# What makes a pop song memorable to you?



## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

If we look at any style of music, there's always the average standard crappy stuff no one actually remembers past the decade of it's inception, and the stuff of legends that lives on.

Mozart and Salieri if you will. For example, the 80's have given us the standard sappy mush-fest






And it's more unique, memorable counterpart that at least leaves an impression






What elements should a pop song have to be memorable/ "good" for you personally? What is it about some songs that makes us remember them decades later while others remain forgotten?

Also, it'd be great if you can include your favourite pop songs from every decade from the 50's up to the 10's.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Sometimes it could work the other way 'round: a kind of 'attractive ugliness', when it's so horrible it stucks with you for very long periods of time. Ugh!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Lucifer Saudade said:


> What elements should a pop song have to be memorable/ "good" for you personally? What is it about some songs that makes us remember them decades later while others remain forgotten?


It's a good question, and after listening to (and loving) music for over four decades I don't have a clue.



> Also, it'd be great if you can include your favourite pop songs from every decade from the 50's up to the 10's.


There you go.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Lucifer Saudade said:


> If we look at any style of music, there's always the average standard crappy stuff no one actually remembers past the decade of it's inception, and the stuff of legends that lives on.


Maybe it's not what you're saying, but If you think that the songs that are rememebered are simply the most significant from a musical point of view (like best melodies, interesting harmonies, sounds, voices, lyrics etc) well, the musical darwinian selection doesn't work like that at all. I'd say that marketing and fame have a greater part in that process than quality. A lot of the best pop music goes completely forgotten. And at the same time we remember also many average or even terrible pop songs.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Frankly, I don't know. In any case, I'm blessed (or damned?) with a good musical memory, so sometimes it's not that easy for me to forget even the "standard crappy stuff". 

About some of my favorites during these years, no problem to share:





 - Barbara (J'ai tué l'amour)





 - France Gall (Poupée de cire, poupée de son)





 - Mina (Fiume azzurro)





 - Kraftwerk (Das Model)





 - Franco Battiato (Centro di gravità permanente)





 - Mylène Farmer (Désenchantée)





 - Amaral & Antonio Vega (Como hablar)





 - Marco Mengoni (L'essenziale)


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## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

norman bates said:


> Maybe it's not what you're saying, but If you think that the songs that are rememebered are simply the most significant from a musical point of view (like best melodies, interesting harmonies, sounds, voices, lyrics etc) well, the musical darwinian selection doesn't work like that at all. I'd say that marketing and fame have a greater part in that process than quality. A lot of the best pop music goes completely forgotten. And at the same time we remember also many average or even terrible pop songs.


I was talking about pop songs which were already popular (at their time). Out of those, there are actually some decent ones which people still like to this day.

For example, I think you said you liked a certain solo from a hair metal band, even though you don't particularly like hair metal. Even tho most 80's pop is horribly cheesy to me, I still manage to like some songs for whatever reason.

Care to mention some of that "best pop music" that goes undeservedly forgotten? We all know that's good music that isn't popular, but is there good music that IS popular?


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Lucifer Saudade said:


> Care to mention some of that "best pop music" that goes undeservedly forgotten?


sure (my taste obviously):

Harpers Bizarre - Witchi tai to (1969)





Lô Borges - Clube da Esquina II - (1979)





Lewis Taylor - Leader of the band (2004)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy4j8omG0i0[/URL

Nits - Boy in a tree (1989)
[URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok89E71OVVU"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok89E71OVVU

Tatsuro Yamashita - Sparkle (1981)





Manuel DeSica - A place for lovers (1969) the singer is Ella Fitzgerald but the song is from a soundtrack composed, arranged and produced entirely by DeSica





Matthew Larkin Cassell - In my life (1977)





Natalino Otto - Baexinn-a (1969)





Lee Wiley - Manhattan (1951)





Shelleyan orphan - Epitath Ivy and Woe (1987)





Lewis - Like to see you again (1983)





Marc Eric - Where do the girls of the summer go (1969)





Youngbloods - Ride the wind (1969, it seems 1969 was a good year for me)





etc, I guess I could go on forever, especially considering that things that are in a sort limbo between pop and jazz or music from not anglophone countries, like brazilian stuff or the songs of great american songbook.



Lucifer Saudade said:


> but is there good music that IS popular?


yes obviously. I could mention a lot of other stuff but my point is that it's completely wrong to think that what we rememember after a lot of time it's the good stuff and all we forgot is the bad music. I guess that in classical music it's exactly the same. Frank Zappa said something like that one time.


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2015)

The only thing I'd say makes them memorable for me is that they tend to connect with what I was doing at the time - they have personal significance.

I came across this in an idle moment on Saturday.

https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/the-n...isode-1-the-nation-s-favourite-80s-number-one

The song that was no. 1 is certainly in my top 5*...and there were some other goodies too, but if you challenge me to remember my favourites from other decades, I'd have to say I'd struggle. Firstly, they're not that memorable; secondly, they come in bunches. Like 'most favourite movie of all time', I haven't got _one_.

*If you can't see it, it was


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

For me, it's any song that has a catchy melody. I don't actively listen to pop music, so I only know whatever I might accidentally hear off pop radio. Last summer had some good jams, this summer not so much [though Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk is a lot of fun]. But I rarely put a pop song on my iPod and listen to it on the go. More like, if I'm in my car, and I want the radio on but don't want to listen to anything specific, I'll flip through stations to find the least bad song. That sounds harsh but it's true


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2015)

schigolch said:


> - Kraftwerk (Das Model)


I don't know the others, but this is an excellent choice!


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I have thought about this over the years. Like Art Rock says, "I don't have a clue."

I tend to like a heavy rock sound with a lot of electronics and treatments, sounding a bit wild and unconventional, with snippets of cool phases sneaking out of the noise, but mostly unintelligible... but any attempt to corner what I like to hear into a set of rules immediately expels much of what I enjoy.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

There is no one formula. For one song it might be a deceptively simple but catchy melody (Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" or Men Without Hats' "Safety Dance") or it could be a recording effect as in the gated drums arrival in Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight." It could also be a gestalt of many different things coming together. If anyone knew for sure, they'd be writing hit songs unerringly.


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