"When Rock Doubled as Pop"

" Simply put, rock isn't really pop anymore. Mindless feel-good hooks and production gimmickry (Auto-Tune anyone?), not to mention female performers, are largely the purview of hip hop and post-disco R&B. Chart-denting rock is more male nowadays and, in general, less popular. Bands that do attain fame, like Fleet Foxes or Coldplay or Vampire Weekend, sell their idiosyncratic, earnest genius rather than good looks and hooks and polish. That's why less successful Paisley Underground bands like the Long Ryders and Mazzy Star seem to cast a longer shadow even though they sold fewer units. The Bangles' eager radio readiness is what's made it difficult for them to make sense in the current musical landscape, for the simple reason that radio readiness and rock no longer fit together the way they used to."

Noah Berlatsky at The Atlantic remembers the Bangles.