POPSCENE!
SOPHISTI-POP
THIS ISSUE, WE GRAB OUR FINEST THREADS FOR THE SLICKEST OF MUSICAL FLAVOURS
STEVE O' BRIEN
YOUR AT-A-GLANCE GUIDE TO SOME OF OUR FAVOURITE SUB-GENRES
The Style Council pictured on the set of the video for their single The Lodgers in February 1985
© Getty
What is it?
Like glam before it, it’s difficult to separate sophisti-pop from the clothes it’s sung in.
Though the music itself is always glossy and immaculately produced, you’re never going to be a true member of the sophisti-pop club if you’re garbed in a puffer jacket and scuffed-up trainers.
That’s why, when we think of the archetypal sophisti-pop artists, we picture Martin Fry’s gold lamé suit, Corinne Drewery’s Louise Brooks-like bob or the sartorial grace of The Style Council.
Sophisti-pop, you see, is the complete aspirational package.
Where prog is rock music for adults, sophisti-pop is very much its pop equivalent. With its intoxicating mix of soul, jazz and new wave, this was chart music for grown-ups. Alongside synth-pop, sophisti-pop was the defining sound of the 80s, particularly in the UK. As wine bars and bistros sprung up across the country and the yuppie was in the ascendancy, this music seemed to reflect the public’s new-found lust for the high life. If New Romantic was akin to punk through an avant-garde filter, then sophisti-pop was New Romantic going mainstream.