I’ve been out of university and in the Real World for just over a year now, so I’ve had fewer opportunities to flex the muscles of my inner wordsmith – however, I regret to inform the 3 of you who may read this, that the chance to flex once again has arrived. The light to the blue touch paper? Sonia’s You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You.
I’m pinpointing this song because it’s a recent discovery by way of an old Top of the Pops repeat. I had no idea it existed, had never listened to Sonia, and suddenly all I listened to was Sonia. You thought I was being mean about this song by my use of the
word ‘trash’ in the title of this post. Two things can be true at once. It is, in fact, utter trash. Is it still great? Yes. By great, do I mean terrible? Also yes.
YNSMLY was part of the subsection of music borne out of the synthesised technicolour rainbow that was Stock, Aitken and Waterman’s late 80s pop emporium. Such an empire was built on so much pop cheese that it could cause
gastrointestinal issues in anyone within a 5-mile radius. Don’t believe me? Check out another Sonia offering – Someone Like You. A far cry from the 21st century lamenting of Adele, its 80s counterpart is in fact a bouncy, bubble-gum tune about finding the Perfect Boy. This sense of naivety brings me back to the somewhat questionable message behind YNSMLY.
“You’ll never stop me from loving you/It doesn’t really matter what you put me through.” Where is this message to be found in Beauvoir’s The Second Sex? Oh, right. Although, the whole song does strike a rather stalkerish note: “When I know that you’re alone/I wander to your home/And catch a glimpse or two.” The only other example I can think of in this lyrical arena is Busted’s That’s What I Go To School For – “I climb a tree outside her home/To make sure that she’s alone/I see her in her underwear/I can’t help but stop and stare.” However, where Busted come across as laddish schoolboys, the idea of ‘it doesn’t really matter what you put me through’ walks the line between lovestruck and faintly concerning.
I know, I’m being painfully self-righteous. I understand this is by no means the worst song to come out of the 80s regarding the perception of women (the entire back catalogue of Mötley Crüe, anyone?) Indeed, there are many other songs with equally wet sentiments from the women of the 20th Century – Jennifer Rush’s The Power of Love, even Dolly Parton’s Jolene. I am not holding Sonia or any of these women up as the enemy of feminism – I’d be a hypocrite if I was. It is simply interesting to notice how easily a questionable lyrical message can be overlooked by a catchy melody jammed with more synths than Gary Numan’s garage in 1979. But then, how many pop songs can that argument apply to?
I’m not trying to get on a soapbox and rant about how 80s pop music undercut centuries of feminist struggle. That would have been a brilliant dissertation topic, but the bottom line is this: You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You was written by a group of 3 blokes in the 80s who knew their way around production and a decent melody. It’s incredibly catchy, it’s very upbeat, and most importantly, it’s of its time. During these months of confusion, uncertainty and fear, it is completely harmless. It’s escapist and light-hearted. It may be so cheesy that you feel ashamed of liking it, but I say this – put it on when you’re making dinner or tidying your room. Allow yourself to fall for it, hook, line and synthesiser.