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Jon O'Brien
Jon O'Brien is a freelance entertainment writer from Wigan who has written the Forget Me Not and Top 20 features for Classic Pop since 2019 and had bylines in the likes of Esquire, Billboard, Vulture, New Scientist, i-D, The Guardian, GRAMMY.com and Paste. He's also a soccer enthusiast, reluctant runner, King Charles Spaniel owner, garage drummer, Icelandophile and carrot cake connoisseur. The first single he ever bought was Starship's We Built This City, the first album Now That's What I Call Music 6 and his favourite Classic Pop-friendly acts are Scritti Politti, The Sundays and The Bangles.
Mining the past to make the music of the future, these singles used 80s sampling to fine effect From the prominence of the Fairlight CMI and the rise in turntablism…
Daryl Hall interview: “I feel creatively like I’ve come back to life again”
As he releases his first solo retrospective, Daryl Hall talks to Classic Pop about record label woes, superstar hook-ups and life without Oates… From Hall & Oates’ perennial radio staples…
Spotlight: We Are The World – the album
We Are the World hit No.1 across the globe, sold 10 million copies and picked up four Grammy Awards. Yet the album of the same name appears to have been…
Remembering The David Arnold James Bond Project: Shaken And Stirred
Scoring Tomorrow Never Dies wasn’t David Arnold’s first brush with 007 – just a few months previously, the composer had assembled an impressive and eclectic list of contributors for The…
Remembering Dead Or Alive: Mad, Bad, And Dangerous To Know
After achieving MTV fame with one of the 80s most iconic pop songs, could lightning strike twice for Dead or Alive with their album Mad, Bad, And Dangerous To Know?…
Top 20 80s pop duos
In this list of the top 80s pop duos we look at how, in music, two is sometimes better than one… Contrary to De La Soul’s hip-hop classic, three isn’t…
Top 20 posthumous pop releases
In this list of the 20 best posthumous pop releases, we look at the songs that just HAD to see the light of day… Death isn’t automatically a barrier to…
Top 20 pop side projects
Some pop side projects were just fleeting dalliances away from the mothership, while others made a lasting impact… Whether they’re borne out of creativity, curiosity or just plain boredom, pop…
Top 20 80s house hits
Our countdown of the best house hits of the 80s… House music may have been initially dismissed as a cult concern by the nation’s one-time ultimate tastemaker Radio 1, but…
Top 20 No.1s that owed a debt to the 80s
The 80s didn’t stop in 1989, oh no. In the world of music, the last three decades have leaned heavily on that classic decade. Classic Pop looks at the best…