‘Tainted Love’ and other drugs: Exploring PJ Harvey’s unlikely love for 1980s pop
For PJ Harvey, born and raised in the folk country of Dorset to blues-obsessed parents, there was really only one way she could rebel.
When your parents are as liberal at Harvey’s were, raising her amongst the hippie-type community of rural Dorset, it’s tough to break out. As a kid, Harvey was essentially already a rock and roll dream. Her childhood guitar teacher was folk legend Steve Knightley. A regular dinner guest at her house was Ian Stewart as the original Rolling Stones member was a close family friend.
In her home, the soundtrack featured all the greats as if they were purposefully trying to raise a cool rockstar of a daughter. Captain Beefheart was spinning on their record player, or Bob Dylan, or classic blues. They encouraged her to pursue music, backing her enthusiastically when she later joined Automatic Dlamini at 19, meeting her long-term collaborator John Parish then.
However, no matter how free-spirited your parents are, and no matter how cool the things they’re teaching you are, teenagers are hard-wired to rebel. It’s human nature to, at least for a while, go against everything your family stand for or love as you attempt to carve out your own path on the treacherous journey into adulthood.
But for Harvey, when her parents were already basically all for the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle, her rebellion had to take on a different look and feel. She had to go mainstream.
It was the only way really. As her youth was ready bathed in counterculture, her only way to go against it was to become a fan of normie culture, getting really into radio-ready pop music, much to their disgust.
“I rejected all of the music I’d listened to and went out and bought Duran Duran records and Spandau Ballet,” she said. It’s laughable really, thinking of a teenage girl being like ‘Screw you mum!’ as she throws away The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan or tosses out Let It Bleed. Instead of running into the arms of danger, she ran towards MTV and the glossiness of popular culture that stood in direct opposition of her left-field Dorset background.
Pop music was PJ Harvey’s rebellion and still, as she settled into her rock career, inevitably bringing all those childhood influences of folk and blues into the mix of her work, the impact of those secretly beloved mega hits has stuck with her.
“I’m probably influenced by that, too,” she said down the line, admitting that her foray into 1980s mainstream left its mark, adding, “Soft Cell singing ‘Tainted Love’ is probably one of my favorite songs of all time.”
It’s a perfect example as to why the impact of pop music can’t be forgotten, even by music fans who think their tastes exist completely outside of it. For the music lovers who take pride in being too niche and too cultured to enjoy a chart-topper, this is a reminder that there is no escaping as even the leading lights in the world of rock were likely shaped by pop music to some degree, even if their parents and their musical foundation tried to keep it out.
