From indie band fanclubs to TikTok virality: the continued popularity of Margo Guryan
A few years ago, TikTok mainly consisted of young people lip-syncing and dancing. Replacing the dominance of the now-defunct Vine, TikTok is now a hugely popular social media app, attracting users of all ages. It has proved time and time again to have a significant impact on pop culture, from fashion trends to music, helping to launch or boost the careers of artists like PinkPantheress and Chappell Roan.
Yet, it’s not just modern artists who are finding popularity through the app. TikTok has also brought many musicians and songs from decades past to young listeners, from Bronski Beat’s ‘Smalltown Boy’ to ‘QKThr’ by Aphex Twin. The power of the app lies in its specifically tailored ‘For You Page’ function, which caters to niche groups of users. Thus, many tracks from the 1960s have found a place on TikTok in recent years, which would’ve likely remained unknown to certain young people if not for the platform.
One example of this is evident in the renewed popularity of Margo Guryan, who only released one album, Take a Picture, in 1968. After releasing the record, following her start as a songwriter, her reluctance to tour meant that the album never achieved the success it could’ve achieved. Thus, Guryan’s name failed to become a household name, despite her being responsible for writing songs that had become chart hits, like ‘Sunday Mornin’, performed by Sparky and the Gang.
Yet, since then, there have been various instances where Guryan’s music has been rediscovered and appreciated by groups of ‘60s pop lovers, starting in the ‘90s and continuing into the present day with TikTok users soundtracking their videos with Guryan’s ‘Why Do I Cry?’. There’s something about her dreamy pop songs that have captivated new listeners often, but it seems her music doesn’t have a wide enough appeal to be remembered in higher esteem. Perhaps because her career as a singer was limited to one official record, Guryan failed to secure herself a spot in the canon as an iconic artist on the same level as someone like Françoise Hardy or Nancy Sinatra.
It’s a shame that Guryan isn’t more widely known, but we can thank TikTok for exposing her music to a newer audience, which has certainly helped to boost her popularity; she now has over 750,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. That’s not to say there weren’t dedicated fans of Guryan before now – we can actually partly thank Saint Etienne for recording a cover of ‘I Don’t Want To Spend Christmas Without You’ for their fan club in the ‘90s, which brought her music to a group of passionate indie fans with retro leanings.
Guryan’s fun pop tunes, sometimes undercut with a sweet kind of melancholy, such as ‘Love Songs’, have instant appeal. They’re short, relatable, and charming – it’s hard not to love Guryan’s gentle voice, whether she’s joined by funk-inspired instrumentation (‘Sunday Morning’) or the soulful backing found on ‘Something’s Wrong with the Morning’. On the latter track, Guryan laments her simple worries over a man not calling her in the morning or telling her he loves her, while on ‘Why Do I Cry?’ she asks why she finds the morning after such a good night out so terribly painful.
After Linus of Hollywood also covered some Guryan songs in the ‘90s, he reissued Take A Picture, making it available to a wider audience. His record label also put out a collection of Guryan’s demos a few years later, and then in 2007, Guryan returned to music, albeit for one song, releasing a brand new track for her new generation of fans – ‘16 Words’. While the re-release of Guryan’s music helped to introduce her to new listeners, TikTok has helped to push her music even further into the ears of teenagers and young people who might have been too young for the 2014 cassette release of 27 Demos.
In November, a tribute album, Like Someone I Know: A Celebration Of Margo Guryan, will be released, which is set to expose the singer’s music to an even wider audience. It’s time for her music to be heard by even more people who will certainly fall in love with Guryan’s tender melodies and honest lyricism.
