| Jangle pop | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Power pop, post-punk, folk rock, rock and roll |
| Cultural origins | Mid-1960s United States/United Kingdom. Revival in mid-1980s United States |
| Typical instruments | Standard drum set - 12-string electric guitar - Semi-acoustic guitar - Keyboard - Bass guitar - Electronic organ |
| Mainstream popularity | Peaked in mid to late-1980s |
| Derivative forms | Indie pop |
| Regional scenes | |
| C86/CD86 Dunedin Sound Paisley Underground |
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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, with electric 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.
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In 1964 The Beatles' use of the jangle sound in the songs "A Hard Day's Night", "What You're Doing" and their cover of Buddy Holly's "Words of Love" encouraged many artists to use the jangle sound or purchase a Rickenbacker twelve-string guitar. The 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 Boys, The 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 an onomatopoeia 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.
"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 Nile, The 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 End, Folk 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." All Music 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 Maniacs, Let's Active, The dB's, The Feelies, Guadalcanal Diary, Game Theory, The Connells, Marshall 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.[7]
In the UK, The Smiths 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.[8] Australian band The Church can likewise be considered an example of the genre.[9]
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