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Twee pop
Stylistic origins:	Bubblegum pop, New wave, Indie rock, Alternative rock, 1960s Girl groups, sometimes fused with Punk rock to form cuddlecore
Cultural origins:	mid 1980s, United Kingdom
Typical instruments:	Guitar - Bass - Drums
Mainstream popularity:	Largely underground, with some acts gaining a cult following.
Regional scenes
England - Scotland - Wales - Ireland - New Zealand
Other topics
Timeline of alternative rock

This article is about the genre of music. For the adjective, see "wikt:twee".

Twee pop, also known as love rock, anorak rock, cuddlecore or shambling, is a type of indie pop that is known for simple, sweet melodies and lyrics, often combined with jangling guitars. While groups in this style had existed previously, twee pop was first recognised as a distinct genre in 1986, when a number of these bands, including Shop Assistants, Primal Scream and The Pastels, emerged simultaneously, and were showcased on C86, a compilation released by mail-order through New Musical Express (see 1986 in music). At the time, the genre was also analysed in Melody Maker by Simon Reynolds, who saw in it a rejection of dominant 1980s values of commercialism and Americanisation and a yearning for a perceived innocent past.

While the roots of the genre can be traced back to groups of the late 1960s like The Byrds and The Lovin' Spoonful, the clearest influence on twee pop comes from Post-Punk artists of the late 1970s and early 1980s who mixed a do-it-yourself approach with a rejection of chest-beating rock machismo - especially Orange Juice, Television Personalities and Jonathan Richman. Twee pop bands who use 'buzzsaw' rather than jangling guitars, such as Shonen Knife and the Beatnik Termites, tend also to be influenced by Buzzcocks and The Ramones.

In the United Kingdom, where twee pop was most popular, Sarah Records became home to most of the bands in the field. In the United States, the movement was championed by K Records of Olympia, Washington. A handful of bands popularized twee pop in the American underground in the 80's and 90's. Some of the most notable were Beat Happening, Swirlies, Tiger Trap, All Girl Summer Fun Band, Tullycraft, and The Softies.

Although 'twee pop' is a widely accepted term for this style of music it did not come into use until the 1990s. In the 1980s 'twee' bands were simply described as 'indie' or 'shambling', the latter term coined by DJ John Peel, who originally applied it to a session by the group Bogshed.

Though Belle & Sebastian have been described as a twee pop band, this is a description the band has rejected.^{[citation needed]}

The term has been rejected and then adopted by many of the bands whose sound has been described this way. This has spawned inside jokes like the T-shirts that read "Twee as Fuck" or "Twee Fucker".^[1]

The origins of the word "twee" are disputed, but it is generally accepted that it is a corruption of the word "sweet", used to mean "affectedly dainty"[1].

Contents 1 Cuddlecore 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

A more punk-influenced North American variant of twee pop in the 1990s was also sometimes referred to as cuddlecore. Bands in this subgenre included cub, Bunnygrunt and Maow. Cuddlecore bands generally combined a punk rock attitude with pop melodies and female-led harmony vocals.

• List of twee pop bands

1. ^ Abebe, Nitsuh (2005-10-24). Twee as Fuck. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on December 15, 2006.

• Pitchforkmedia: 'Twee As Fuck'
• TweeNet
• Online Twee Radio

Alternative rock

Alternative metal - Britpop - C86 - College rock - Dream pop - Dunedin Sound - Geek rock - Gothic rock - Grebo - Grunge - Indie pop - Indie rock - Industrial rock - Lo-fi - Madchester - Math rock - Noise pop - Paisley Underground - Post-grunge - Post-punk revival - Post-rock - Riot Grrrl - Shoegazing - Slowcore - Space rock - Twee pop

Other topics

Artists - College radio - History - Indie (music) - Lollapalooza