Sunshine pop

  • Soft pop

Mid 1960s, California, U.S.

Etymology[edit]

Music identified under the sunshine pop banner initially was called "soft pop".[3] Record collectors coined and popularized the term "sunshine pop" many years after the fact.[8][5]

Rediscovery[edit]

After its peak in the 1960s, the genre lingered in near-obscurity, although it enjoyed some interest among collectors of rare vinyl singles and LPs. Select albums would occasionally fetch hefty prices at online auctions or in record stores.[12] A name was eventually given to the music, "sunshine pop", although it was rarely deployed outside of record collecting circles.[5] In the early 1990s, a renewed interest began in Japan,[13] where record companies started publishing compilations of long-forgotten, obscure 1960s music. This revival subsequently spread to Europe and the United States.[14]


Compilations and box-sets by groups such as Spanky and Our Gang, The Association, The Arbors and The Love Generation have been released on CD. Among the record labels which issue sunshine pop re-releases are Revola Records in Britain and the US label Sundazed.

List of sunshine pop artists

Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults

Bubblegum pop

Microgenres

Soft rock

Howard, David N. (2004). . Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 978-0-634-05560-7.

Sonic Alchemy: Visionary Music Producers and Their Maverick Recordings

(2011). Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-1-4299-6858-4.

Reynolds, Simon

(2013). Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-28198-5.

Stanley, Bob

(2003). Eight Miles High: Folk-rock's Flight from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock. Backbeat Books. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-87930-743-1.

Unterberger, Richie