Why when this morning I heard the intro of STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA did I think it was THAT STANDING OUTSIDE A PHONEBOOTH SONG?

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aka "Let's talk about the in retrospect kinda weird late-90s mainstream US pop trend of 'trip-hop influenced' production i.e. boring mid-tempo drum loops and maybe some organs, as typified both on the above two songs as well as various others which you may or may not want to mention."

― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 21 November 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

i been downhearted, baby
i been down-i been downhearted, baby
evvvver since the day you left
evvvver since the day you left

― petesmith (plsmith), Monday, 21 November 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

I don't think of it as a late 90s trend so much as a 90s trend, period. I hear the trend, for instance, in both Sinead ("I Am Stretched On Your Grave") and George Michael ("Waiting For The Day"), both 1990, sampling "Funky Drummer". Neither song does much except go for a groove (and to me, both do it fantastically, Sinead more than GM but GM's still great too).

So I don't know if I'd say the late 90s thing is so much trip-hop influenced as just, hip-hop influenced...and maybe trip-hop was nonthreatening (and/or: "groovy") enough to break into mainstream pop.

― dyngus Tatis (aarana), Monday, 21 November 2005 20:12 (twenty years ago)

Primitive Radio Gods were proto-Play, anyway.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 21 November 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

I don't think of it as a late 90s trend so much as a 90s trend, period

Perhaps true since "Streets of Philadelphia" was 1993 (or at least early 1994) and "Standing Outside a Phone Booth" was 1996.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 21 November 2005 20:21 (twenty years ago)

I think it should be clear from the use of the term "THAT STANDING OUTSIDE A PHONEBOOTH SONG" that I'm not too concerned with details here.

To me, the apogee of this trend is the goddamn Everyone Wears Sunscreen song, or whatever it was called. Eek.

― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 21 November 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

Yes, I was going to mention that, too!

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 21 November 2005 20:27 (twenty years ago)

Also: Poe, "Hello"

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 21 November 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

It's interesting to me to contrast it with UK pop in the same period, especially commercial music, which seemed to only feature trip-hop sounds for a while there. In the American pop realm I think it was less ubiquitous but lasted longer, and in many ways is still around today. (See every car commercial that's not using a rock song.) Did it come from trip-hop or from just regular hip-hop? Why has it been both so persistent and so little commented upon?

― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:19 (twenty years ago)

...er, I mean that UK commercial music seemed to exclusively feature trip-hop production for a period, not that there was a limited amount of time in which it was featured. Yes. Anyway.

― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

drum-loops make singer-songwriter tighter, therefore awesome

― 'Twan (miccio), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

Wait, "commercial music" = "music used in commercials"?

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:28 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, sorry.

― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:29 (twenty years ago)

and Bruce was doing this well before "Streets Of Philadelphia." Dude made great synth-pop in the 80s.

― 'Twan (miccio), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:30 (twenty years ago)

Not exactly the same, though, if I'm understanding Eppy correctly.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:34 (twenty years ago)

"boring mid-tempo drum loops and maybe some organs" covers bruce ballads all through the previous decade.

― 'Twan (miccio), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:35 (twenty years ago)

Trip-hop-influenced, though?

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:40 (twenty years ago)

Althought I guess "Philadelphia" isn't exactly trip-hop, either.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:43 (twenty years ago)

Does Natalie Merchant's "Carnival" fit in this category?

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

Or k.d. lang's "If I Were You"?

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 21 November 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

And "The Outsiders" by R.E.M.!

Though that was 2004!

― Justin, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 04:35 (twenty years ago)

Althought I guess "Philadelphia" isn't exactly trip-hop, either.

no, it wasn't. Came out in 1993, don't think the dude was THAT much of a trainspotter. Frankly I think hip-hop in general is more of an influence here than the brits.

― 'Twan (miccio), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 04:45 (twenty years ago)

I love both "Streets of Philadelphia" and "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hands", a whole lot.

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 09:15 (twenty years ago)

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