Jangle pop

Jangle pop is a subgenre of pop rock or college rock that emphasizes jangly guitars and 1960s-style pop melodies.

Background

The term "jangle pop" was popularized during the 1980s, as a reference to the lyric "In the jingle jangle morning, I'll come following you" from the Byrds' 1965 rendition of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man"

In the 1980s, the most prominent early jangle pop groups were R.E.M., the Chills, the Clean, the dB's, 10,000 Maniacs the Wedding Present, and the Smiths. In the early to mid 1980s, the term "jangle pop" emerged as a label for an American post-punk movement that recalled the sounds of "jangly" acts from the 1960s. Between 1983 and 1987, the description "jangle pop" was used to describe bands like R.E.M. and Let's Active as well as the Paisley Underground subgenre, which incorporated psychedelic influences.

History

In 1979, the Athens, Georgia group Pylon debuted with an "angular, propulsive jangle pop sound" that would influence fellow members of the Athens, Georgia music scene. An AllMusic summary of modern jangle pop describes it as a "pop-based format", but not mainstream, as the lyrics could often be "deliberately cryptic", and the sound "raw and amateurish" with DIY production. Subsequent jangle-pop bands that arose in the 80s were hugely influence by the 60's folk rock bands such as the Byrds, Richie Unterberger writes "The whole school of 1980s alternative jangle-pop bands, led by R.E.M., owed much to the Byrds in their ringing guitars. Around 1987 it seemed that every other week saw another album by R.E.M. imitators who might have been imitating the Byrds' 12-string guitars without ever having even heard the Byrds."

New Zealand's Dunedin Sound was a key scene of jangle pop. Bands such as the Chills, the Clean, the Verlaines, the Bats and Straitjacket Fits synthesised 1970s alternative rock and post-punk with jangle, and the scene soon spread to Auckland and other New Zealand cities.

Between 1983 and 1987, "Southern-pop bands like R.E.M. and Let's Active" and a California-originated subgenre named Paisley Underground incorporated psychedelic influences. An article in Blogcritics magazine claims that, besides R.E.M., the "only other jangle-pop band to enjoy large sales in America were the Bangles, from Los Angeles. While better known for their glossy hits like 'Manic Monday', their first album and EP were organic, real jangle-pop efforts in a Byrds/Big Star vein, spiced with a dash of psychedelia on their debut."

Jangle pop influenced college rock during the early 1980s. In Austin, Texas, the term New Sincerity was loosely used for a similar group of bands, led by the Reivers, Wild Seeds and True Believers.

In the 1990s, with the arrival of grunge, jangle pop's popularity began to wane in the US. This was evident with R.E.M., who eschewed jangle for grunge on Monster (1994). However, despite this decline in popularity, some grunge bands experimented with jangle pop elements, notably Alice in Chains on Jar of Flies (1994) (especially on "No Excuses") and Stone Temple Pilots on Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop (1996).

See also

• List of jangle pop bands
• Alternative country
• Counterculture of the 1960s

References