Euphoric Sounds of Post-Pandemic Pop
I am currently working on a project focused on the aesthetics of European pop music in the aftermath of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, I am interested in how audiences used pop music to negotiate meaning during the pandemic, and how this impacted patterns of production and consumption. The work explores a thesis put forward by DJ Producer Tino Piontek that music produced under his stage name Purple Disco Machine gained popularity during this period as a relief from the gloom of lockdowns and social isolation: '(D)uring the pandemic, people needed to listen to music that is positive without any political issues, it's just music you can dance to'(Piontek 2021). This is a sentiment explored in the Blessed Madonna/Fred Again track "Marea (We've Lost Dancing)" (2021):
If I can live through this (we've lost dancing)
What comes next
Will be
Marvellous
I will argue that a COVID-induced yearning for club culture manifest itself in a myriad of styles that track the evolution of dance music from Patrick Cowley-inspired 70s disco, to Eiffel 65's late 90s Euro trance. Big names like David Guetta and Calvin Harris rode this wave with the global hits "I'm Good (Blue)" and "Miracles", reprising the polished sounds of late 20th-century club culture. However, in Europe, this was more nuanced, with the summer of 2023 characterised by a shift towards the euphoric synth sounds synonymous with Italo disco. The most visible flag wavers of this revival were the Italian pop rock combo Kolors, with their number one hit 'Italo Disco'. Ironically the homage is somewhat anachronistic: authentic 'spaghetti disco' was seldom sung in Italian. More convincing was Kungs' collaboration with Purple Disco Machine on "Substitution", featuring British-born Julian Perretta on vocals. A Top 5 hit across Eastern Europe, the track samples German synth-pop act Alphaville's 1984 recording "Big In Japan". Both tracks stand out for being the first time contemporary pop has explicitly celebrated this mysterious chapter in the history of dance music, suggesting that it is time to turn the lights on the disco and explore the contemporary resonance of a genre that has always existed in the shadows...