Pop Music

 'be warned the following post contains images, scenes and descriptions of unashamed pop music, it describes a period in time when music was bright, bold, sometimes tacky but above all it was fun, it may not be to everyone's taste, those who believe music has to be serious may be easily offended'

Now, for those of you who are still reading this post, let's go back, back in time to the late 1980s, 1988 is were it all started for me, there is no internet, no social media and mobile phones are the size of a brick. Children and teenagers up and down the country are excited at the thrill of rushing to the shops on a Saturday morning to spend their well deserved pocket money on the latest single from their favourite pop stars, what would the cover be like? What would the B Side track be? Some records came with posters, some folded out into a poster and some were picture discs, oh the excitement! Then upon their return the delight of hearing that first crackle as the needle plays the record. These days of course there is none of that, you just turn on your computer and download the required song or simply stream it, but I ask you where's the fun in that? Where's the anticipation of waiting? Not simply wanting and a moment later, having, how about something tangible, something you can hold in your hand, something you can add to your physical record collection?

Kylie Minogue My Childhood Sweetheart Yeah I Should Be So Lucky

We couldn't just turn on a computer, laptop or mobile phone in 1988 and watch music videos, no that would be to simple, however there were a few, very few programmes dedicated to music, Top Of The Pops was the most famous, a legendary programme that ran on the BBC for an amazing 42 years from 1964 - 2006 and became a family favourite for generations, it attracted most of the big stars of the time with many calling it an honour to be asked to appear, indeed some flew into London, performed then flew back out. Top Of The Pops would later cause a scandal when people complained that the acts only mimed to the song rather than actually singing or performing them, it did however allow those with a dance routine to show it off to the nation! The Chart Show was another music programme, it followed children's television on a Saturday morning and consisted of just music videos and what a delight it was to see a new video from your favourite singers, viewers would sit there with their remote control in hand poised to press the record button, then replay the video numerous times, learning the words, and watching the visual display accompanying the song.... Oh come on, we all did it!

Top Of The Pops

If you want to know what your favourite pop star is up to these days you just turn on the internet and search, you probably don't even need to search in the first place with endless tweets and Instagram messages informing us of their daily activities, posing and pouting, things were a lot different before the internet. Magazines were a good source of information in the 1980s and early 90s with many aimed at the younger reader, one in particular was considered the ultimate pop magazine, Smash Hits. Oh yes Smash Hits! The magazine published fortnightly was a pop bible full of bright posters, lyrics and gossip on all your favourite singers. Smash Hits never asked probing questions no, no time for that, they tackled the more important issues such as. what is your favourite food? What is your favourite music? Or more importantly, were they dating! Of course if you were a true fan you might cut the articles out of the magazines and papers and stick them in a scrapbook, a scrapbook on your favourite singer, there was no blogging back then remember, you couldn't store your favourite pictures and posters in your computer downloads and look at them any time you wanted, one way of surrounding yourself with your favourite singer was to cover your bedroom walls with them, if your parents allowed of course!

Smash Hits A Pop Music Bible

The best way of staying in the know about your favourite pop stars before the internet was joining a fan club, these fan clubs were the internet sites of the day, instead of receiving updates into your email inbox you would receive mail through the post, detailing and informing their followers of the latest releases and any other information they wanted to share with their adoring public, merchandise was always available.

So what was the top 40 like back in 1988. Madonna and Michael Jackson were probably the biggest names in music, Madonna however had taken a break from the music scene and in her place came Kylie Minogue, an Australian actress who found fame in the popular soap Neighbours and who's debut single 'I Should Be So Lucky' reached number 1 for 5 weeks, her remaining singles released that year all peaked at number 2, 'Especially For You' a duet with fellow Neighbours star Jason Donovan would later reach number 1 in January 1989, her self titled debut album 'Kylie' also reached number 1 and became the year's best selling album, it seemed Madonna was going to have to share her queen of pop crown. New boy band Bros along with fellow new comer Kylie Minogue had the highest amount of top 10 singles, each released 5 songs that would reach the top 10. Tiffany and Debbie Gibson were also new to the top 40, both hailed from America and while both teenagers were mere flashes in the chart pan for the time being these young ladies had top 10 hits, Tiffany's debut single 'I Think We're Alone Now' was a No 1 song. The singer Yazz, also found fame in 1988 when her debut single 'The Only Way Is Up' reached No 1 in January, it stayed at the top for 3 weeks. 

Bros The Boy Band Of 1988

At the other end of the scale, music veteran Cliff Richard had the best selling single of the year with his Christmas song 'Mistletoe And Wine' released 30 yrs after his debut single, indeed his career had started before many of those in the 1988 charts were even born. It was also a good year for British pop duo the Pet Shop Boys, they had the first No 1 of the year with a cover version of the Elvis Presley song 'Always On My Mind' and followed it up with a second No 1 single 'Heart', with a mix of catchy tunes and the rather posh sounding vocals of Neil Tennant the pair had a unique and instantly recognisable sound. 

Cheer Up Lads Pet Shop Boys Had A Good 1988

Stock Aitken & Waterman, a music producing trio, whether you loved, liked or loathed them had their hit factory churning out hit after hit, not only did they produce all of Kylie's songs but they also had top 10 hits for Jason Donovan with his song 'Nothing Can Divide Us', for  Rick Astley and his song 'Together Forever', for Brother Beyond, more about them later, for  Hazel Dean and the song 'Who's Leaving Who', for Bananarama with the song 'I Want You Back', for Sinitta and her song 'Cross My Broken Heart' and for Mel and Kim and their song 'That's The Way It Is'. The late 1980's were their peak years and by the end of the decade they had certainly left their mark on the charts, the 1990s however would see changes in the public's taste in music and their hit factory stumbled. 

Did We Really Need 10 Good Reasons To Love Jason Donovan

Dance music fresh from the clubs was starting to generate interest from the mainstream audience, the group S-Express had a No 1 song with the Theme From S-Express, while the band New Order re-released the quite excellent 'Blue Monday' reaching the No 3 in the charts, the song is said to be one of the most influential dance songs of all time and gave the band their biggest hit, oh and yes they did have a No 1 in 1990 with the English football team with the song 'World In Motion' but lets not talk about that here!

Enya And Her Orinoco Flow

It wasn't all about the beat in 1988 with several slower, more natural sounding songs reaching the top of the charts, Irish singer Enya went all the way to the top with the hauntingly different song 'Orinoco Flow', perhaps one of the most organic songs ever to reach No 1, sounding more like a folk song than something that would traditionally grace the top 40 the tune certainly stood out from everything else and people obviously liked what they heard with it staying at the top for three weeks, I personally didn't know what she was singing about but it has something to do with sailing. 'Perfect' the debut song from band Fairground Attraction was another song that had a folk influence, with it's jazzy, catchy chorus the song became a perfect No 1, the band would win awards but split up the following year. The Hollies, a British rock band that had hits in the 1960s suddenly found themselves back at the top of the charts with their song 'He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother', the band had previously released the song in 1969 reaching No 3 but thanks to it's use in an advert for beer the song found new fame and became their second chart topping single. Scottish soft rock band Wet Wet Wet had a No 1 with 'I Get By With A Little Help From Friends', the charity single was in aid of Childline, a telephone service for children to call if they need help or someone to talk to, similar to the Good Samaritans for adults, 'She's Leaving Home' was the B side of the single performed by Billy Bragg, both songs were originally Beatles records.

For some singers 1988 was just another year in a long career however for some it was their only year of success, there were several acts that achieved this unfortunate fete, of course depending on your musical tastes their 'one hit wonder' status could be seen as a blessing. Robin Beck was one of these artists, Robin Beck is an American singer who reached No 1 with the rock ballad 'First Time' the song featured in an advert for Coca Cola and became her only top 40 hit here in the uk. The Italian singer Sabrina found success with her pop song 'Boys (Summertime Love)', the catchy tune was accompanied by a rather cheeky or indeed downright rude video that saw the glamour model dance around in a swimming pool with her bikini top slipping down from her ample breasts revealing her nipples, the BBC added black strips to the video when it was shown on Top Of The Pops (remember Top Of The Pops was a show for the whole family) covering the offending scenes, the song erm peaked at No 3, her follow up single 'All Of Me (Boy Oh Boy)' proved that she was a 'flash in the pan' when the single featuring Sabrina slightly more covered up in the accompanying video reached No 25.

Brother Beyond They Did Try Hard

One step up from a one hit wonder is what I am calling a one album wonder again these acts had limited success but at least managed two hit songs. While Bros during 1988 were the boy band of the moment, Brother Beyond at one point gave them a run for their money, 'The Harder I Try' was a nice slice of pop with a 1960s feel produced by Stock Aitken and Waterman, the combination of catchy song and good looks especially of lead singer Nathan Moore (remember looks are important in boy bands, sad but true) helped the song reach No 2 and while it didn't make the top spot, thanks to Phil Collins and his 'Groovy Kind Of Love', 'The Harder I Try' out sold all of the singles Bros released that year becoming the 22nd biggest hit of 1988. The single 'He Ain't No Competition' was good follow up and continued the success of the band reaching No 6, it too was a catchy, 1960s themed song and their debut album 'Get Even' also proved to be a hit reaching No 9, the two remaining single from the album however failed to reach the top 10 and when the band returned the following year their audience had obviously moved on to adore someone else, the first single 'Drive On' stalled at No 39. Tiffany as mentioned before was a teenage sensation who's chart career was over before her teenage years, 1988 started well for Tiffany when her second single 'I Think We're Alone Now' reached No 1 and became the fifth best selling single of the year, the song was a cover version of a 1967 hit for a band called James And The Shondells, it's combination of soft rock and pop along with her wholesome image proved popular with young audiences and her two follow up singles 'Could've Been' and ' I Saw Him Standing There' both reached the top 10, however things started to go down hill, her next single 'Feelings Of Forever' flopped, failing to reach the top 40, there would only be one more hit song, Radio Romance reached the top 20 but that was it, by the age of 18 Tiffany's chart career was over.

Now that I have outlined the situation of being a music fan in my day (doesn't that make me sound old) let's pick up the story! It was 1988, and yours truly wasn't even a teenager but for the past few years I had heard music blasting out of my sister's bedroom and every Thursday night we sat round the telly watching Top Of The Pops, we saw witness to an endless supply of pop stars miming and dancing their way through their latest hit single, yes in those days families would quite often spend time in the same room and believe it or not we only had one television in the whole house. My sister's taste in music was varied (I will give her that) but for me there was to be one woman, someone whom I would become quite obsessed with, she was Australian and she appeared in a daily soap opera called Neighbours, I don't think I have to explain any further but for those who don't know, her name was Kylie Minogue. Kylie was dismissed as a fad, a one hit wonder, even a singing budgie by some in her home country but over 30 years later (yes it really has been that long) Kylie is still releasing hit albums. There were feelings that were stirring inside me that I didn't quite understand and Kylie Minogue was a part of that and within a few months my walls were covered in Kylie posters, my sister may have preferred Bros, Brother Beyond and her Now Album but for me it was just Kylie Minogue.

So let me tell you about some of the pop stars that were around at the time, that all singing, all dancing, happy clappy, tight jeans, denim loving era when music often came with a few slices of cheese!