M -- "Pop Muzik" (1979)

New York, London, Paris, Munich

Everybody talk about pop muzik [sic]

Let's be honest.  2 or 3 lines can be guilty of pedantry, as its somewhat gratuitous use of sic above demonstrates.  (Actually, even the use of "pedantry" demonstrates a fairly high degree of pedantry on the part of 2 or 3 lines.)

Sic was used to indicate my accuracy in transcribing the quoted text despite what appears to be a misspelling or typing error ("muzik").  

In reality, sic was used to tell you not only that I know how to spell "music" -- no great accomplishment, even for a redneck who has many ancestors from Arkansas -- but also that I'm smart enough to know how to use sic (which is, as I'm sure you know, Latin for "so," "thus," "as such," etc.). 

Sic, which was first used in English around 1856, is rarely used to spare the reader confusion or uncertainty, which is its legitimate use.  It is much more often used to ridicule a writer's incorrect or unorthodox spelling or punctuation or grammar and allow an editor to show off his or her intellectual superiority.  (That's certainly why it was used here.)   

I think we've beaten that dead horse to death -- don't you agree?  Let's move on to today's featured song, "Pop Muzik" [sic]. 

I'm sure you remember this catchy little ditty from 1979, don't you?  It made it all the way to #1 on the US and Canadian pop charts, and was subsequently released on M's New York - London - Paris - Munich album.  The song has been covered and remixed and featured on movie soundtracks over and over again.
  

M was a short-lived English new wave/synthesizer pop band that was the brainchild of Robin Scott, an art student turned musician who has done it all -- he's performed live, recorded, composed, managed other musicians, and produced them.  

His website includes a virtual gallery of his artworks.  Here's a link if you'd like to check them out.  

In 2009, an album that featured the original "Pop Muzik" and thirteen remixes of the song was issued to mark the 30th anniversary of the song.

U2 used a remix of "Pop Muzik" to open each of their "PopMart" tour (1997-98) concerts:

Does "We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It" rings any bells?  That was the name of an all-female alternative group from the UK who released their first single in 1986, broke up in 1990, and reunited in 2010 -- only to break up again in 2011.  They covered "Pop Muzik" in 2010:



Here's the official music video for the one, the only, the original recording of "Pop Muzik," by Robin Scott and M:

Here's a link you can use to buy the song from Amazon: