Tears For Fears - what genre of music are they?
- Thread starter Johnny Vinyl
- Start date
I'm old school when it comes to genres though I heed their advice to the young at heart 
. No new wave adult alternative whatever for me. I LOVE Tears for Fears just saw them in concert a few months ago. I say Rock.
. No new wave adult alternative whatever for me. I LOVE Tears for Fears just saw them in concert a few months ago. I say Rock.
I'm old school when it comes to genres though I heed their advice to the young at heart
Rock yeah...but very orchesteral and different from standard rock......I'm still thinking somewhat Progressive.
John
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Co-Owner, Administrator
Interesting......to me Styx, ELO and stuff is like light rock. I think that TFF are deeper than that.
John
Not progressive. Not at all. 80's synth based new wave/pop. No way songs like Everybody Wants To Rule The World or Shout are progressive rock. They did change their act in the 90's to a sound that is more Beatles-ish.
Maybe some of their hits...dig deeper though and the synth is gone. I think they are much more progressive than what you may think.
Hey John, you fellow prog head, have you ever checked out progarchives.com? It is one of, if not the, leading on-line authorities for progressive music. The wealth of information there is just unbelievable. I visit that site at least once a day.
Assuming you haven't yet done so, register. It would be interesting if you would start pose your question at their forum to see what the prog community thinks about TFF.
, have you ever checked out progarchives.com? It is one of, if not the, leading on-line authorities for progressive music. The wealth of information there is just unbelievable. I visit that site at least once a day.Assuming you haven't yet done so, register. It would be interesting if you would start pose your question at their forum to see what the prog community thinks about TFF.
I second the opinion on "Alternative", at least that would work for me since I would not like them to appear in my Rock list, BTW Itunes has a new acoustic version of Sowing the Seeds of Love.
and what? When you pull them up in iTunes they are categorized under "Rock".....
Boy, all these years and I never really even thought about this. Darn you John!!!!!
Thanks to VH1 it seems any artist or band popular in the 80s and early 90s gets "Adult" slapped in front of the genre. TFF certainly started as a synth/pop band albeit one with darker undertones. Not as gloomy as The Cure or Siouxsie and the Banshees but they did hit it big in the post-punk, pre-gothic period generally referred to New Wave outside the US (at least the next one) for lack of any real genre as the 80's UK bands took U.S. charts like no other time since the 60s. The Hurting, which is still my favorite even if a certain Adam Lambert weirded out Mad World, had these guys looking the New Wave part with the familiar hair cuts, eyeliner and all black clothing. Unlike other "New Wave" synth/pop bands like Flock of Seagulls or early Depeche Mode, however TFF always had acoustic guitars and generally used electric bass just like other hard to peg bands from the same era such as Echo and the Bunnymen and Bauhaus. By the time Songs from the Big Chair came guitar use took precedence over synths making them more "Rock" than Synth Pop. Just like the first two albums however succeeding ones retained a mix of dark brooding songs with songs with catchy pop hooks. The last two Albums incorporated bits of blues, jazz and even folk motifs. In the concert I watched recently they even covered Jackson's Billy Jean.
They really are a mixed bag with influences from all over. Stripped to the most basic however I think that TFF today can really be best described as just Rock.
Thanks to VH1 it seems any artist or band popular in the 80s and early 90s gets "Adult" slapped in front of the genre. TFF certainly started as a synth/pop band albeit one with darker undertones. Not as gloomy as The Cure or Siouxsie and the Banshees but they did hit it big in the post-punk, pre-gothic period generally referred to New Wave outside the US (at least the next one) for lack of any real genre as the 80's UK bands took U.S. charts like no other time since the 60s. The Hurting, which is still my favorite even if a certain Adam Lambert weirded out Mad World, had these guys looking the New Wave part with the familiar hair cuts, eyeliner and all black clothing. Unlike other "New Wave" synth/pop bands like Flock of Seagulls or early Depeche Mode, however TFF always had acoustic guitars and generally used electric bass just like other hard to peg bands from the same era such as Echo and the Bunnymen and Bauhaus. By the time Songs from the Big Chair came guitar use took precedence over synths making them more "Rock" than Synth Pop. Just like the first two albums however succeeding ones retained a mix of dark brooding songs with songs with catchy pop hooks. The last two Albums incorporated bits of blues, jazz and even folk motifs. In the concert I watched recently they even covered Jackson's Billy Jean.
They really are a mixed bag with influences from all over. Stripped to the most basic however I think that TFF today can really be best described as just Rock.
Ron - I visit ProgArchives regularly, but never registered. Thanks for that, I think I might just do that!
Jack - Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head about them being a mixed bag of influences. I've never been able to narrow them down into one partcular genre myself, hence the question.
John
Jack - Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head about them being a mixed bag of influences. I've never been able to narrow them down into one partcular genre myself, hence the question.
John
80's synth pop. It's a fairly big category that includes music of various levels of quality from dreck to guilty pleasure to sublime and can be broken down into further sub-categories based on influences such as world beat (UB40, haircut 100, Thompson Twins, Culture Club, Howard Jones, Thomas Dolby), quasi-progressive (Wang Chung, INXS, The Fixx, Depeche Mode), Beatlesque (Squeeze, Cars) and others.
Some bands bleed from one sub category to another as they go from song to song or album to album.
TFF would probably go under quasi progressive.
The quasi part not intended as a slam only descriptor.
Some bands bleed from one sub category to another as they go from song to song or album to album.
TFF would probably go under quasi progressive.
The quasi part not intended as a slam only descriptor.
Been listening to TFF over the last few days and I still can't decipher them. I have this thing in my head that says "progressive overtures"..and I'm ok with that, but I can't pinpoint it. Maybe I should just let it die and call it "rock".
John
John
I suppose you could call some of their music crossover prog. For reference or comparison, here's an example of what is known as crossover prog by a local (Los Gatos, CA) band, Dredg, and excellent music at that:
I suppose you could call some of their music crossover prog. For reference or comparison, here's an example of what is known as crossover prog by a local (Los Gatos, CA) band, Dredg, and excellent music at that:
Can you get me a link to some tunes?
John
Similar threads
 | Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator |  | Ron Resnick Site Owner | Administrator |  | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |