Return to real music

RMCF

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Was just thinking about the CDs that I have been listening to over the last couple of years and isn't it great for music that there are so many real bands out there playing real music with real instruments. The likes of The Killers, Snow Patrol, Kings of Leon, Libertines, Embrace, The Zutons, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, The Music, Keane etc etc etc. It was a long time coming with those dark years of manufactured bands, pretty boy bands, soap stars, Pop Idol 'winners' etc, when the public seemed to buy what they were told rather than what they liked. Long may it continue.
 
I realise that there may be posts saying that people can listen to whatever music they want to, but I have just seen G4 on TV. Technically excellent singers but is this what the music world needs? A bunch of opera bloke's singing an awful version of Bohemian Rhapsody? And what about that Steve fella who won the competition. Do we really need a pub singer's version of Against All Odds - the original version was bad enough. Highlights this ages' lack of real talent/obsession with TV when people like this are called 'stars'.
 
Some interesting points could be aired here. In my usual vein however I'll simply set the hare running.. The Doors in their day were a 'pop' band largely adorning the front cover of many a pre teen magazine and to an extent then were 'fashioned' as well as setting fashion and gave the media something to sell to the audience.. the theme is applicable to many a 'respected' band. Many of those above mentioned may be 'real' bands, as in they can play instruments, write music and have to a degree brought themselves to an audience before being classified, wrapped and pumped into the veins of the teen consciousness by the media. They are still however in this sense 'manufactured' and are the staple diet of the nation as best served by the bistro's of the pop industry (TOTP). I myself prefer a classier restaurant, serving a finer balance of prime ingredients... Jools Holland is such a place. There is a wealth of music out there even less manufactured than those bands you have implied aren't manufactured and who we should be seeing more of. I too welcome the move away from Boy Band hell, but before I flame the genre entirely, we have to be mindful of what it is we are actually heralding as musics saviours and how over history our perceptions may change markedly.
 
digisocialist, you make some good points. I suppose the Beatles could have been classed as a boy band since they had a lot of screaming girls following them around - perhaps it is only time that has made them what they are considered now. I do not feel that the bands I mentioned are 'manufactured' in the same sense as the likes of Boyzone, Take That, Liberty X, Girls Aloud etc. Most of them probably formed from fellas who knew each other/meet at university etc and learnt to play instruments and then decided to form a band. That is vastly different from a pop 'guru', producer, record company or TV series identifying a market for a band and then putting that band together for that purpose. Also, my list of bands are by no means all my personal favourites - just bands that I feel are producing some belting singles at present. I don't necessarily like everything they do. I still find myself listening to my old favourites that I have always listened to - bands/singers that have been around for a while. I agree that Jools Holland is very good by the way!!
 
SOK - I know what you mean though about bands produced as brands rather than bands who were in fact a musical band before they were found... I still don't think there's enough diversity. Jools, like John Peel did, encourages richness in music and aims to enrichen our musical experiences by showcasing diversity. I'm as guilty as the next man for having a heavily mainstream popular music influenced music collection, even though I do think I have a broad repertoire of tastes in it. Looking at my collection as I type, there are many genres represented which are mainstream.. Prog Rock, Space Rock, Dub, Trance, Classical, Jazz... but even these very big genres have little exposure via the mainstream channels. O.K. Perhaps Radio is an exception but only if you actively explore the 'other' channels and not Just Radio One or the Local Stations. I'm getting into Acid Folk at the moment (as well as my refound fondness of Spacemen 3..) but hearing the astonishing splendor of Fotheringay or Liege & Lief by Fairport Convention is unlikely even if 'picking right up on channel 2' (to quote Bowie)... I'm glad some good new music is coming through, it's great, but lets not forget there is a rich and diverse universe of music out there..and if we were to be comparative, all things being equal, we are really scraping the barrel.
 
I realise that there is a lot of genres out there in the entire world of music, but I happened to list these bands as they are the type of music that I would listen to the most or which would be considered 'popular' music and appear of regular TV and radio. I appreciate that by listing these bands I was only covering a small section of music - it does help to appreciate other genres as well.
 
Digisocialist, you are on my wavelength. Ive said the same thing dozens of times, but no one seems to get whats going on. Its a sort of blindness that does'nt take much to correct.

I fell into the same trap as everyone else a few years back, buying music that the media and record companies were happy to spoon feed me with.

More diversity please , Vive la difference as they say in France.
 
SOK said:
Was just thinking about the CDs that I have been listening to over the last couple of years and isn't it great for music that there are so many real bands out there playing real music with real instruments. The likes of The Killers, Snow Patrol, Kings of Leon, Libertines, Embrace, The Zutons, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, The Music, Keane etc etc etc. .

And all these bands sound the same, and are quite frankly :boring: :boring: :boring: with maybe the exception of The Music.
 
mjn said:
And all these bands sound the same, and are quite frankly :boring: :boring: :boring: with maybe the exception of The Music.

Actually mjn, I was thinking the same thing :smashin:

However, I would prefer to see samey-sounding rock(ish) bands in the charts, than a bunch of miming boy-bands, as I think SOK was trying to point out. There seems to be far less manufactured pop stuff nowadays than there was 5 years ago, and that's fine with me.

There are a lot of bands that get all the hype and all of the attention, but the real trick is picking which ones are any good :devil:
 
mjn said:
And all these bands sound the same, and are quite frankly :boring: :boring: :boring: with maybe the exception of The Music.

I agree that most of those listed are quite sleep inducing,except for Franz Ferdinand ,oo and The Zutons aint bad either ;)

What are peoples opinions of Willy Mason?Been reading a lot of reviews where he is being touted as "the new Bob Dylan".One thing I do know,no matter what you think of him,his songs are infuriatingly catchy :smashin:

http://www.willy-mason.com/
 
all those bands do sound the same, and that shows us one of the problems with the music industry, and with many music fans to be honest. when a band is successful, the industry goes mad trying to find ones that are similar so they can cash in on their success. and how often do we see postings on various forums asking "can anyone recomend a band that sounds like..."? we can blame radio for not playing a diversity of music, but it's a sad fact that if they did most people would just turn it off, they prefer radio one where they can get their dose of homogenised crap without having to work out for themselves whether or not they like it. i hate this situation, but as with most of modern life i can't see an easy way out of it. bob dylan recently said that if he had grown up in the modern music environment he doubts that he would have been a musician, i think he said he'd have been an accountant or something.
i know, we could cull everyone that disagrees with our opinions! why hasn't anyone thought of that before!
 
SOK said:
. Do we really need a pub singer's version of Against All Odds - the original version was bad enough. .



No we dont need another version of against all odds, the phil collins version is far superior and a powerfull, emotive song as well. :smashin: :smashin:
 

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