The Music Genre I've Always Loved Has a Name I Never Knew

New Wave. Rock. R&B. Hip Hop. Country. Punk. Most of us know these music genres by name and can rattle off artists that fit within each. But recently I was listening to one of my favorite artists from the 1980s and it occured to me they did not fit neatly into any of the standard genres. So of course I turned to Wikipedia, which is when I learned for the first time that there is a genre for a particular type of music I love — Sophisti-Pop.

Maybe you’ve always known you liked Sophisti-pop. I consider myself a music aficionado, yet I’d never heard the term. Hey, I love music but I never said I was bright. So what is Sophisti-Pop? Wikipedia defines it as a pop music subgenre that developed out of the British new wave movement during the mid-1980s. It originated with acts who blended elements of jazz, soul, and pop with lavish production.

The band I was listening to when I made this discovery was Everything But The Girl, whom I’ve blogged about previously. I guess I always just considered them pop, but that never really felt right. And of course, once I discovered the term it made perfect sense. EBTG is most definitely sophisticated compared to most pop music. While the term does feel a little bougie, it works. So what are some of the other bands that fall into this genre? Well, some of my all-time favorites:

Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry

The Style Council

China Crisis

Pet Shop Boys

Spandau Ballet

OMD

Tears For Fears

Icehouse

Swing Out Sister

Turns out I’m a Sophisti-Pop super fan and I didn’t even know it.

I often think back to the year 1983 when I was a high school junior in San Diego. I listened to rock. My favorite bands were The Who. Rush. Springsteen. My car radio was always tuned in to 91X, an album-oriented rock station that beamed its signal from a tower in Tijuana, Mexico. Then, on Jan. 11, 1983 my musical life changed in an instant. Without warning that evening, 91X was playing Stairway to Heaven. Next thing I knew station manager John Lynch came on the air and announced the station was changing formats to modern rock, following in the footsteps of Los Angeles station KROQ. Then Lynch teed up Sex (I’m A…) by Berlin and the rest is history. I was an alternative rock fan from that day forward.

Alternative Rock is a wide spectrum though. You can lump electronic music in with punk and funk rock and still be listening to Alternative Rock. 91X could play Depeche Mode, Ramones, and the Chili Peppers one after another. And while I liked it all, and still do, I really like what I now know is called Sophisti-Pop.

Do you love Sophisti-Pop too? I’ve started a playlist on Spotify so feel free to listen in and even suggest some songs for it. Perhaps it will grow into the leading Sophisti-Pop playlist on the platform!