DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
14 November 2009
09:5633053Listened to a good debate the other night on the radio and found it quite amusing.
Is Simon Cowell doing us any favours?
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
14 November 2009
10:3033059Well they did discover Leona Lewis, probably the only good they have done though. Can't stand the show myself, too false and artificial. I did get caught up late in the series Leona won, by her actually...
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
14 November 2009
11:2133066I deliberately don't watch it.I go to one of the other lounges or hit the keyboard and the forum but prefer to use the appearance of the XFactor theme music and titles as an excuse to walk to the pub and get involved in the quaint old fashioned habit of conversation. A dying hobby.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,698
14 November 2009
12:1533070short answer - yes
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Guest 666- Registered: 25 Mar 2008
- Posts: 323
14 November 2009
15:2233097Having applied for an early version of this in 2004 I think is has lost it's sparkle now and would imagine that Mr. Cowell will probably move on next year, it appears to me that even he is tired of it.
Best part is the early part with all the hopefuls (like myself) making fools of themselves to the publics enjoyment.
Oh Boy!, That'll be the day.........
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
14 November 2009
17:3233108Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
15 November 2009
17:2333164Ive just come in after one of those long sunday lunches where you eat too much and drink too much ..straight away I switch on the TV and I see hordes of screaming girls, hundreds of 'em all screaming for a group called JLS. Now it seems JLS were winners or runners up or finalists or something on one of these TV shows...but here's the bad news, theyre not really a band. There is no sign of a musical instrument anywhere. So what are the girls screaming at...well they are buying the TV package..5 guys strutting about the stage miming but with all the right moves and no doubt they look good too. So this is a case of packaging over musicality, marketing triumphs again. But it is short termisn in action.
I heard Sting on the Andrew Marr show bemoaning this fact. In his day you hurtled up and down the motorway playing gigs here, playing gigs there, and you learnt your craft. When you graduated onto bigger stadiums you knew how to deliver.
These modern 'bands' cant perform "live" without massive backtracking as we saw in the recent controversy over Cheryl Cole. A one time member of..ermm I think it was Girls Aloud, my daughter fills me in with all this stuff, but it seems they couldnt perform "live" either. However JLS and similar fill up air time on TV and certainly seem to capture the market..for the moment. There will be another packaged marketed group along in a few months time and these will disappear into the ether.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
15 November 2009
17:3533175simon cowell has a lot to answer to.
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
15 November 2009
17:4033177Turn the radio on instead. Relax, and unwind.
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
15 November 2009
17:5933182colin,is it a WIND up radio.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
15 November 2009
18:0033183i had never heard of jls until all those people got injured yesterday in brum trying to get closer to them.
maybe colin is right.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
15 November 2009
18:0333186yep hes right its a turn off.
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
15 November 2009
18:2633190Stay TUNED.
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
15 November 2009
20:5133195Sorry guys but Pete Waterman and his type ruined the music industry back in the 1980s and it has been crap ever since. I can not think of a single interesting or important movement in music since punk in the 1970s. Look at it this way, the pop charts of the 50s and 60s featured all manner of styles. There was pure pop, rock music, blues, soul, funk, it was all there and it all mattered. Progressive rock during the early part of the 1970s started to make it all go a bit stale, then the rise of glam rock injected a bit of novelty into the industry but punk music (originating in New York and "purifying" in London thanks to the Sex Pistols) gave the wilting industry a shot in the arm. And then the 1980s happened, and the industry became a haven for engineered, manufactured disposable entertainment and high-fashion junk pop and, in my view, it has never recovered since. The Brit Pop movement of the 1990s was at least an attempt to imbue the industry with a bit of real talent led by singers and musicians who could at least play live, but they were hopelessly drowned-out by the manufactured pop which was mass-produced for the lowest common demoninator.
The X-Factor is simply putting the manufacturing process into a gameshow format and trying to bring a bit of contemporary thinking into the mix by making it interactive with the viewers. But it is still manufactured pop, the very lowest of the low in musical terms, and asking if the show is harming the music industry is like worrying about getting a scratch on an already wrecked car. It's a nonsense question. Simon Cowell is absolutely NOT hurting the industry - on the contrary, he is steering it where he wants it to go, pandering to the public's worship of celebrity culture and maintaining the industry's business arm with aggressive effectiveness. He is also stifling genuine creativity and leaving the real talent out in the cold to struggle on the web, or through obscure labels, to find its audience.
You might have gathered that I feel pretty strong about this. Music has been around for thousands of years, and the music industry has been around for approx. 60 years. Music doesn't really need an industry to control the flow and output. All the best, most talented artists generally have to be hunted down either via their independent struggles to get noticed online or through more obscure labels which are not terribly chart (or radio) friendly.
To generalise, I'm a big believer that any group or artists that regularly appears in the pop charts is not worthy of being classed as a genuine musical talent because they're clearly only in it for fame and fortune and often care little for the crap they spew out via industry channels.
The X-Factor is keeping the industry bouyant in many ways and keeping it trapped in its current stale, anti-progressive, anti-creative business model which is in dire need of something exciting. When will we get another Rolling Stones, another Sex Pistols, another Jimi Hendrix, another Tom Waits, another Jim Morrison, another Joni Mitchell, another Bob Dylan, another Dan le Sac, another Elbow, another Nick Drake, another Led Zeppelin, another Jeff Buckley? All the time people like Simon Cowell are in charge and running shows like the X-Factor I'm afraid the answer will be a resounding "NEVER", at least not through the highly accessible channels that is the music industry or the X-Factor.
The industry is so crap that the X-Factor can never do it any harm. Hopefully the constant rise of the MP3 format and downloadable music will take care of the industry and shake it out of its apathy.
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
15 November 2009
22:5133197So Cowell is the new Malcolm McLaren?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
15 November 2009
22:5933201rick is right about what punk rock did to the music industry, most of the musicians could not play a decent note, but they enjoyed playing music that the kids wanted.
i remember clearly at the time of the sex pistols emerging, the big names were elton john and rod stewart, who were really just cabaret artists for the well off.
john lydon, sid vicious, steve jones brought music back to the young people.
a lot of the punk bands improved with age anyway, there was a company called "stiff records" that used to issue their works.
eventually the mainstream took over and we all went back to square one.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
16 November 2009
09:1633218I don't have disagreement at all with what Rick has said (although Punk wasn't my style of music.
What I would say though is support live music - especially local live music.
There are a number of local venues that have live music - the Louis Armstrong, the Park Inn, La Salle Verte sometimes (their next one is local guitarist Roger Betts) and probably others.
We went to a charity fund-raising event on Saturday night with friends (yes, I still have one or two) and the Band played rock and Roll type songs from all the various decades, from the 60s to the 80s and 90s. It wasn't headbanging, but they were songs we remembered and it wasn't toooooooo loud, but you couldn't talk while they were playing, but then you're not supposed to, are you ?
Live music is great and should be supported much more than it is.
Roger
