Wonky pop was a loose grouping of musical acts that played what the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

called "quirky, catchy and credible pop", rooted in the eccentric side of 1980s pop music, which was briefly popular in the late 2000s. Artists associated with the genre include Mika,

Alphabeat Alphabeat are a Danish pop band from Silkeborg, fronted by singers Stine Bramsen and Anders Stig Gehrt Nielsen. Their single " Fascination" was a major hit in Denmark during the summer of 2006, as well as the United Kingdom in 2008. Their 2007 ...

and

Frankmusik Vincent James Turner (born 9 October 1985), better known by his stage name Frankmusik ( ) (and between 2011 and 2012, by the name Vincent Did It), is an English synth-pop musician. Since 2010 he is based in Los Angeles as remixer and producer. ...

Definitions

" Wonky" is a

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

word meaning unsteady, shaky, awry, or wrong. The BBC reported that the term "wonky pop" was both coined by and is owned by Mika's manager, while ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' reported the term was coined by Peter Robinson, founder of the blog

Popjustice Popjustice is a music website founded in 2000 by UK freelance music journalist Peter Robinson, who has worked for ''NME'', ''The Guardian'', ''Attitude'' and many others. It is composed of the work of editor Robinson, features editor Michael C ...

. The BBC describes a UK wonky-pop club night as involving "cutting-edge pop, dance, hip hop and everything in between"; club organiser René Symonds states that "the

iPod shuffle The iPod Shuffle (stylized and marketed as iPod shuffle) is a discontinued digital audio player designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. It was the smallest model in Apple's iPod family, and was the first iPod to use flash memory. The firs ...

generation will not be limited to one genre and wants a return to authenticity after years of manufactured pop". The wonky pop website sets out a manifesto that states, "We want to show the world that pop is not a four letter word, and for every flaky

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

winner there's a myriad of cool, credible and weird acts."

Style

A May 2008 article by ''The Guardian'' contrasted wonky pop performers with mainstream pop performers, noting that "Wonky Pop artists are unmanufactured but unashamedly melodic and capable of playing live without recourse to lashings of dry ice, troupes of dancers and an interlude during which they fly around the stage on wires." ''The Independent'' stated that wonky pop caused a change in "pop's division of labour ... away from focus-grouped, production-line pop, and towards DIY nd... fresh flavours", which is rejuvenating pop in the 2000s in the way that

Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s United Kingdom, British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. Musically, Britpop produced bright, catchy alternative rock, with significant influences from British guitar pop of the 1960s and 1970s. B ...

gave a shot in the arm to pop in the 1990s. Major influences cited for wonky pop acts include

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. Frequently referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Princess of Pop", she has achieved recognition in both the music industry and fas ...

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

and

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

. Wonky pop was credited with causing a shift in popular musical tastes from male-driven guitar acts to female-driven 1980s-style pop music seen in the

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...

revival of the later 2000s.

References

External links

Wonky Pop website
{{Pop music 2000s in music 21st-century music genres Pop music genres

Definitions

Style

See also

References

External links