This Day In Music History: M (Robin Scott) and Pop Muzik

On this day in music history the #1 song in the country On November 3, 1979 was held by M (foreshadowing Prince’s other name but at least you can pronounce M) with the song Pop Muzik. M was the alter ego of British musician Robin Scott. Mr. Scott said he was in Paris, France finishing the recording. He thought that he needed an alter ego to create interest in the song. When he looked out the window he saw a sign for the Metro bus. The signs for the bus stops just had a big M on them. He said he thought “Perfect I’ll take that. The more people read into it, so much the better. I should have never told anybody who I was.”

The song was first a hit in his home country of England where it peaked at #2 earlier that year. A few months later it crossed the ocean and made M a one hit wonder in the USA as he never had a hit in America again. However, in England he had three more chart hits. One was called Moonlight and Muzik.

He said when creating the song he wanted it to fuse together many different styles of music so that it would be a summary of the last 25 years in music up to that point. There were three different versions of the song. The first that was recorded was an R and B style of song. The second sounded more Funk. The third is the version that was released as it sounded different then anything that was out at the time.

The budget to record the song was less then a shoestring budget. It took six months because M had no money to book studio time. He negotiated with the studios to use their down time. He told them he would give them a point or a percentage of what the record made. “I had to sort of beg, borrow or steal the whole record.” said M.

He also said, “I used the studio like an artist would use the canvas. It’s like a workshop situation where you build layer upon layer. I just had one or two people who I knew were talented, and I kind of put them together at different times.” Doing it that way M was able to overdub other musicians when they were available.

After his initial LP, which had Pop Muzik, he released more albums in England and Japan. None of them were as successful as his first album. Still you have to give him some respect for reaching the top of the charts. Even only doing it once is a big accomplishment.