably flick to music channels in the desperate hope that there is something new out there that is new and exciting and not being forced into our minds by those arses that are killing music.

On this rare occasion, the video intrigued me enough during that advertising break to actually listen to the song. I missed the resumption of the programme I was watching because of it – and I’m glad.

This is a well-crafted quirky little song with an odd but well-crafted quirky video.

And I may be a hypocrite – but I like it – and this is a rare occurrence with pop music these days.

31 Days of Blogging - Day 23

Day 23 – Depeche Mode – Home



I’ve just re-read the last few days’ posts and have decided that I have had enough of talking about the demise of my marriage. It is time to be positive, something which fits nicely into the way I approach life these days.

I had written another depressing post for today – but now I think it is enough. So I’ve scrapped the original post and hastily rewritten it.

The break-up of my marriage to W is not something that I really want to revisit – and I’m sure that W doesn’t either.

So I will leave it at that in the interests of harmony and positivity. Suffice it to say that W and I are actually friendly to each other now. There may be bitterness on both sides but we largely push that aside these days and are civil to each other – even joking about our life together sometimes, making both of our lads cringe with embarrassment.

As I said – enough about all of that; instead – let me tell you about Home.

The song reminds me of the time when I changed my opinion of Hong Kong. When I first went there, as I’ve said, work was tough, but later when I had a chance to stay in the centre of the city instead of the New Territories, the city became something else.

It was a vibrant exciting place and I loved it.

I bought the Depeche Mode album Ultra in Hong Kong – Home is on the album. I loved Depeche Mode way back in the 80’s but they improved dramatically later on. I was in HMV in Tsim Sha Tsui listening to the album on headphones (having not heard it at all) and instantly loved it.

Home is the best track on the album, though slightly melancholy, I find it uplifting.

I sometimes like a dark edge to my music – perhaps regular readers have guessed that.

Anyway, I guess it’s time to tell you about Mrs PM.

We used to work together. She joined my company from university having just completed her degree, also at Liverpool University. She studied French and IT and has spent a year of her course living in Toulouse.

She had worked in a bank and had decided that she wanted something more – so she left to become a mature student and loved travel, which led her to join my company because of the opportunities it provided.

What I didn’t know was that she took quite a shine to me. Do you recall me telling you how useless I was with women?

Well it was the same with Mrs PM – history repeated itself again.

Fate stepped in and we had to go to Hong Kong together for a site trip. After a week working together, we went out for yet another meal and had a great laugh together. And then she shocked me.

As we walked back to the hotel, she told me in no uncertain terms how she felt about me. Her exact words were:

"Do you want some romance?"

See a pattern?

And again I succumbed. I really liked her even though there is eight years age difference. She was 28 and I couldn’t see what on earth she saw in a crotchety old git like me.

And I haven’t looked back since.

As you can imagine, all of this caused quite a stir and times were hard during the first period of our relationship – almost all of it was my fault I hasten to add, as I was going through a rough time.

Nevertheless, we bonded because there was something different about her.

We were on the same wavelength; our background was the same and we wanted the same things in life.

And we still are on the same wavelength almost fourteen years further on.

Crikey – I feel old.

But I am happy and that’s thanks mainly to Mrs PM, who stayed with me through those turbulent first months.

I must have been a right royal pain in the arse. She clearly saw something there and rode that storm. She saw me at my worst – warts and all.

And she stayed.

And thank God she did.

She has embraced my two boys and loves them as if they were her own.

She really is a special woman – and I am very lucky to have her.