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Wonky pop
Wonky pop was a loose grouping of musical acts that played what the BBC called "quirky, catchy and credible pop", rooted in the eccentric side of 1980s pop music, which was briefly popular in the
Definitions#
“Wonky” is a British English 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 reported the term was coined by Peter Robinson, founder of the blog Popjustice. 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 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 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.”
See also#
- Post-punk revival
- New wave
- Synthwave
- Genre family
- 2000s in music, 21st-century music genres, Pop music genres