Sophisti-Pop
Sophisti-pop is a smooth, polished style of 1980s British pop that mixes in jazz and soul.
It uses electronic keyboards and synthesizers, saxophone and calm, soulful singing, all recorded with a glossy, carefully polished studio finish. The style grew out of British new wave in the mid 1980s, and the name was applied to it afterward. It shares the era's synthesizers with synth-pop but is mellower and more romantic in mood, closer to smooth jazz and soul.
Artists it is known for: Sade, The Style Council, Prefab Sprout, Everything but the Girl.
- Family
- Pop
- On Spotify
- No longer returned by Spotify’s API
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United Kingdom, mid 1980s
- Also called
- sophistipop
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 6%
About 5,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have sophisti-pop among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Sophisti-Pop artists
Sade
Tears For Fears
Spandau Ballet
Sting
Simply Red
Everything But The Girl
Roxy MusicThe sophisti-pop artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.