It's Friday night - who fancies playing a game?

Are there any pop acts from the past 20 years who everyone bar you seems to have forgotten ever existed? If so, leave a comment posting one of their hits in the thread below.

Rules are as follows:
1. They must have had at least one Top 20 hit in the UK (here, Every Hit is your friend.
2. The more obscure the better - an act who 99% of the population (including members of the artist's immediate family) will have barely any recollection of are perfect.
3. Bonus points if you have any spectacularly trivial facts about them.

I'll start the ball rolling with this. An Irish female rap duo who reached #17 in 2000 with this cover of a Bananarama track.

Pointless trivia: Naomi Lynch (the dark-haired one) comes from a pop family; her brother, Shane, is in Boyzone (and also features in this video) and her two sisters - Edele and Keavy - were in B*Witched.

We all have that record that we know we shouldn't like because it ruins our credibility somewhat. I maybe shaven headed, tattooed and have my nose pierced but hey The Carpenters were a great band (Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft excepted of course).

I am sure the Massive have their own Guilty Pleasures.

There are quite a few other songs that I know I should keep schtum about liking but when they are as good as this slice of poptastic genius I can't help but shout about it.

were far better as a Pop band than they ever were as a Rock band.

Opinions?

Bob's recent pop music thread couldn't have come at a better time, as far as I'm concerned. I seem to be rapidly falling out of love with guitar music, and am listening to ever-increasing qualities of pop, dance, electro, hip-hop and dubstep.

At the moment, if it was made in 1971 and features copious amounts of pedal steel, I'm going to turn it off and put some JLS on. I don't want over-wrought singer-songwriters; I want sassy girls singing about how crap their boyfriends are or Nicki Minaj being completely bonkers.

So, is anyone else feeling a bit like this? And also, what's your favourite pop song of the last twelve months. Mine is this...

(Katy B - Katy On A Mission)

At lunchtime today, I was listening to the new Britney Spears album (lucky me). While doing so, I wondered what exactly the point of the album was.

There are certain acts (primarily pop and usually aimed at the teen market) whose albums contain two or three hit singles and then a load of filler. This isn't true for all pop - the most recent Lady Gaga and Robyn albums are pretty strong from soup to nuts - but it is the case for many.

So, why do these people still record albums? In a market where single sales are booming and album sales are down, an established artist such as Britney Spears could surely not bother with the full 12 track, 40 minute LP and just concentrate on the songs people want to hear. Then, every few years, she could release a compilation featuring nothing but big hits.

So, has anyone done this before and if not, why not? Or, am I just being naive and the reason no-one does it is because albums are where the money is?

Last week, I listened to the entire Top 40 on Radio 1. I'm not about to denounce all modern pop music as rubbish; some of it was pretty good.

However, what was most striking was how NOISY everything was. Most songs had no semblance of dynamics and any trace of subtlety had been sledgehammered out of them. I was wondering why this is and came up with three possible reasons:
- the "loudness wars"; as covered by The Word before, now you can see songs represented as waveforms on ProTools, the temptation is always to "fill in" any gaps
- shorter attention spans; thanks to the internet and particularly social networking, people get easily distracted, songs no longer have time to "grow on you". They have to catch your interest right away otherwise... oh, look, a squirrel.
- competition; music is now often listened to on the move. Therefore, any song has got to compete with ambient traffic noise and sometimes other music leaking out from poor quality headphones.

So, any other suggestions as to why this is?

In case you're wondering, in the class of 2011, THIS is the worst offender (maybe NSFW due to fruity language).

Looking at the TOTP thread made me wonder what has happened to the archive of Ready Steady Go programmes. Much cooler than TOTP, it was pretty much indispensable Friday night viewing if you were growing up in the mid 60s. Apart from the regular programmes, the specials they broadcast ( James Brown, Otis Redding, Tamla ) were something else. I've got some scratchy old footage rebroadcast years ago but I'm sure I read somewhere that the rights were bought by Dave Clark ( of Dave Clark Five ). Apart from some odd video compilations a long while back, nothing else seems to have emerged. Is DC waiting for some special anniversary? I would have thought there would be a lot of interest in a properly curated set of DVD releases, much like the Old Grey Whistle Test ones.
Anyone know any more?

I've always been interested in how football chants develop and mutate. Usually, they seem to be based on popular songs of the day - for example, 'Yellow Submarine', 'Guantanamera' etc. More up to date examples include the use of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' by Man Utd fans. Any more obscure examples out there?

The one that's long mystified me is the clapping rhythm that began ( I think ) in the 60s. It goes :

Clap Clap / Clap Clap Clap/ Clap Clap Clap Clap / Arse-Nal ( or whoever )

I've long maintained to friends and anyone else who'll listen that this derives from an obscure early 60s surf instrumental by The Routers titled 'Let's Go'. This uses the above rhythm but ( obviously ) with the phrase 'Let's Go' at the end. However, I struggle to explain how such an obscure single, which never bothered the charts as far as I know, could have spread so widely across UK football terraces. I first heard the chant when watching Millwall at the Old Den in the 60s ( I was young and foolish in those days ) but I doubt whether it originated there, Millwall fans not being best known for their innovative tendencies ( except where violence was concerned ).

Earlier today, I tweeted for help with identifying some new (to me) music. I wanted classy pop, with emphasis on the pop. And, my GOD, the Massive delivered. I have some great new albums.

I particularly want to thank JoLean and Joe R for recommending Robyn's "Body Talk" album to me. It is quite seriously one of the best records I've heard in a long time, and it is unapologetically a 21st century pop album.

Which made me think that pure pop isn't something we often discuss around here. There are clearly a small handful of people who think pop isn't quite appropriate for the discerning music fan, the "real" "connoisseur" of "authentic" music - a position which I suspect has more to do with machismo than much else - but what about the rest of us?

I'd love it if the Massive could post their favourite pop tunes. Critical approbation is strictly optional, but neither am I looking for camp or cheese for their own sake. Classy, timeless pop music is what I'm after - old or new. Something that would appeal equally to a teenager or an octogenarian and all points in between, as long as they have working ears and few prejudices. Let's have 'em!

Here's mine to kick off. Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend.

No, this isn't a thread about the sound of a laden nappy being dropped onto a table. It is instead a rundown of my recent record shopping excursion to Bristol.

I rarely get the chance or the disposable income to do this but, having fallen behind over the last year or so, I decided a one-hit musical catch-up was called for and excitedly wended my way to The Big Town with an envelope full of birthday money. (I am 33.)

The Word blog can be a confusing maelstrom of tastes as divergent as they are passionately upheld, so I reckoned a pithy review of everything I bought would give a context to my (un-asked-for) opinions in the hope that it might help someone in a similar situation to catch up on these largely recent releases.
Mostly, though, I just want to spout. FPO is getting bored of me talking.

Only a few listens each. No particular order:

The Bees - Every Step's a Yes
First track is gorgeous, heartfelt pop and probably makes the rest look a bit pale, unfortunately. But I love a band who really enjoy themselves doing what they do.

Elvis Costello - National Ransom
Obviously, it's brilliantly talented songcraft... but sometimes I just want Elvis to sing a note I half-expect. Haven't clicked with it (yet).

Sleigh Bells - Treats
Quite mental electronic/garage/noisy brilliance. MIA and Santogold but with more electric guitar and better tunes. Can't listen to it every day... bloodied ears...

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
This is a perfect pop package and, IMO, far better than their previous albums. It makes you forget that you want to slap Damon Albarn when you see him in interviews. And I will buy anything with Gruff Rhys on it.

Dangermouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul
A lovely collaboration; half dungeons and half starlight. Was I expecting more, or would I just prefer less Flaming Lips? See above re Gruff Rhys.

I Am Kloot - The Sky At Night
Utterly beautiful and the best Kloot album I've known. Elbow is all over the production, which ticks boxes for me but possible furious crossings-out for others.

Danny and the Champions - Streets of Our Time
It's growing on me but I was initially put off by the over-use of slide guitars.

Four Tet - There is Love in You
I feared a let-down for the chill-out fans with this one but it's just ace, really. Possibly my favourite of this bunch.

Caribou - Swim
Ooh, it's a wonkier version of the above. I like it but it has to compete and usually comes second. Needs more listens, then.

Gil Scott Heron - I'm New Here
Ditto. Shame I mostly listen to music at work, otherwise this would have got more than one spin.

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Fabulous indie-pop. I hope there's more of this to come because it's wonderfully inventive and to my ears sounds unique. Apart from when it reminds me of...

Belle and Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab Strap
which I lost and have been without for nearly ten years. What took me so long to buy it again?

Stornoway - Beachcomber's Windowsill
I was expecting a bunch of 20-somethings pretending to be old fishermen types in a misguided snobbery of other popular music but that doesn't do them any justice. It's way more up-beat and jolly than I thought, with delightful tunes and charming simplicity.

Mos Def - The Ecstatic
Hankering after something from the oldskool vein, I'm glad I went for this. He does not sound like he's resting up.

Duke Ellington - 'Essential' compilation covering 1928-58
Keeping up my jazz self-tutelage, I discover what I like best is the stuff that falls between swing and avant-garde.

Overall, surely this was the most fun I've had on my own, in public, without venturing into criminality.

I'm sure this probably looks like small fry to some of you... what's your biggest record-buying binge?

Janelle Monáe.

Thought the multifaceted likes of '80s Prince long gone but anyone who can go from Fleet Fox folky to psychedelic dirge to r'n'b pop....

Good isn't she.

Her album Arch android out now in the States (Out in July over here ) and i've been listening to it non stop over the weekend. It's a fantstic mix and pop, funk, rock and hipperty hop. And it's has to be the most impressive debut album for years.

I think it’s fair to say that when talk turns to music here, it tends to veer towards the obscure end of the spectrum – lost talents, lesser known artists (old and new), b-sides, obscure album tracks, bootlegs and so on. Well let’s explore the other end – those tracks and artists that are so well-known and so ingrained in our DNA that we think we know them inside-out, maybe even to the point of skipping them when they come up on our music-players…

I thought of this last week because I had an iPod disaster (since sorted, thanks for asking) and was forced into borrowing the FPO’s iPod shuffle for an imminent journey without time to check or amend the track selection, and 2 songs in particular unexpectedly struck me during the trip, that for some reason suddenly felt fresh as paint…

Donna Summer – I Feel Love: what a record – brutally minimalist techno that invented the “soul singer over an electro backing track” template still in use today, and sounds as relevant next to Cabaret Voltaire as it does to Chic (a good trick if you can do it.) If this was released today it would just be too weird to chart, that’s how good it is.

Sparks – This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us: is there anyone here over 40 who doesn’t remember Sparks’ debut TOTP performance as if it were yesterday? Luckily the record is worthy of every braincell devoted to that memory, it’s ridiculous, baroque, funny, and unlike anything else, skating perilously close the edge of being a novelty hit without quite tipping over – amazing.

This isn’t about “guilty pleasures”, and I wouldn’t remotely claim to have “rediscovered” these tracks, they were huge hits and are classics for a reason, but what other great tracks do we think are worthy of reappraisal with fresh ears, the ones that are so much part of the furniture that everyone takes them for granted? State your case, send us back to our iPods!

Look, I think it's a great song. Classic pop.

Eh? There's a video as well? Oh, I hadn't really noticed