DP: RFI: "Baroque Pop"

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As a fan of a) baroque and b) pop when it comes to music, the term "baroque pop" has always, unsurprisingly, appealed to me. I seem to remember that I came across it first in a late 80's Record Collector feature on The Left Banke, whose name I semi-noted and then semi-forgot. Later on (a couple of years ago), I encountered the term again, probably on AMG, and again The Left Banke featured noticably.

So, finally, I buy a Left Banke compilation thingy. Some lovely songs, certainly, but how is the epithet "baroque" supposed to apply? Don't they just substitute a harpsichord for your regular rhythm guitar? It's hardly heavy counterpoint, is it?

I would very much like recommendations for pop that could be seen as baroque in conception and execution. For the record: Although I agree that some proggy things may feature some of the things I'm looking for, I feel they're usually too infused by the Romantic spirit to be of interest in this respect.

(DP is "Drunken Posting", by the way. At least one Norwegian newsgroup (yes, I know this isn't a newsgroup) has introduced this as a de-facto standard, which I find very funny and heartening.)

― OleM, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Its got harpsichords, what more do you want. These are pop musicians ferchrisakes, they think counterpoint is omething to do with going for fast food.

Seriously though, I suspect that looking for "proper" use of baroque music in a pop context will pretty quickly end up with you checking out some prog rock.

― Winkelmann, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

You've got sort of a point, I suppose, but I'm not really looking for the "proper use" of baroque music in pop, more a feeling of "concise intricacy" without the bloat'n'float of prog.

― OleM, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Wasn't some of the stuff done by Love in "Forever Changes" and The Doors in their late 60s albums considered "Baroque Pop"?

Old Fart!!!!

― Old Fart!!!!, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Check out Blonde Redhead's Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, esp. the track "This is Not." It's baroque, it's new-wavey, it's brilliant. It's constructed with single note guitar and keyboard lines on prim and proper drums. Very spacious. Fits the def. of "baroque" that I was taught in school: "Filling up space with patterns of activity and motion." One of my faves.

― GCannon, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i have been similarily searching and i would recommend the brazilian Os Mutantes for a few tracks in particular "la premiere bonheur du jour" i also find zombies totally baroque at times and likewise with Quasi's first two records - birds and r+b transmogification (sp?)

― ddd, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Momus is your man. He coined the term 'Analogue Baroque', which became his label name, around the time of the Little Red Songbook LP. Also good are Stars Forever, Folktronic and the compilation Harpsichord 2000, which is a really useful discography of people working in this field. You could ask him to tell you more on the Momus threads on ILM - he seems to post here pretty frequently.

― Lisa, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I have all these vague associations in my head as to what baroque actually is, with no true understanding of it. Nevertheless...

Some of the music in 'Rushmore' and 'The Royal Tenenbaums' might qualify. I like how the actual harpsichord-heavy score music gels so well with the flimsy pop stuff. "I Am Waiting" by the Stones and "Everyone" by Van Morrison (both of which, incidentally, have harpsichords) stand out in my mind, though I seem to remember there being others in that vein as well. (Nice harpsi-version of "Hey Jude" in 'Tenenbaums' also!)

Also check out: a little ditty called "Green Shirt" by Elvis Costello, from an album ('Armed Forces') often described as 'baroque.'

I also think Dr. Dre has toyed with baroque-style melodies on stuff like Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair" and D12's "Ain't Nuttin' But Music" but those too are stabs in the dark here.

― slim vestant, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Left Banke.

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

The context of 'pop' for what you're after threw me a bit - and my understanding of music w.r.t the tadpoles and c/point is on a par with the above - but you might like:
Robert Fripp & The League Of Crafty Guitarists - 'Show Of Hands' album: there are some pieces on here that might appeal to you - the textures are very picky/harpsichordy, and pieces consist of intricate interweaving/overlapping melodies with a very regular pulsing feel to them. At times it can veer towards that classic 'minimalist' style of arpeggiation and repeating cell structures, but it also makes me imagine a kind of a modern 'Baroque' with quite different harmonic/melodic biases. Check especially the tracks 'Askesis','An Easy Way' and 'Scaling The Whales'.
The album can get very texturally monotonous and samey though.

And, at the risk of being endlessly mocked....I have always thought the Nick Heyward song 'On A Sunday' had this feeling of being a 'baroque pop song' - on the 12" version the latter half and the coda have this great mixture of overlapping elements slotting together with beautiful precision. I have told people in the past that if JSB had written a simple pop song I think it might have sounded like that.
Right, that's me about to be tarred and feathered.....

― Ray M, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

seven months pass...

You might want to check out The United States of Existence...

― John Bullabaugh, Saturday, 8 March 2003 04:25 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

I think you would throughly enjoy Sophia Travis! You can download all of her songs from this website: http://www.musicalfamilytree.com/bands.php?BandID=65

― Matthew G., Saturday, 22 April 2006 03:15 (nineteen years ago)

ladybug transistor 'the albermarle sound'

― keyth (keyth), Saturday, 22 April 2006 03:56 (nineteen years ago)

If you hadn't been posting from 2002, I'd ask you what you thought of "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us" by Sparks.

― Pangolino 2, Saturday, 22 April 2006 04:03 (nineteen years ago)

fourteen years pass...

"I also think Dr. Dre has toyed with baroque-style melodies on stuff like Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair" and D12's "Ain't Nuttin' But Music" but those too are stabs in the dark here."

I was wondering about hiphop artists/tracks including baroque arrangements (those Dre examples and the whole Eminem strings/keyboards approach don't really do it for me).
I can't find any good one right now but certainly there must be some !

― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, 18 August 2020 11:17 (four years ago)

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