Among other things…

Does another Monday leave you feeling mostly murky and melancholy?  Well stop moaning!  The Nest’s mighty musical masters know just how to manipulate your mind back into a merry mood!  That’s the day we mine for another melodious memory out of that mountain of muzak from many moons ago we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive!  DJ Scratchy is once again your maven for magnificent moldy melodies, while the Sponkies make melted mustard muffins in the microwave.  Munch on some M&M’s while minding this week’s meaty ear morsel…

This week’s earworm is brought to you by the letter M, as in the late 70’s band that was known as just plain M.  M was basically Robin Scott and a bunch of bit players, including a few family members, and they may be one of the more anonymous number one artists of all time.  Yes, they actually had a #1 hit in the US in late 1979 with this tribute to pop music called….. well, “Pop Muzik.”

“Pop Muzik” was actually written as a tribute to the entire “rock and roll” era of pop music that began in the mid 1950’s and was supposed to incorporate numerous sounds from that entire block, but since that probably wouldn’t have been successful, it instead piggybacked off of two genres that were very much in style at the time, disco and synthesizer driven new wave.  And hey, it worked… like pop music itself, it’s got some catchy lyrics and a beat you can dance to…

Or……. maybe not.

The music video, made two years before MTV made music videos into an art form, is quite a train wreck.  Robin Scott plays the world’s most annoying deejay while two department store mannequins dressed in black leather lounge around and look bored to fucking death.  But their level of enthusiasm is off the charts compared to Robin’s wife Brigit Novik, who sings the backing vocals with all of the liveliness of an audience member at an Alyans concert.  Yeesh, you gotta think if they knew the music video business was going to become as popular as it did in the 80’s, they’d have put in just a little more effort…

This is the Music Video Police! You’re all under arrest for poor taste! Don’t make any sudden movements….. if any of you even can.

Now all M stands for is Mystery as they went from the top of the charts to the bottom of the name recognition list in pop muzik music history….

More music next week!  Maybe metal, or mellow, or Motown?  Meet you next Monday!