A to Z - A Is For...Ady Gaga?

The Human Alphabet. In my opinion, one of the creepiest things on the internet.

The A to Z of Pop

by Jo Michelmore 

I've got two major loves in life. Music is one and words are the other. How good is it that I write words on a music blog then? I know, I'm pretty darn lucky, don't be jealous.


Which brings me to our newest feature here on It's My Kind Of Scene. The A to Z. We're gonna start the first round of alphabet-ing with a celebration of all things pop, 'cause whether you like to deny it or embrace it, everyone has a love of it and there's not enough pop around here. Maybe. Well, there's always room for more anyway.


So here it is. The A to Z of Pop. Welcome to A.

Ady Gaga, Aylor Swift and Aty Perry don't count. You get how this alphabet thing works, right? Right. We could start with A is for Abba, one of the biggest pop acts of their time (Eurovision entrant makes them quite large, in my humble Eurovision loving opinion, but that's a whole other story) but they're not my favourite from the land of Sweden, 'cause let's not deny it, there's someone better.

"I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes" vs "you can dance you can jive"? Ace Of Base wins, easily. What is the sign? Who is the sign? Not a bearded man in a one piece flared suit, Bjorn, that's for sure. Sorry Abba. Admittedly, "gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight" comes a close second, because really, who doesn't want that (rhetorical question, don't answer) but the 90s that oozes from Abba's fellow country musos is just that much cooler.

If we're going to talk pop in the 90s though, you can't look past some of the awful cringe worthy amazing r'n'b that happened in the early part of that decade. I love some of it, but thankfully I also found Nirvana. That's a different alphabet though. All 4 One, they were just like the poor mans Boyz II Men and that strange guy with the glasses? I could never figure him out. He's the creepy cousin at the family Christmas party who sits in the corner with gravy on his chin and a piece of corn in his teeth. And by the way All 4 One, swearing you'll be by my side like a shadow is uncomfortably close to stalking.

A is for All Saints. Now there's a 90s pop group who weren't so creepy. They were all so busy trying to be less London council estate and more ghetto-licious they didn't have time to be creepy. By the way, if you ever-ever attempt this song at karaoke, know that it never-ever ends.

So many A's around here, I could talk Adele or Alicia Keys or Avril Lavigne or Aviici or I could drift way back to the 80s and start talking everyone's fave English ginger, Rick Astley, but you know what I really wanna talk about? My favourite song of the entire 80s, which I have probably declared before and will do it again and was sung by a band whose name began with A.

A-ha, it's A-ha. See what I did there? Comic genius. Things you need to will now know: I have a friend who once had a slight obsession with lead singer Morten Harket. I get it, he's kinda 80s babe-ish. I just love him 'cause his name is Morten Harket. That's a pop star name, if I ever heard one. If I ever have a son I may call him that.


One more thing you need to know and you'll thank me for this one day in a trivia challenge. A-ha were Norwegian. Name me another Norwegian band that aren't some form of metal. Yeah, gotcha there. Norwegian! And so began my life long obsession with having to visit Norway someday. Well, A-ha and Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, my favourite royal, who is known to love a music festival or two. What, is Norway just full of interesting attractive viking men? Must visit...