It's a Pink Floyd song.....it's not pop music.

I'm sorry, but how does it being a Pink Floyd song immediately translate to it not being pop music? I would make the argument that after Waters left, the band now still referring to themselves as Pink Floyd but lacking the main songwriting force behind the band needed to make a record that would do something different yet similar enough so the old fans would still enjoy it and not call it a rip-off but something new enough to bring in new listeners. The result is a pop/arena rock album/mess and just because the musicians on it are prog musicians does not make it anything more than a pop rock song. Ever heard of Asia? As a matter of fact, why stop at Learning to Fly? That whole album is pop music save for maybe Sorrow. MLOR was made to be poppy, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that but I'm honestly just surprised to see more votes going to "not pop" as that just doesn't make any sense. 

 edit - not to mention Pink Floyd is consistently referred to as "pop/rock", and had been since even the Syd era, so I'm not sure why that would change when discussing their most pop record. 

Logan wrote: I wasn't going to vote, as to me it can be yes and no depending on one's definition, but I guess I'll join those dweebs then. It's pop in the sense that it is popular music, is accessible, and has mainstream qualities. It surely has had mass appeal.

 

This.

I remember a lot of Floyd fans back in the '80s didn't like AMLoR because of that, Roger's absence notwithstanding.

Hi,

I don't know that this is the right thing to say ... but by that time, PF was no longer PF in many ways, but the album stands up fine, and I think that the album had ideas about creating something that used to be there before, but in the end, it was an uneven, but I kinda side with Mr. Mason who suggested that it was an "obligation", and was not done because it meant something. I suppose that DG would feel different and that it was important as he got to rip the guitar in a few pieces and make it sound good, but musically, with Mr. Wright on less than half the songs, kinda made it look like it was just a setup for DG to fly ... on his own song/music.

I don't look at music as "pop" or "anything else", but in so many ways, PF was pop, since the days of DSOTM when things got taken out of context and made into singles (the cut up version of MONEY for the American AM radio!!!!!!<<<<<-----) ... so one could say that there was some pop music in PF and then the other song that was big on AM radio here (Another Brick in the Ship) ... so making that call is a bit strange for me, and I wouldn't.

I never really thought of PF as a pop band at all, but I suppose that we could say that it kinda became that ... it was no longer about the trip and the enjoyment of that trip ... it was now just a bunch of songs ... that seemed like they created a story ... but that novel was horribly written, had holes everywhere, and it was so broken up, that making sense of it, is a bit ridiculous and an insult to all the Literature classes all over the world ... and while all 4 PF members were better/higher educated folks doing music (most Canterbury folks were as well!), in the end, they did not improve and ... two of them look back and call what made them famous ... crap and trash! 

Why should I think otherwise, if they don't? 

At least I still love and respect the music ... but I gave up on the the two stooges and their idiocy!

So I voted don't care ... meaning I don't care what it is I love it anyway.  

...So what makes a pop song then?? And why is Sorrow not a pop song

That's where I was going....It's a Pink Floyd song, it's not a pop song.

But IMO the song nor album is pop music in the vein like we think of say The Cars, INXS, U2 or Celine Dion......the OP did NOT say Pop Rock.

I'd love to hear why you think it isn't pop, as I feel I have already explained why it is and all you've said is "its floyd how can that be pop????".

 That whole album was made with the intention of re-making Floyd's sound to fit with the more pop-oriented arena rock sound of the 80's that bands like Yes and Asia were doing at the exact same time. Is Owner of a lonely heart not pop because Yes made prog in the past? They did that to be more popular and sell more copies of their new record to new audiences, hence the musical term "pop". I only mentioned Sorrow because I think its the best attempt at what they were going for on that album, combining older songwriting ideas and mixing it with a fresh pop/rock outlook. That's exactly what Sorrow is, the intro sounds like 80's Shine on and it is an 8 minute rocker that mainly consists of soloing, most of which sounds like any arena rock guitarist from that era could have played it. Kinda reminds me of a Camel song, maybe Ice? Not that it's not pop, I called that entire album pop multiple times. I would however consider it the least pop song out of the longer tracks on that record, or in the very least it is the only song on that record that actually achieves something for me. Can we get back to your opinion though? I'd love to hear why you don't consider Learning to Fly to be pop. 

verslibre wrote: And nobody outside PA & PE remembers Emerson, Lake & Powell's "Learning to Fly"!

 

Infinitely better track. I don't really like that album much but that track is a killer. 

I like it a lot, too!

It was radio friendly, that's for sure.

Don't really care. It isn't one of my favorites, but I like it. If it is indeed pop... wow. I wish we would have more pop like that.

Please forgive my ignorance. What the hell is PE? In my native Spanish we are not very into using acronyms 

and I already posted why its not a pop song......As I said in the vein of pop like The Cars, INXS, U2 or Celine Dion its not pop music. The OP did not ask if it is POP ROCK.

All bands want to be popular and sell records, name me one band that did not want this to happen? So you would call Stairway to Heaven, Black Dog, Enter Sandman, Carry On Wayward Son.....all pop music? And also because DSOtM has spent over 900 weeks on the Billboard 200 and one of the biggest selling albums world-wide, its pop??

.....OK  you win!! 

It's not in the same category, because Michael Jackson was the King of Pop, Madonna is the Queen of Pop, and although you didn't mentioned them, Britney Spears is the Princess of Pop and Prince is, obviously, the Prince of Pop.

Everyone else are just Subjects of the Pop Kingdom

But for that time period, 1987, nah, it is more like a different kind of animal that used to be up there in the 80s but has disappeared.   It was called AOR. Listen to APP's Days Are Numbers and it has similar production values to Learning To Fly.  Except Days Are Numbers came a couple of years before.  For 1987, it would have to be way more synth based for me to consider it pop.

Yeah, I would call all that pop, including Dark Side. Just because its rock that's popular doesn't mean it isn't pop. Would you consider the Wall to not be pop, either? It spent forever on the Billboard charts as well. The Cars and U2 are both "poppy" bands that play rock music too, so why them label them pop and a band like Led Zeppelin, who probably had more chart-topping singles then both of those groups combined, not pop? OP might not have asked about pop rock but I honestly don't see a distinction between pop rock and pop because pop isn't the genre of the music, its a label that can be applied loosely to many musical acts. To say "Pink Floyd is pop" is to say "Pink Floyd made music that was popular worldwide and had a noticeable and long-lasting impact on pop culture." It is not to say, "Pink Floyd and Celine Dion make the same kind of music." And yes, if you've ever been a part of any underground music scene you'd know not every band wants to "be popular and sell records."

Pop isnt a genre, its a label that can be loosely applied to many musical acts. To say Floyd is pop is to say Floyd made music that sold extremely well worldwide and had a noticeable and long-lasting impact on pop culture. It is not to say Pink Floyd and Celine Dion make the same type of music. OP might not have asked about pop rock specifically but IMO he still did by asking about pop as an idea, because it's not something that stands on its own as a musical concept, it is something that is applied to actual genres of music like rock or jazz or even disco. What is your idea of pop if The Cars and U2, which both play rock music that is popular is pop but Led Zeppelin, who plays rock music that is popular, is not pop? And yes I would consider Dark Side (and practically Floyds whole discography) to be pop, for the same reasons listed above. 

 

Wherever I've seen the term "pop/rock" used, it is referring to all pop and all rock. Thus, it includes all Progressive Rock. It is used as a broad category of music that is distinguished from classical, country, jazz, etc.

 

 

I was reading the responses, and I realized wrong song wrong band LMAO.

HAPPY SUNDAY!  

Exactly, pop/rock is different from pop-rock the genre. But would I call Learning To Fly specifically a pop-rock song?  Yes.

if that aint' a pop song.. what is... what else would one call it. It and that whole sh*t stain of an album were made for one reason and one reason only (if one doesn't count the big f**k you given out to the Rog).. to pry the kiddies and old fans of their money with a MTV driven appeals to nostalgia and the band they used to be when they actually had a member who could write songs...

Hi,

Like that has EVER been a big part and important issue with rock music!

Micky ... too much decaf coffee for you ... you post gets a B-

so in return buddy... I'll give you an A+.  No it is not important..  

which again makes the completely inane and disposable nature of the songs and thus that album all the more glaring in comparison to the creative force they no longer had in that group. A song writer who .. excesses and mental maturbation aside.. had a vision and wrote thoughtful and deep lyrics

which of course the lack of which.. is a hallmark of pop music. 

Is Learning to Fly any more 'commercial'...not especially. 

At any rate I voted don't care......being burned out on Floyd.

yeah some of those were radio friendly...  much like Steely Dan.. radio friendly.. but not pop by any stretch of the imagination. Sometimes even the deep, thoughtful, even complex do crossover to wide audience.  The intent of those songs Doc were not merely sell a bunch of records but to create an artistic statement. .to say something.  

that album was nothing more than 2nd .. 3rd rate MTV friendly songwriting with done nothing more than cash in.. as well as flip the bird at a former member.

^ Agreed, there's an artificial 'New Coke' quality to AMLoR which has not improved with age.

Of course it's a pop song.

micky wrote: the one copy I ever owned of the album would have argued with you David.. it did in a vain attempt with me before it flew out the window into the middle of I-95 traffic in a Mick rage....that it ever had room for improvement.

 

Good thing a cop didn't see you. That would have been one expensive album for you to hate that much. 

And of course by then vinyl was being made cheaply with thin pressings that were poorly grooved, had bad posterboard covers, and crinkly plastic sleeves.   My copy would skip for no reason and began to warp like a cheap pair of sunglasses lying in the sun.

But... well... here there is the crossover prog genre, and in this genre there are sophysticated pop songs.

they are not real prog.... or, ok, they are prog-pop songs if we assumed an an extensive definition of prog...

But if everything was prog, nothing would be prog.

Hi,

Not sure this is quite correct ... SD was not a "hit" in the AM radio AT ALL ... but it was played to death on FM radio because it provided an anti-dote to all the rinky-dinky music AM stations in America!

When FM radio in America started being bought by all the corporations to ensure that "individuality" did not continue, bands like SD kinda became a cult band ... it no longer was played senseless like before.

By 1982, when I left SB and went north, the only SD playing on the radio was the one big hit they had, and guess what ... it was the AM radio that played it! The irony ... is insane!

 

 

....and its black metal influenced by Darkthrone