Few things annoy me more than Strictly Come Dancing.
But one of those things is when people, invariably stupid or old people, describe the music I listen to as "noise".
"It's just noise".
It's another example of a cliche that is true. I experience it most times distant family members ask me what kind of music I like.
I can give a specific example that happened last Christmas. You remember, when Rage Against The Machine defeated some X-Factor rubbish to be the Christmas no.1.
As a little side point, can I add: a number of newspapers picked up on the fact that when the campaign started to get Killing In The Name to the top-spot, RATM where on Sony, the same record label as Joe McElderry (I had to look up his name, as I really did not have the slightest clue).
The newspapers said that it was just a cynical campaign that would make no difference because the same people would make the profit out of it eventually. Some even suggested that the whole campaign was orchestrated, or at least supported by Sony.
But they were completely missing the point. People didn't buy that single to shun the major labels, or strike back at the corporate money making.
We bought it to show we supported real music, not commercialised crap. I didn't/don't even like RATM that much.
But I like it infinitely more than I like Joe McElderry.
We'll come back to this in a minute.
So anyway.
It was Christmas time. Christmas, of course, is a fantastic example of when I always find myself agreeing with stupid/disgusting world-views purely out of politeness (note, I have semi-plagiarised this thought from Stewart Lee).
This Christmas RATM was no.1.
This topic of conversation hadn't been brought up.
So I considered it my duty.
These paraphrased replies basically give you an idea:
"What a load of rubbish"
"Just a lot of screaming and swearing"
"It's not real music"
"It's just noise"
No.
There's a lot of music I don't like, but I still respect, because it is good for what it is. It's artistic. There's good types of all music. Or at least most.
To me, noise is something that has no artistic talent. It's just a regurgitated pop song no with no discernable unique or interesting elements.
Joe McElderry's attempt at Christmas no.1 was a cover of a Hannah Montana song.
That is noise.
Showing posts with label shit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shit. Show all posts
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Thursday, 7 October 2010
David Wells, for we are many.
David Wells isn't me. He's a "digital marketing strategist, blogger, podcaster and psuedodesigner". He's also got a lot more followers than me on Twitter.
Motivated, I'm sure, by the fact that we share the same first and last name, he kindly "tweeted" my blog. And whilst my meagre 16 followers does not compare to his muscular 2,000 odd, I feel I should return the favour. Here is a link to his website where he is a highly skilled digital marketing strategist.
There are a few David Wells' hanging around who've done much more impressive things than me. Wikipedia confirms that this David Wells is the most famous. He was a highly succesful pitcher who played for a variety of teams. In 1998 David Wells become only the 15th pitcher in MLB history to throw a perfect game.
He is impressive, and he flies the flag for good David Wells' all over the world.
Just like this one. He was an economist, but I don't know much about him. He was a close friend of 20th United States President James Garfield, though, who opposed slavery. Good man.
But this David Wells. He's let us down. He bismirches the good name of David Wells. He is a peddler of astrology bullshit. I have no respect for him.
Motivated, I'm sure, by the fact that we share the same first and last name, he kindly "tweeted" my blog. And whilst my meagre 16 followers does not compare to his muscular 2,000 odd, I feel I should return the favour. Here is a link to his website where he is a highly skilled digital marketing strategist.
There are a few David Wells' hanging around who've done much more impressive things than me. Wikipedia confirms that this David Wells is the most famous. He was a highly succesful pitcher who played for a variety of teams. In 1998 David Wells become only the 15th pitcher in MLB history to throw a perfect game.
He is impressive, and he flies the flag for good David Wells' all over the world.
Just like this one. He was an economist, but I don't know much about him. He was a close friend of 20th United States President James Garfield, though, who opposed slavery. Good man.
But this David Wells. He's let us down. He bismirches the good name of David Wells. He is a peddler of astrology bullshit. I have no respect for him.
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Musical "Talent" Shows.
I made the mistake of commiting half an hour of my life to watching Must Be The Music.
You know; Sky1's "The X-Factor" rip off with Dizzee Rascal, who appeared capable of giving two judgements throughout the night: "Yeah man, that was tight" and "Nah man, I wasn't feelin' it".
No disrespect intended towards Mr. Rascal of course. He is a phonomenally successful artist in his own right, and I don't doubt for a second his talent in writing catchy pop songs with archaic words our grandparents used.
It is a good example, though, (should we have needed any more than Charlotte Church) that just because you're good at one thing, doesn't remotely gain you skill at another. Dizzee Rascal is not a skilled judge of talent.
I'm not surprised, the judges appeared to have been selected utterly at random based on their accents. It was as if the producers had landed the London street accent of Dizzee, and chose to quickly counter balance it with the generic semi-posh of Jamie Cullum. Suddenly, though, they realised they had two judges representing the two sides of London, but had nothing from the rest of the UK.
In order to counterbalance this they employed Sharleen Spiteri, presumably on the basis that she came from as far away as possible from London whilst still being intelligable to the easily-confused British public.
Perhaps earlier, I was too quick to blame Dizzee for his lack of ability to judge ability.
The "talent" on display were like an assortment of good kareoke singers and instantly-forgettable pub bands, with the odd bit of classical music thrown in to break up the drone. Tack a little sad-story on top ala X-Factor and you've got yourself a TV show.
Now, at this point, it does become apparent that what you are now reading is someone of miniscule talent sitting in front of a screen, slagging off some people with talent enough to impress some highly successful recording artists. Certainly, that is true, but the problem I had was that the acts just weren't that good. Sure they were in tune, or full of energy, or passionate about their music, but there was nothing that stood out. I barely remember them, and it all just seemed really forced, like the judges had to put through pretty much anything that was half decent in the knowlegde that they were the best they were gonna get.
I was also annoyed by the fact that the show was just one long advert for Apple. During the selection process the judges gleefully scrolled through their iPhones and iPads and iDontGiveAFucks, as if somehow seeing them on an Apple product improved the musical experience in some way.
Don't watch it. Turn it off and listen to something decent.
You know; Sky1's "The X-Factor" rip off with Dizzee Rascal, who appeared capable of giving two judgements throughout the night: "Yeah man, that was tight" and "Nah man, I wasn't feelin' it".
No disrespect intended towards Mr. Rascal of course. He is a phonomenally successful artist in his own right, and I don't doubt for a second his talent in writing catchy pop songs with archaic words our grandparents used.
It is a good example, though, (should we have needed any more than Charlotte Church) that just because you're good at one thing, doesn't remotely gain you skill at another. Dizzee Rascal is not a skilled judge of talent.
I'm not surprised, the judges appeared to have been selected utterly at random based on their accents. It was as if the producers had landed the London street accent of Dizzee, and chose to quickly counter balance it with the generic semi-posh of Jamie Cullum. Suddenly, though, they realised they had two judges representing the two sides of London, but had nothing from the rest of the UK.
In order to counterbalance this they employed Sharleen Spiteri, presumably on the basis that she came from as far away as possible from London whilst still being intelligable to the easily-confused British public.
Perhaps earlier, I was too quick to blame Dizzee for his lack of ability to judge ability.
The "talent" on display were like an assortment of good kareoke singers and instantly-forgettable pub bands, with the odd bit of classical music thrown in to break up the drone. Tack a little sad-story on top ala X-Factor and you've got yourself a TV show.
Now, at this point, it does become apparent that what you are now reading is someone of miniscule talent sitting in front of a screen, slagging off some people with talent enough to impress some highly successful recording artists. Certainly, that is true, but the problem I had was that the acts just weren't that good. Sure they were in tune, or full of energy, or passionate about their music, but there was nothing that stood out. I barely remember them, and it all just seemed really forced, like the judges had to put through pretty much anything that was half decent in the knowlegde that they were the best they were gonna get.
I was also annoyed by the fact that the show was just one long advert for Apple. During the selection process the judges gleefully scrolled through their iPhones and iPads and iDontGiveAFucks, as if somehow seeing them on an Apple product improved the musical experience in some way.
Don't watch it. Turn it off and listen to something decent.
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