On The Rocks

[Colin Zeal EFM]

This is quite a good article from some leftie newspaper's website I stumbled upon. Love the Chris Martin bit!!...

 

On The Rocks

 

Is it just me or have any of you noticed a change in music recently? I'm talking about the music that dare not speak its name in polite society: the pop single. The once stable chart marriage between the manufactured pop single and its partner, the band single, is on the rocks. The rustling of divorce papers can be faintly heard. How did it come to this?

 

I may not be old but I can still reminisce about the good old days, watching Top of the Pops and expecting to see something truly engaging. No matter what your opinion of the Spice Girls, there's no denying that they had real stage presence. Even the boy bands of the time were of a much higher calibre than they are now. Now the pop world seems grey, overflowing with meaningless drivel. It is the musical equivalent of successive one-night stands.

 

So far, music-by-numbers groups such as the pre-pubescent hit-slaves S Club Juniors (or whatever their name is this week) have weathered the tide of scorn from the high and mighty wing of the music press, which has blamed them for the rapid deterioration of quality in mainstream pop since the collapse of Britpop, by flooding the charts with their own particular brand of noise. But bubblegum pop is an easy and defenceless scapegoat. The true cause is the lack of decent "real music" - as my mother would say - in the charts at the moment. What makes it worse is that no one but myself appears to see it. If the music media is to be believed, we are at the dawn of the new rock revolution, where we will be lead in a mass uprising by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Thrills to reclaim the charts and crush the infidel popsters. Well I don't know about you, but I haven't stormed any bastilles recently.

 

And I don't think the abundance of manufactured music in the charts is due to the pop monkeys upping the ante and smothering the charts in sickly-sweet harmonies. As far as I can see, there has been no major increases in output from the pop factory. I believe the root of the problem lies with the abysmal quality of "alternative" music. Despite constant hyping and album successes, no band has managed to justify itself with a stream of quality singles. This has left the charts open for the popsters to march on unchallenged.

 

Some of the blame must rest with the bands for producing boring, uninspiring, drab singles. Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned rock 'n' roll with a beat you can dance to? Where's the controversy, where's the scandal these days? Instead of the Kurt Cobains and Michael Hutchences of this world, blowing their brains out and hanging themselves for an [******], we're getting art school "I'm mad me, just look at my henna" hacks like Chris Martin "losing all control" and eating After Eights at seven-thirty. Who in their right mind is going to buy the Thrills' new single, Big Sur (which instantly makes you feel like you're on hold), when they could get Justin Timberlake's latest - which is bound to be more rocking than fake "Woah, check out our crazy hair, it's not even symmetrical" bands like the Thrills and (shudder) Travis could ever be.

 

It seems recently that rock 'n' roll has become rock 'n' roll-over as bands are sexing-down their singles to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, resulting in the blandest excuse for real music since Erasure. Come on guys, stop trying to please everyone and put some [******] emotion into it. Stop whining and start winning.

 

 

[Colin Zeal EFM]

Not sure why it's censored "o-r-g-a-s-m" <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

 

 

[ESG]

was that in the Guardian?

 

chris martin-art school?

[EFM Trev]

well, I agree with him. coldplay are [****!!****].

[EFM's Librarian]

I've got a feeling it was in this Mondays G2 (the one done by 16 year olds) surely you should know ESG?

[Chubbhead EFM]

Well whoever it was is talking a pile of [****!!****]. What about bands that were discussed on here like Kings of Leon, The Ddarkness, The Libertines etcetec. Whoever wrote this is over-emphasizing the importance of things like chart positions and Top of the Pops. Lazy journalism, that's what it is!

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

To be honest bands like the ones mentioned above by chubbs are OK but they hardly excite me like bands used to. That article is spot on, I said on here a while ago that it's been ages since any band has got me really excited.

[Colin Zeal EFM]

I have to agree with Thornsy and that article. There's been nothing truly exciting since, well, Definitely Maybe really.

 

 

[CANV EFM]

how about you cheer things up with some emma bunton pics C.Z.?

[Colin Zeal EFM]

 

 

[CANV EFM]

marvellous

[ESG]

all true to a certain extent, trouble is no yoot movement has come thru of late

 

67,77,87,.......nish

 

anyway any chance of some pix of Kristanna Loken

[Laz]

Woof woof!

[Chubbhead EFM]

Nah, I totally disagree with that article there. There's plenty of exciting music out there, it's just that these days you have to go out and look for it yourself, whereas before I suppose new music was more brought to the people by A&R people and record companys.

 

Although, I do agree with ESG that there hasn't really been a youth movement of sorts for a while. Nu-metal was supposed to be a youth movement but it all seemed so fake to me. Anyway, it's getting harder to shock people nowadays, which is part and parcel of being young. Also, I reckon most teenagers, even the most deprived ones, have less to rebel against nowadays, so we just don't bother!

[Colin Zeal EFM]

That's a fair comment too, Chubbster, and maybe it's cos I'm getting on a bit now (!), but there's no new music that really, properly does it for me.

 

 

[YELLOW]

Same here really. There's been some good stuff in the charts this year but nothing truely outstanding.

[ESG]

the flip side is a lot of my generation aren't "settling" down (with a subservent wife and 2.4 saucepans)and they are the ones controlling the status quo

[Chubbhead EFM]

EFMTFTV, What about The Streets, he seemed to get you fairly excited (read that as you wish).

 

The thing is, when your young everything seems new and original to you. But as you get older (I'm just guessing here) I suppose everything just seems the same or like a rip-off of other stuff. Ii'm sure when I'm 29 I'll probably be saying the exact same thing as you lot!

[EFM The Firm, The Voice]

Ah yeah, The Streets are great - forgot about them!

 

I think we need to form a band, we'll shock them big time.

[Colin Zeal EFM]

The Streets are doing nothing that hasn't been done before though. Chas and Dave used to write songs about the streets of London.

 

So did Ralph McTell for that matter!!