To put it bluntly, Motown for white people.
A music production company based in Britain, this team composed of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman took most of the world by storm throughout the 1980s and early 1990s for it's then-unique dance pop sound which fused Hi-NRG, Italo Disco, swing music, and R&B. The trio's style is widely credited by analysts as the Trope Maker for Eurobeat
, a style which would become particularly widespread in Italy and Japan.
Prior to SAW's foundation, Waterman was producing quite a few hits of his own under his Pete Waterman Limited (PWL) production company, such as the iconic "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive, which hit number 1 on the UK sales chart. Since then, they have made many other newcomers big stars, including Bananarama, Sinitta, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, and Rick Astley.
Tropes associated with Stock Aitken Waterman
- Closet Geek: Pete Waterman apparently has a passion for trains, ranging from tabletop layout models all the way up to the real thing.
- Cover Version: Bananarama's "Venus" is a famous example.
- In Da Club: Waterman's TV series, The Hit Man and Her, was set in an idealised nightclub where no ugly people were allowed admission, nobody got drunk, no fights started, and nobody was beaten to a pulp by psychotic bouncers. It served as a TV vehicle for SAW music and acts.
- Love It or Hate It: Opinion on SAW was sharply polarised. For everyone who thought they were geniuses who had revitalised pop music with catchy hummable hits, there was at least one person who thought there was a missing "S" in "The Hit Factory".
- Out-of-Genre Experience: SAW are best known for producing dance-pop songs for other artists. Under their own name they released "Roadblock" in the "rare groove" style that was cool at the time.
- Punny Name: On their early recordings, the drums were credited to "A Linn," a reference to the Linn drum machine.
- Record Producer: The trio were responsible for co-producing some of the biggest British hits of the 1980s, becoming well-known for their distinctive Eurobeat sound that they would apply to whoever they worked with.
- Silly Love Songs: Nowadays, many would call the music artificial and cheesy.
- Transatlantic Equivalent: SAW were to white British musicians were what Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis were to African-American ones, featuring signature sounds that merged dance-pop with R&B and being so involved with their artists that they would usually write material for them. Likewise, the sounds that the two teams pioneered (Eurobeat for SAW and New Jack Swing for Jam & Lewis) would be subject to a major public backlash in the 1990s due to overexposure. The one major difference is that Jam & Lewis endured this backlash enough to remain in-demand well into the 21st century, whereas SAW collapsed as a result of it.
