Rock Music Wiki
Register
Advertisement


Jangle pop is a genre of alternative rock from the mid-1980s that "marked a return to the chiming or jangly guitars and pop melodies of the '60s", as exemplified by The Byrds, withelectric twelve-string guitars and power pop song structures. Mid-1980s jangle pop was a non-mainstream "pop-based format" with "some folk-rock overtones". Between 1983 and 1987, the description "jangle pop" was, in the US, used to describe bands like R.E.M.Let's Active and Tom Petty, and a subgenre called "Paisley Underground", which incorporated psychedelic influences.[1] In the UK the term was applied to the new wave of raw and immediate sounding melodic guitar-bands collected on the NME's C86 (and later CD86) compilations.

Contents[]

 [hide*1 History

History[edit][]

Origins[edit][]

In 1964, The Beatles' use of the jangle sound in the songs "A Hard Day's Night", "What You're Doing", "Ticket to Ride" and their cover of Buddy Holly's "Words of Love" encouraged many artists to use the jangle sound or purchase aRickenbacker twelve-string guitarThe Byrds began using similar guitars after seeing them played in the film A Hard Day's Night. Other groups such as The Who (in their early "Mod" years), The Beach BoysThe Hollies and Paul Revere & the Raiders continued the use of twelve-string Rickenbackers. The Byrds, whose style was also referred to as folk rock, prominently featured Roger McGuinn's Rickenbacker electric twelve-string guitar in many of their recordings.

The etymological derivation of the term "jangle" is uncertain. The term may be derived from the lyric "In the jingle jangle morning, I'll come following you" from The Byrds' cover of Bob Dylan's song "Mr. Tambourine Man", or it may be anonomatopoeia that refers to the chiming sound of a twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar's upper-register strings. Jangle pop is related to the power pop genre that developed in the 1960s, including bands like Raspberries and Big Star, who blurred the line between the two styles.

1980s[edit][]

"Jangle pop" began as "an American post-punk movement of the mid-'80s that marked a return to the chiming guitars and pop melodies of the '60s." 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,[2] including R.E.M.

In New York City during this period, "jangle pop" could reasonably be used to describe the more conventionally folk-rock Willie NileThe Smithereens, and popular but unsigned four-piece band The Floor Models,[3] all of whom had origins in Greenwich Village clubs such as The Bitter EndFolk City and Kenny's Castaways, as did many significant East Coast 1960s folk-rock acts. The Smithereens and Floor Models in particular made extensive use of various models of the Rickenbacker twelve-string electric guitar as well as the much rarer Hagström twelve-string electric guitar.[4]

The sound of jangle pop was "essentially a pop-based format" with "some folk-rock overtones." AllMusic claims that it was non-mainstream music with "deliberately cryptic" lyrics and "raw and amateurish" DIY production. Between 1983 and 1987, "Southern-pop bands like R.E.M. and Let's Active" and a subgenre called "Paisley Underground" incorporated psychedelic influences.[1] 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."[5]

Jangle pop influenced college rock during the early 1980s,[6] as demonstrated on early albums by R.E.M.10,000 ManiacsLet's ActiveThe dB'sThe FeeliesGuadalcanal DiaryGame TheoryThe ConnellsMarshall Crenshaw and the Beat Farmers. 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 UKThe SmithsFelt, and Aztec Camera can be considered part of jangle pop, as can the raw and immediate sounding melodic guitar-bands of the C86/CD86 scene.[7] Australian band The Church can likewise be considered an example of the genre.[8] [9] In Canada around this time of moreso the Late-80s, bands like The Tragically Hip and Barenaked Ladies had elements of jangle in their earlier material.

1990s[edit][]

In the 1990s, jangle pop still had success earlier in the decade with bands such as The Spin Doctors and Blind Melon, with their big hits "Two Princes" and "No Rain" respectively in 1991 and 1992. But by the mid-90s, the post-hippie sound of jangle pop began to diminish within its already small subculture as Grunge was the most popular genre dominating the mainstream at the time.

New Millenium (2000s-)[edit][]

By the beginning of the 21st century jangle pop and jangle pop artists have remained under the radar and is kept more as like a cult following for the underground for those who like small venues and showcases where most of the genre seems to be dominated.

Advertisement