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.

Rock Music Through The Decades

Rock music is dead.

Or so it is claimed by purveyors of crap music, like Kanye West. It makes me laugh that there are so many people out there convinced that this fact is true. However, the truth is that despite being given vary little airplay, relatively speaking, rock music thrives and is arguably far more popular now than it has ever been.

In fact, rock music has been around for my entire lifetime and show no signs of disappearing.

So with this in mind, I want to follow up the post Pop Music Through The Decades  with a new post focussing on some of my favourite rock songs during my lifetime.

As you can imagine I have a huge number of songs to pick from so I will choose songs by artists you will have heard of, rather than some of the more obscure bands and artists.

I hope you like them – and remember – rock will never die!

1960’s – Led Zeppelin – Dazed and Confused

Many people consider Led Zeppelin to be the founders of heavy metal.

I disagree – I think that honour goes to Black Sabbath. However, for me, Led Zeppelin were the first major rock band and my favourite album is their eponymous first album, released way back in 1969.

The album is clearly a rock album but also blended with blues influences. The song Dazed and Confused is my favourite from the album and starts like a true blues song before accelerating into a magnificent rock opus.

Robert Plant has a magnificent voice and sings the song with such passion that you feel his pain.

1970’s – AC/DC – Let There Be Rock



The best band to come out of Australia are still going strong today, having survived the tragic loss of their lead singer, Bon Scott, when the band was supposedly at its peak in the late 1970’s.

The band recovered almost immediately with Brian Johnson taking over and have gone from strength to strength.

I love this band but my favourite song, Let There Be Rock, encapsulates everything I love about the band. It is Bon Scott’s greatest moment as a singer.

In fact, it is my ringtone - and certainly wakes people up in the office.

“Let there be light – sound – drums – guitar – LET THERE BE ROCK!!!

You can’t put it any more succinctly than that.

1980’s – Whitesnake – Crying in the Rain (1982 version).

You may know Whitesnake as a big hair metal rock band that took America by storm in the late 1980’s with lead singer David Coverdale becoming a massive heartthrob for a generation of American women who fell in love with his music.

However, before then, Whitesnake were reasonably big in the UK but their style of music was more blues oriented. Although I like their American influenced period, I much prefer the period when they made an impact in the UK from the late 1970’s to early 1980’s.

To me that’s when their music was at its peak.

This song is a blues masterpiece, so much so that David Coverdale rerecorded it with his new Americanised version of the band in 1987. Sadly, that version is a shadow of the original from 1982.

Whitesnake are another band that are still going strong, albeit in a slightly different style again. In fact I am going to see them again later this year. They are sharing the bill with Def Leppard which leads me nicely to …

 1990’s – Def Leppard  - Pearl of Euphoria

Def Leppard have survived double tragedy. First, their drummer, Rick Allen, lost his arm in a car crash, something that you may think would have marked the end of his career. Amazingly, he recovered and with the help of a special drum kit, he resumed playing with just one arm. Secondly, the guitarist, Steve Clark, tragically died at the age of only thirty.

You would have thought that such tragedies would have killed the band. It didn’t and they are still going strong.

The band were at their peak in the 1980’s but this particular song from the 1990’s is one of my all time favourites. Another slightly blues influenced song, this is Def Leppard at their very best.

2000’s – Metallica – The Day That Never Comes

Metallica are another band that have been around since the 1980’s and are still going strong today. Their style of music is very fast heavy metal and nothing is better than cranking up the volume when feeling down and losing yourself in a wall of sonic perfection.

This song starts off very peacefully and gradually builds up to a wonderful heavy metal anthem with an amazing guitar driven instrumental crescendo – just the kind of song I like.

2010’s – Deep Purple – Vincent Price

Deep Purple have been around since the 1960’s – almost all of my life in fact – and they are still releasing music. One of the founding fathers of rock and heavy metal, I have loved this band since the 1970’s and throughout the line-up changes they have thrived, despite a hiatus in the late 1970’s early 1980’s.

The line up is very different now but the lead vocalist, Ian Gillan, still has a superb voice, despite being in his late 60’s.

It seems apt that the last and most recent song is by a band that’s been around from the very start again proving that rock will never die.

And Finally...

I hope you liked the songs.

There are plenty more where those came from.

Pop Music Through The Decades

This year I’ve been waving goodbye to each month with a musical interlude. The month of May is going to be treated in the same way but instead of concentrating on one particular artist, I thought I would do something slightly different and offer a song for each decade that I have been alive.

Regular readers will know that I am in my early fifties, which means that I am now in my sixth decade of walking this planet, ranting and generally being an arse. 

Rather than choosing obscure artists, I delved into my iPod library and have selected for your pleasure (or otherwise) a pop song that I love from each ten year period.

I hope you’ve heard of the songs and I hope you like them.

1960’s – The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil

Do I prefer the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?

To be honest, I like both bands because they are responsible for some terrific songs.

My dad hated them and my exposure to bands was limited until the 1970’s and by then it was all over in terms of airplay. I have listened to both since then and have edged towards the Rolling Stones in terms of preference. If I were to list a top ten of both bands then Sympathy for the Devil would be number one. I can tell what you’re thinking:

“You like heavy metal and this song is about the devil. It’s no surprise you like it.”

That’s pure coincidence, dear reader, because as you know, loving heavy metal does not make you a Satanist.

1970’s – Kate Bush – The Man With the Child in His Eyes

Kate Bush is a rather eccentric artist. I actually laughed when I heard Wuthering Heights for the first time, simply because it was weird enough to be a one hit wonder. After all, there were plenty of them about in the seventies, weren’t there?

This song was her follow up to that strange single and completely different. There’s something about the song I like – I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.

It’s difficult to admit it, particularly since I was discovering heavy metal at the time.

“You mean you like Black Sabbath AND Kate Bush?” 

The answer is yes – and I don’t mind confessing it now.

1980’s - Icehouse – Hey Little Girl

After the trauma of climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I was shaking like a leaf. I said to Mrs PM:

"Right – let’s find a pub! I need a drink!”

We found a pub in The Rocks and I marched up the barman and said:

“Give me a beer – ANY beer.” 

As the cool, cold liquid gushed down my throat, I started to breathe more deeply and I looked into the eyes of the woman who had made me suffer, a woman who, incidentally, was very apologetic but desperately stifling a fit of the giggles.

“Do you feel better now?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said.

And I did feel better. I started to take in my surroundings and realised what I had just done. I was quite proud, despite my dissipating terror. I listened to the dulcet tones of the other patrons of the establishment and noticed the song that had just started.

That song was Hey Little Girl.

“Do you know, something?” I said to Mrs PM. “I really like this song.”

Mrs PM grinned but said nothing.

At that precise moment, and just for a couple of minutes, it was my favourite song in the world.

1990’s – k. d. lang – Constant Craving

This is a really nice song and not one that people would usually associate with my taste. It’s a simple pop song with a really nice tune. What I like most about the song is the voice of k. d. lang. She sings beautifully.

I don’t think there is anything more to say, other than sit back, relax and enjoy this lovely song.

2000’s – Goldfrapp – Train

There is little overlap in my musical taste and that of Mrs PM but a couple of Goldfrapp songs occupy that special place. This is essentially a dance song but there are elements of the electronic style I like from the early 1980’s and hints of the 1970’s in there too.

Of course, Mrs PM’s transient taste means that it is over for her (after all it is over ten years old now) but I will continue to fly the flag for it.

The video is slightly naughty (in case you are a little sensitive).

2010’s – Gary Numan – My Last Day

Way back in the 1980’s Gary Numan was at the forefront of the revolution in electronic music. I was amazed a few years ago to discover that he is still producing music thirty years later.

His new style is darker and the music has evolved, so much so that this year I bought his latest album (released two years ago).

You will hear more about this in my musical round up of 2015 later in the year. My Last Day is the last song on the album and is a slow burner. It builds up to an amazing crescendo with terrific keyboards and drums – just the kind of song I like.

If Gary Numan continues to produce music of this high calibre I will be buying his next album for sure.

And finally …

I hope you liked the songs.