Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with popmusic

Looking for recommendations for recent popular music soundtracks

cosmic.osmo — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:21:43 -0800

Does anyone have any recommendations for somewhat recent (post-2000) TV or movie popular music soundtracks (or some other kind of compilation)? I tend to like alternative rock, but I'm open to any genre. I've realized that I've been in a musical rut for the past several years, so I'm looking for a fast way to discover new music and expose myself to some of what I've missed. I've gotten the soundtracks to Scrubs and Garden State, and I've found a lot that I like in them, but I'm also almost finished with them.

So, any recommendations?

Now I've got to know what was that bus-dude's crime

memebake — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:18:06 -0800

Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree is pretty unusual, in that its a romantic song about a recently released convict. It seems to be based on an urban legend, or possibly true story (see the wikipedia link). So my question is: Can we work out what the dude was in prison for? Clues:
-He was in prison for 3 years.
-Some of the stories the song is based on take place in Georgia

Given that there was a court case about the origins of the story, perhaps the information is documented somewhere.

Track ID needed (late 80s/90s popular music) - Reward!

groovinkim — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:40:58 -0800

Track ID needed (late 80s/90s popular music) - Reward for the finder! I'll snail-mail a custom made present to anyone who finds this song.

Here's what I know about the song I'm trying to find.

- It was made in 1996 or earlier, and probably in the 90s.
- It's not by a "grunge-y" band
- It's made by a person/band that was relatively popular and well known, but the song itself is on the obscure side because it contains too much profanity/obscenity to receive radio play.
- It wasn't a hidden track on the album, just a normal track along with the rest
- It's intended to be sex-oriented and not relationship/love-oriented
- He doesn't remember it having featured prominently in any movies

Not much to go on :/

(For the curious, a friend who I'm flirting with said that there was a song a friend in high school played him when he was around 14-15 and if a woman ever sang him this song, he'd make out with them on the spot. It's not even a song that he particularly likes, he hasn't heard it in 10 years, and he doesn't own the album. But I've decided to make it a needle in a haystack personal mission.)

French-language versions of English pop songs?

jdroth — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:58:48 -0800

I'm looking for French-language versions of well-known English-language pop songs. Any genre or era. (Bonus points for French versions of the New Wave songs from my youth...) My wife and I are learning French together, and I think this would be a fun way to add some color to that process.

Upbeat Synthpop

mccarty.tim — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:47:49 -0800

I'm interested in finding more upbeat-sounding synthpop or alt/pop singles with electronic elements for my music library. Good examples of what I've been liking include "Rocket" by Polysics, "Step Step Step" and "Exploding Impacting" by Belaire, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" by The Flaming Lips, and "Microwave" by The Soft Lightes. I also like a few B52 songs, and generally the entire discographies of Beck and REM, in case you wanted an idea of what kind of music I like as a whole. This specific slice of music is a kind I've just realized I really enjoy, but I have not too much of it in my library.

This is all about the melody of the song. Darker lyrics are perfectly fine, and I actually kind of like the dichotomy, so that's a bonus. 80's songs are perfectly fine, as I am a college student and they will (shamefully) probably be new to me.

Thanks for your help, and feel free to ask me to clarify my points. I've never studied music, so I have trouble describing it as nicely as I would like.

Help me unlock the power of the four chords.

Beardman — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:43:39 -0800

Why exactly is the appeal of those notorious four chords in pop music? I hear them everywhere, and I am starting to lose my shit. Like many people, I'd been making fun of "the four chords" for years before the Axis of Awesome spoof hit the internet. I had wryly accepted that many songs I like are essentially the same as some of my less favourite songs (even though the starting place of the chords is sometimes switched up: one version goes 1, 2, 3, 4, and another goes 3, 4, 1, 2).

But lately mirth has been giving way to indignation and bafflement. Every day I hear crappier and crappier versions of the same melody. When I do, I grit my teeth and wonder:

1. Can anyone explain why people are emotionally sucked in by this particular chord cycle? My google-fu has failed to turn up any serious account of its popularity. Is there one? Or even a more general account of affective responses to music that could help explain the phenomenon? Or just a bloody hunch?

2. How self-aware is the songwriting/recording industry about this? Do the bigwigs just say, "We need a hit. You know what to do"? (I know it doesn't explain Arthur Russell and David Byrne doing it, but still.)

3. Who started this horror? Pachelbel/Green Day misses by a hair, and I think it's only the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always On My Mind" that goes there; the older Elvis version has a bass note in chord 2 that changes it.

Apologies for the many questions. They all boil down to a single howl of frustration.

I just wanna know, where did this song go?

Metroid Baby — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:46:57 -0800

Name-That-Tune Filter: uptempo pop/rock, female vocalist, and the hook contains the lyric "I just wanna know, where did she go?" Or something like it… I heard this song once or twice in the 90s (possibly as late as 2000), and I think it was in a mall. It's the kind of song you'd hear in a mall in the 90s. Every now and then it gets in my head, and I try to figure out what song it is and who sings it, but I never ever find it.

The above line is the only one I remember, and I might have it wrong. The way I remember it, it was repeated a few times; the "I just wanna know" part was kind of faster and rhythmic and may have been all one note, and "go" was more drawn out, like "go-ohh-ohhhhhh." I am pretty sure it was sung by a woman – I recall sort of a bright, girly voice.

I've googled every possible variation of the words that I can think of, to no avail. Friends I've asked don't seem to recognize it.

It could be an unlistenably bad song for all I know, or part of a commercial jingle or something. But I really, really want to know what song this is. Any ideas?

Need some popular dance music recommendations.

Bahro — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:40:22 -0800

I have been enlisted to DJ a high school dance. I need some cool, danceable music that I won't feel ashamed for playing. Now, I myself am a high school student, but my musical tastes deviate a little from what most of my compatriots would consider danceable. Whereas they listen to Basshunter, I listen to Selected Ambient Works 85-92, for example. However, I cannot play music that people will not like. Some suggestions? These are some songs from what I have right now (I have about 70 acceptable songs, but want some more):

M.I.A. — Paper Planes. This is pretty much perfect. Both mainstream and indie appeal (though we are starting to get annoyed at its popularity), and fun to dance to.

MGMT — Electric Feel (Justice Remix). Same thing. Perfect.

Crystal Castles — Black Panther

Chromeo — Fancy Footwork

Soulwax — NY Excuse (Justice Remix). This is the kind of thing that my friends and I really dig, but I'm not sure how danceable it is, or how much the general population would like it.

Rihanna — Don't Stop the Music. See, I'm not above playing what's popular! But, this and Lady GaGa pretty much sum up my entire knowledge of popular dance music.

MSTRKRFT — Easy Love

Ian van Dahl — Castles in the Sky. If this song wasn't so damn catchy I wouldn't play it. This is the kind of thing I want to avoid, cheesy McTrance, as Ishkur might say.

Hercules and Love Affair — Blind. I like this. Not so sure how it will go over.

Cut Copy — Out There On the Ice. This is good, but a little too synthpoppy for me.

The Evolution Control Committee — Rocked by Rape. Alright, maybe I won't play this one.

What did the Pearl Beer "waterfall billboard" in Dallas say in 1996?

unknowncommand — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:52:14 -0800

What did the old Pearl Beer "waterfall billboard" on I-35 in Dallas say in 1996? Am I crazy in thinking that the lyrics in the chorus of the Butthole Surfers song "Pepper" made direct reference to the text of the sign? I have a distinct memory that when the song came out, the billboard said either "coming down the mountain" or something about a fountain. I don't know if it was advertising Coors then, perhaps?

Have You Heard of this Thai Pop Music Band?

jfrancis — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:38:14 -0800

Back in '95 while I was in Thailand on a movie shoot, one of the locals on the crew was playing some bubble gum-sounding Thai pop music I found kind of catchy. I would like to find it again, but I don't know what it was. I asked him the name of the band at the time and he said what I took to be either Mister Moss or Mister Mars. Either way, I can't find it. Does it ring a bell?

Peppy pop

sondrialiac — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:12:06 -0800

Peppy indie/foreign pop? I like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDLKmoOjrA8

& would like more. I need help finding this stuff because I'm not cool and no one I know is cool.

Extra points for anything pop that is non-American, super points for anything non-Western European.

Sounds like...

rileyray3000 — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:03:39 -0800

There's this whole group of British pop songs that sound like the chorus to the song "Elenore" by The Turtles. Only I'm not British and don't know them. Do you? So when I was in england a while back I was at this club in soho that was playing all this music that I've never heard before but which was of minor pop note in the US and fairly major pop note in the UK in the late sixties and mid seventies. Unfortunately, at the time I was having a blast and drinking like I'd had a recent liver transplant.

At the time I remember asking about it and some girl said it kind of sounded like the "hip" pop performers who played the seaside places in england and the crappy variety shows of the bbc when the real action was happening in the punk underground. I didn't get more than that because I think I tried to kiss her and it didn't go well.

So the upshot is that I didn't get any names of artists or songs. I just figured I'd search "british pop" or something and it'd all come up whenever I got around to it.

It didn't.

Then, the other day I heard the song Elenore by The Turtles (a non-english group) and when I heard the chorus...well all I could think was that half the songs sort of sounded like that. Admittedly, not the most exact metric I could come up with but it's all I got.

So if you know what I'm talking about please be my Itunes genius (I tried it already, no go) and help me figure out this sound.

Thanks.

Pachabel's Canon

twine42 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:55:22 -0800

Tracks based around Pachabel's Canon... does an even vaguely complete list exist? The chord structure is everywhere, I know this. So why are all the lists out there so hopelessly vague? I mean, half a dozen tracks in the 1990s? Really?

So, has anyone found a list that's halfway complete? Failing that... should we start one...?

Betrayed by the sound engineer... Great songs, Horrible recordings...

cadastral — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:53:18 -0800

What are some brilliant songs that suffered from (or were totally ruined by) poor studio production? ...I'll take heat for this, but for my part I'll offer up [quite a bit of Joy Division's back catalogue, including] Love Will Tear Us Apart.

For clarification, I'm not really looking for subtlety along the lines of "Albini would've done a better job with 'Heart Shaped Box'..." or "Spector's excesses with 'Let it Be' were unfortunate."

...Instead, I'm looking for, like, something approaching atrocity. Something where the finished product comes close to a betrayal of the songwriter. Something that leaves you feeling that the engineer should be pistol-whipped for his artistic decisions (or lack of skill).

I thought this over for a long while and I couldn't pluck from memory many songs that fit the bill... but I lucidly remember having come across songs like this quite often in the past. The MeFi music folk tend to do a fantastic job with questions like these, and I've been awed in the past with the diverse styles and genre's y'all have hipped me to. Many thanks for your consideration and your input.

1940s Song ID needed

JanetLand — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 05:24:06 -0800

A coworker of mine is trying to remember/identify a pop song from the 1940s, but all she has is some lyrics. This is probably from the middle of the song:

I wonder, I wonder, can't help it if I wonder
No matter which side of the pillow I'm sleeping on
Thoughts keep going (rolling?) through my mind
Until the dawn
And after that the daydreams linger on
I wonder, I wonder, etc.

I have googled these lyrics but come up empty, so it's possible they're not quite right. But does this ring a bell with anybody?

Pop songs like Unwritten

ClaudiaCenter — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 14:44:59 -0800

GirlPowerPopSongFilter: Songs like Unwritten, by Natasha Bedingfield? In search of catchy energetic upbeat girl-power pop songs. Like Unwritten, also like K.T. Tunstall, Black Horse and Cherry Tree.

the police and the wtf?

luriete — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 22:32:43 -0800

What are the lyrics of the Metric song Police and the Private about? Drug addiction? Prostitution? Post-9/11 security? I have listened to it 50 times and it's driving me completely nuts; I can't figure it out. The last lines seems to undo the above meanings.

Missing: cheesy pop song

Alison — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 08:01:56 -0800

I'm looking for an extremely cheesy song played on the radio in the United States in the early 1980's. It was my favorite song as a child, but I haven't heard it since then. I remember the chorus going something like "Once upon a star in your wiiiiiiiilllllldest dreams" (just imagine it sung similar to the chorus in 'Hungry Eyes'). The song was pure treacle, but then again it was a time when I also enjoyed rainbows, Popples and unicorns.

A search has brought up a song by the Bay City Rollers called "Once Upon a Star", but it seems a bit early (about 1975) and I can't find any music clips to rule it out. The one music clip I have found does not load. I've also scoured the top single lists for each year of the early 1980's and haven't found any good leads.

I know the details are sparse, but does anyone remember this song, too? Or would anyone know of a place where I could listen to a sample of the Bay City Rollers' song?

Standards and pop songs for wedding reception

necessitas — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 14:02:58 -0800

Yet another wedding music question: my sister has asked me to help her out by compiling a list of "standards and pop songs" for the DJ to play at her wedding. Because my taste in music is stuck in the Depeche Mode/New Order/The Cure era, I have no idea how to compile this list. I've read other wedding music questions and none of the answers seemed to address my specific needs. I need suggestions for "rat pack-type standards" (does not need to be original versions, covers of standards will be great, too) and "pop" songs.

A bit about my sister, she's 36 and likes alternative and college-type music. I'm not sure if there is anything in that genre that might be typical/appropriate music to play at a wedding. As you can see, I need some guidance.

I know other posts have requested "fun" songs and people have suggested things like Love Stinks, etc. Unfortunately, my sister has absolutely NO sense of humor whatsoever, so jokey songs probably aren't going to work.

Thanks in advance for the help. I'm clueless about standards and when I think of dj-friendly pop songs, I think of songs like Celebrate, Breakout and I've Had the Time of my Life (yeah, it's been a while since I've been to a wedding), and I don't think anyone wants to hear songs like that.

Why are country songs so often complete sentences?

stupidsexyFlanders — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 03:57:30 -0800

Why are so many country music songs (compared to pop songs) titled with complete sentences? Sorry, no quantitative evidence for the premise, just a casual observation.

What's this song?

Admiral Haddock — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:28:35 -0800

Can anyone help identify this song currently in heavy rotation on New Zealand radio stations (and possibly elsewhere)? It's got a white guy reggae thing going on, and the chorus goes something like "Something so true / is what I get from you / I hope you see / that's what you get from me." I've tried googling it, but I either get too many results (thousands and thousands) or only one (here), a cache of a forum where participants are quoting their favorite lyrics. The poster who quotes the relevant lines does not attribute them. I've also tried checking the NZ radio charts and looking for radio playlists, but no obvious titles came to my eye.

Please forgive my ignorance if this is your favorite song.

Pop vs Rock

grumblebee — Sun, 15 Aug 2004 07:05:19 -0800

What's the difference between Pop and Rock? [More Inside.] I have incredibly backward musical tastes for someone relatively young. I listen to classical and jazz mostly, and my tastes in Jazz lean more towards stuff from the 20s, 30s and 40s than more modern stuff. But there ARE a few more contemporary sounds that have slipped under my radar. My wife thinks it's funny that, on my iPod, I label all music written from about 1950 onwards "Pop," but I don't know what else to call it.

I know there have been all sorts of styles: doo-wap, punk, folk rock, disco, rap, etc., but -- to my totally untrained ears -- they seem to all have something in common. There's a common root sound, which I think of as "rock and roll" All these genres seem like sub-species of rock to me. I realize that many will be scandalized by that claim. But as different as they are, rap and disco seem to be more alike to me than, say, punk and Beethoven.

Now, iTunes likes to classify some music as “pop” and some music as “rock.” (and, confusingly, some music as “pop/rock.”) I don't get the difference. Is pop just rock music that happens to be popular right now?

My wife explained to me that the Beatles are rock, whereas Brittany Spears is pop. Okay, I can hear that the Beatles are artists and BS is lacking in talent. But what is her actual STYLE/GENRE called? My wife said, "dance music," but that seems overly general -- it could describe a lot of different styles. Disco was dance music, but BS's stuff doesn't sound like disco to me. In ten years -- assuming people still remember her -- will BS's music still be considered pop? Or is pop music pop only while it's trendy? If so, where does it get sorted after that?

By the way, I know (or I assume) "pop" has a slightly different meaning in the UK than in the US. I'm on the American side of the pond.

Hip French music recommendations?

stonerose — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 07:13:27 -0800

Suggestions of French pop tunes/artists? I know a very kind, lovely 11 year-old girl who is recovering from hip surgery in a dull, rural town. She'll be going to France on an exchange next year, and I'd like to take her there a little early, via a mix-CD. She likes Garbage, Sheryl Crow, Blink 182, Alanis Morrisette and India Arie. Can you help me make something...uh... hip?