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| From Brit Rock to Britney Pop |
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| Talk,
Justin Harries,
17 January 1999 | |
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Last Saturday the Guardian newspaper printed The Top singles of 1999, information courtesy of the ominous sounding Chart Information Network.
Poor old Blighty – obviously not in a Golden Period of Pop at present, and with only the prospect of Oasis to save her (who are not exactly the Cavilraly these days, more like Dads army with a nosebleed). It seems we’ve been knocked off the top spot by a certain pert girl/women hailing from the U.S.A. Brit rock replaced by Britney pop. At least both her eyes point in the same direction.
If you’ve read earlier editions of my articles (then I’m surprised you’re reading this one), you’ll know I didn’t exactly take the notions of Brit rock to my heart, so I kind of favour this takeover. But in time, Britney will too fall from the top spot, replaced by someone more desperate for the elixir of fame than her. And so forth and so forth. Weather these new Kings and Queens of pop will hail from these fair shores I do not know, but it would certainly be nice to get a few more faces that are neither limey nor yank.
The most interesting element in the figures presented in the Guardian were the amount of artists not hailing from either of these lands. The charts have always seen like a battleground betwixt the two nations. European singers existed in my mind as either swarthy cheese merchants or played the role as the ‘comedy foreigner’ (‘shadduppa your face’). They did of course have ABBA; but then again there was always Opus. And so it was usually down to the red white and blue versing the, er, red white and blue. They stole something of ours, we stole from them, and we all lead a merry little dance.
Judging by these figures things maybe a changing. The Americans may be winning the battle at home but here, aside from the coveted top spot, they are not to be seen. It seems the Germans have the upper hand with ATB following up Lou Begas success. We should always have German pop in our chart. From the excellent of Kraftwork to the genius of Technotronic these guys know how to rock, albeit with rather jerky motion.
The French put in an appearance with Mr Oizo doing that c***ing puppet thing, a theme unworthy of our Gaelic cousins, what with all that much better disco stuff goin’ on an’ all. Also present in the line up are the Dutch and the Canadians, with a smattering of Latino as Ricky Martin makes an appearance.
So perhaps we do no longer need to fear the menace of our transatlantic cousin, perhaps the danger now lies closer to home. With the uniting of Europe we may even have to listen to more Europop to ingratiate ourselves into a European sensibility.
And what about trying out some more Eastern stylings – after all, the Americans took a leaf out of their book on schoolgirl pop – could the Yellow Peril be brought to bear upon the British charts?
Due to our inability to understand any form of language rather than English I have a feeling that the players will in the long term remain the same. But our closer relatives will occasionally slip through the gate to brighten our day. I mean, memories of Baccara stay with youÂ…
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