Sophisti-pop? What is it?

Laid up in bed with flu for 10 days so catching up on some tunes. Got streaming me some early Talk Talk and that put me in mind of the Blue Nile so put some on. Started to read up some reviews and loads of references to sophisti-pop to both bands. This is a new term to me - never heard it before in all my long legged life. Seemed to be used in a slightly derogatory way. Felt like a British version of yacht rock.
So what is it? Should i avoid or embrace it? Which artists come within this genre? Thoughts.

 

Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom?

 

Burt Bacharach...?

 

I like most of the bands mentioned on the sophisti-pop wiki page but Talk Talk obviously evolved way beyond that term for their last few albums. Most of the other groups sound like post-Steely Dan yacht rock pop stuff.

 

The Style Council
Sade
Everything but the Girl
Prefab Sprout

 

dunno what that is but Telepopmuzik might fit the description

 

Re:
Sophisti-pop - Wikipedia

As far as I know the term was not used at the time ,well at least I never heard it back then.
(it seems somebody created another label to satisfy the need for pigeonholing , similar to the godawful "yacht rock" terminology)
Also have never heard of the influence of those two Bryan Ferry albums ,really doesn't make much sense, as the debut albums by artists such as Style Council,Everything but the Girl, Swing Out Sister etc preceded them by a couple of years

 

What a stoopid term...

 

I don't know, sounds like a term used by people who find themselves liking some pop music but think pop is a dirty word.

 

This is the closest answer to what I think it is. I would add:

Basia
Swing Out Sister

 

What a load of utter drivel.

 

Shostakovich perhaps? Why doesnt everything have to be pigeon holed. Is it an American thing? Seems bonkers to me

 

Sophisti-pop is the stuff that was too laid back and sophisticated for MTV in the '80s but got played in heavy rotation on VH-1.

 

Sh!te. There's too many arseholes on here think music fits in a genre. It doesnt.... it's music.... end of

 

Don't shoot the messenger. I wasn't trying to be derogatory to the music. I'm just trying to paint a picture for those baffled by the term. I love me some '80s/early'90s VH-1.

 

Or, by inversion logic,
All the other Pop is “common”, “simple”, “pedestrian”, thus “unsophisticated”.

 

Yeah, it's probably an American thing. Music has been very segregated in this country for as long as I can remember. Everything must be put in a box. So much great music for decades has gone unheard by the masses because it didn't fit into the boxes created by record companies and radio stations and music video channels.

 

Love it. Sade. Scritti. How about ABC then? If it's music that seems like something someone in Roxy Music might have, years later, had something to do with, then I'm down. Labels? Love them. Use them. The more the better!!

 

Utterly bonkers and very sad.

 

Why would we think this is an Amweican thing? All of the bands in the "box" we are speaking of are European in origin and other than one or two were far more popular there than they were in the US... I don't follow the logic there in the slightest.

 

How about Nat King Cole?