As most posts on this blog, they are inspired by late night talks, drinking and sessions of pro evolution. This was also the case of yesterday’s Twee revival with fellow blogger BLR. After a couple of matches of pro (Chelsea crashed woeful Sweden for yet another time) I once again indorsed with my latest obsession (belated as always) of listening to Last.fm music stations. After quite some time, we realized the common tag on most of the tracks, none other than “Twee Pop”.
That was that. A quick reference back to the origins of Twee Pop history and I was once again on my way to another post of personal favorites and listening suggestions. I guess I’ve been into Twee Pop more than I realized (not necessarily a bad thing though).
It all dates back to mid ‘80s, when in the UK new bands started to emerge from the post-punk era. They were referred to as Indie Pop, obviously due to having a pop sound and signed to independent labels. However, Indie Pop was much more than that. It evolved from synth Pop to more guitar oriented Pop, with references to 60’s music and uplifting, innocent lyrics.
It was in 1986 when NME issued a tape (the now famous C86) with some of the (at the time) most promising bands of this movement, that Indie Pop distinctively deviated from indie rock. This also further evolved, and later became known as ‘C86’ or Twee, a genre characterized by the jangly pop sound.
Whether Twee Pop still continues as a musical movement itself (if it does I guess Sweden is its new home) is not known to me. One thing is for sure, it has influenced many of our favorite bands and continues to put a smile on my face (rarely as that may be).
And what a better way to get into Twee Pop than to listen to the music itself. I have to say, I really enjoyed finding and compiling these mix-tapes (something I haven’t done for decades). Of’ course, the tracklistings are from the original C86 tape and the compilation is a mix of suggestions by Nitsuh Abebe, from his article The Story of Indie Pop, and my own favorites. Enjoy…
Look up the following bands (in really bulk mode) for more Twee-ing
Acid House Kings; Architecture in Helsinki; Belle and Sebastian; Beat Happening; Blueboy; Boyracer; Camera Obscura; The Cardigans; Cub; The Fakrays; The Field Mice; Glo-Worm; Heavenly; The Hit Parade; Honeybunch; I'm from Barcelona; The Lucksmiths; Magnetic Fields; Merricks; The Nixons; The Orchids; The Pastels; Pipas; Rocketship; The Pipettes; The Pooh Sticks; The Radio Dept.; Saturday Looks Good to Me; The Sea Urchins; Small Factory; The Softies; Suburban Kids with Biblical Names; Talulah Gosh; Tambourine; Television Personalities; Tiger Trap; Tullycraft; The Vaselines; Velocity Girl; WolfieBlack
