Pop Hits with a Nuum Slant

i listen to a load of pop radio with my children - i really enjoy it and because i'm doing it with them i guess i switch off in a critical sense. i do love stuff like katy perry for instance - but i think it's revealing that when i'm alone i never listen to it. i guess it's a family/communal thing primarily.

anyway one of things that i do like is finding ways in which my weird outsider bent informs things i hear on pop radio. for instance there was this funny slot on capital radio where they get famous footballers and light comedians (people like russell brand ) and make them play strange musical instruments. pure freedom business - like marie osmond reciting dada poetry.

one of the ways this really impacts in london is hearing pop radio which has nuum inflections. quite a few pop stars clearly grew up listening to the pirates - and obviously have a pretty strong connection to the nuum (and i'm not really talking about nuum entryism - whereby the prodge/sfa/dizzy crash into the charts from the underground) - i'm talking proper pop stars making hits which betray a nuum aesthetic.

so anyway here's two to be getting on with:

oly murs - this guy is obviously an artful dodger cheeky chappy londoner - and "heart skips a beat" was 100% nuum IMHO

jessie j is again completely and totally nuumological. she also has an uncanny way with brilliantly addictive pop. i reckon a jessie j compilation (barring the execrable "price tag") would be as respectable as, oooh i dunno a T.Rex compilation or...(failing myself now) Queens Greatest Hits.

this might not be her most nuum-ish track actually - but i like its fleetwood mac-style

also fyi

luka said:

look at the size of this lads head and upper arms and his hairstyle

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he does have a very large head it is true

Dr Venom said:

I worked with the guy that co-wrote this track, a guy called Alex Smith (and Preston from Ordinary Boys also co-wrote on this track) and one of the things Alex is great at is working FX into hooks and although I wasn't in the room when this was written I feel 100% certain the 'heart skips a beat' pitch down thing on the end of the chorus is his work. I think this track owes a lot to Future Cut's whole sound who themselves were junglists before they picked up working with Lily Allen and the ilk. The Ska appropriation in there as well. I do love this track as a pop song!

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nice inside story dr venom. thank yew.

rubberdingyrapids said:

nuum or not, not sure i can ever like jessie j.

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she is nasty. there you have it.

this tune makes the nuum point better:

i rest my case

http://www.capitalfm.com/artists/jessie-j/news/boris-johnson-bang-bang-cover/