Genre Deep Dive: The Big Music (Part 1)
An attempt to define a nebulous genre.
Defining a music genre or scene is an often complicated and challenging exercise. There are a multitude of factors to consider and nits to pick, but even then not everyone will agree. But what about a genre that is less a genre and more some shared elements, sounds, and vibes? How do you define and/or quantify artists that sometimes have a lot in common and sometimes don’t? And why do people care or bother?
Speaking (or more accurately writing) as one of those people, to me it is a natural extension of my music fandom. Others might call it an obsession but you say tomato…
One “genre” that is more nebulous than most is The Big Music.
If you are asking yourself, “The Big Whatsit?” that’s okay. I have been a fan of this sound and vibe and a number of the bands in this genre for over 35 years and only heard the term The Big Music within the last few years.
In fact, one of the best descriptions of The Big Music that I have heard, was completely inadvertent. Back in September of 2023, Frank Turner was a guest on the One Life One Chance Podcast. During the conversation, host Toby Morse brought up the band Coldplay. Turner replied –
"...I put it to you that the most influential band of the late 20th century is U2. [...] They invented what I refer to as Stadium Indie and what I mean by that is any type of music where essentially you've got four main chords in the major keys, you've got some instrument droning a fifth over the top of it, you've got a driving beat, and you've got soaring vocals, and that is Coldplay and that's some bits of earlier Radiohead, but it's also Mumford and Sons, it's Kings of Leon. Do you know what I mean? It's all, it's obviously, that's why I say Stadium Indie. There's a template that U2 laid down which and indeed it's some of my stuff so I mean I'm not being bitchy and any of this..."
I would argue that what Frank Turner called “Stadium Indie” is in actuality The Big Music.
But what exactly is “The Big Music”? It’s not a name that is easy to google and it doesn’t have a page on Wikipedia, so how do we define it? Here’s what I’ve found.
In the 2005 book, Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984, Simon Reynolds described The Big Music as “a style of purified eighties rock that was postpunk in its minimalism, yet redolent of the sixties in its feeling of transcendence” (p. 362). Simon juxtaposed The Big Music against goth stating “If Goth took one route from postpunk back to loud and proud rock, [these artists] followed another: not descending into the darkness but soaring into the light” (p. 362).
In his piece The Big Music: How U2 Led a League of Righteous 80s Arena Rockers, Jim Allen defined The Big Music as
“an umbrella term for the loose agglomeration of mid-’80s bands with an epic vibe and an unabashed belief in the redemptive power of larger-than-life rock, including U2, Simple Minds, Big Country, The Alarm, and more.”
The term The Big Music came from a song of the same name by The Waterboys.
I have heard the big music
And I'll never be the same
According to Rate Your Music, “The term was then picked up by critics to describe other popular rock bands of the period with a large, anthemic sound.” The site defined the genre as
“a commercial style of Rock that emerged in the early 1980s, primarily in the UK. Borne of Post-Punk roots, the style features anthemic Pop Rock songwriting and a production style that uses pounding drums, soaring vocals, and ringing, reverb-heavy lead guitar work to create an "epic", arena-ready sound.”
Rob Hughes defined the genre in his article The Return of The Big Music as “an umbrella term for a number of bands with one hand on their heart and the other fisting the sky.” The piece expanded on The Big Music’s beginnings and sound, stating
“Forged from the ruins of punk, they were now fashioning a more declarative brand of music whose chief weapons were big guitars and soaring vocals. [...] This growing style [...] was haughtily described by The Waterboys’ Mike Scott as “a metaphor for seeing God’s signature in the world.” [...] But most of all this was earnest, passionate rock that aimed to turn live shows into a vast communal experience.”
Hughes’ also touched on the spiritual nature of the music, but we’ll come back to that later.
What are the recurring themes and descriptors that we can identify?
Epic
Anthemic
Pounding
Soaring
Transcendence
Putting this all together, we have epic rock anthems featuring driving and pounding drums, soaring vocals, big, and ringing guitars that offer transcendence by “not descending into the darkness but soaring into the light” through the “redemptive power of larger-than-life rock.”
In Part 2 we’ll dig into The Big Music’s qualities, the artists that made up the genre’s initial wave, and a timeline of notable releases from 1978-1990. In Part 3, we’ll examine The Big Music’s influence on modern music, the bands that are continuing its legacy (whether they realize it or not), and a timeline of notable releases starting from 2000.
References
Allen, J. (2025, May 4). The Big Music: How U2 Led a League of Righteous 80s Arena Rockers. uDiscoverMusic. https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-big-music-u2-feature/
Big Music. (n.d.). Rate Your Music. Last.fm. Retrieved June 17, 2025 from https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/big-music/
Big music music | Wiki. (2014, November 9). Last.fm. Retrieved June 17, 2025 from https://www.last.fm/tag/big+music/wiki
Hughes, R. (2014, June 13). The Return of The Big Music. Classic Rock. https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-return-of-the-big-music
Morse, T. (Host). (2023, November 8). Episode 250- Frank Turner (singer/songwriter) [Audio podcast episode]. In One Life One Chance Podcast.
Reynolds, S. (2005). Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984. Faber & Faber.
r/LetsTalkMusic [Arblos]. (2019). Let's Talk: The "Big Music" [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/LetsTalkMusic/comments/e1rzzs/lets_talk_the_big_music/
The Waterboys. (1984). The Big Music [Song]. On A Pagan Place [Album]. Ensign Records.