walking upstream…
Pulp
Pulp are an English rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978 around frontman Jarvis Cocker, who spent the 1980s in obscurity before the band's mid-1990s run -- His 'n' Hers (1994), Different Class (1995), and This Is Hardcore (1998) -- made them, alongside Blur, Oasis, and Suede, one of Britpop's 'big four.' Cocker's wry, voyeuristic 'kitchen sink drama' lyrics, wrapped in glam, disco, and orchestral flourishes, turned Different Class's 'Common People' into one of the era's defining singles.
the sound in question
1995
Common PeoplePulp
walk the tributaries ↓
Scott Walker1960s · baroque pop / art rock / avant-garde
Cocker, a lifelong Scott Walker devotee who chose Walker's 'The War Is Over' for Desert Island Discs, personally asked Walker to produce Pulp's final studio album, We Love Life (2001) -- his first time producing anyone but himself; keyboardist Candida Doyle said 'if Scott Walker hadn't come about, I don't think we'd have bothered to finish this LP.'
listen: upstream & heresource: Wikipedia -- We Love Life, on Jarvis Cocker asking Scott Walker to produce the album and Candida Doyle's quote ↗
1995
Farmer in the CityScott Walker
2001
The TreesPulp
listen forLush, baroque string arrangements and a hushed, cinematic vocal delivery, audible across We Love Life's more orchestral moments.
The Kinks1960s–70s · Rock / British Invasion / Music hall
Kinks frontman Ray Davies has said that Britpop bands writing about English life -- naming Pulp specifically -- show a clear music-hall and Kinks lineage, the same kitchen-sink character studies he pioneered on songs like 'Dead End Street.'
listen: upstream & here
1967
Waterloo SunsetThe Kinks
1994
BabiesPulp
listen forAn eye for very specific, class-conscious English social detail -- exact circumstances and humiliations -- inside an otherwise catchy pop chorus.
David Bowie1970s · Art rock / Glam rock
Cocker narrated a BBC Four documentary on the making of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, and critics have long placed his arch, theatrical Britpop stage persona within Bowie's glam lineage.
listen: upstream & heresource: BBC Four -- 'David Bowie ↗
1971
Life on Mars?David Bowie
1995
Disco 2000Pulp
listen forThe arch, semi-spoken vocal delivery and glam-inflected arrangements Pulp leaned on through Different Class.