I'm curious...

Someone I know who saw them at Glastonbury described them as the musical equivalent of watching your washing machine

 

i love watching my washing machine..
it just goes round and round..a range of colours and water
splash splash

 

I can't believe the popularity Coldplay have achieved. They've done a few nice songs over the years, but it's their marketing that's made them superstars. I despair about the stagnent state of modern mainstream music. At least I can sound like an expert on chart music though. If anybody asks me what "generic current chart band X" are like, all I have to say is "they sound like Coldplay", and I'll be right on the money! And is just me, or does the lead singer from Athlete sound like a car vacuum? Every single note he sings, he starts off almost a whole semi-tone below and then quickly raises the pitch like the tone deaf turd that he is!

 

And pink moon: I never realised it before, but Splash is a really beautiful word! Thanks!

 

it is a beautiful word
everybody after me
"splish splash splosh...splish splash splosh"

 

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative"

-Oscar Wilde​

Is this why all bands sound the same today?

 

I read something in a newspaper the other day..it was talking about 'clones' or something like that... regarding the music industry.. Coldplay are the original clone of clones of them.. and coldplay are a clone of some other band.. if they break out of there 'cloneness' they become original and have clones of themselves ... we as consumers actualy like clones or is that the music industry ?..


Thanks for these 2 minutes.

 

Unfortunately, at some time or another we all fall into the marketers trap. Luckily a lot of us get out of it again, however, a huge number of people actually need to be told what the like by the music press. I was reading an article by howard bloom:

"In 1827...historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle said that the critics of his day were like sheep. Put a stick in the path as a lead sheep goes by, wrote the sage, and the beast will jump over it. Remove the stick, and each following sheep in line will jump at precisely the same spot...even though there's no longer anything to jump over! Things haven't changed much since then. If the key critics at the New York Times, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone fall in love with a musical artist, every other critic in the country will follow their lead. On the other hand, if these lead sheep say an artist is worthless, every other wolly-minded critic from Portland to Peoria will miraculously draw the same conclusion."

From "The Fame Factory: Two Thousand Years of Media Madness."

 

It's not a bad thing if 80% of the country want to act like lemmings and follow all the cool media hyped bands...nor is it a bad thing that 80% of current bands around today all want to act like lemmings and copy Coldplay or re-release that classic Sinatra/Jagger/Lennon/Righteous Brothers/cunting Tony Christie song just one more time. This is not a problem...

At least the artists who do write/play/sing their own material and who dont conform to the bollocks that constitutes for popular music recently, at least I can get to the front at their gigs and possibly have a chat with them, without having to wade through 2 million fans and fling myself on stage in the vain hope that a security guard wont chuck me out/get me arrested/shoot me.

If you were a music artist wouldnt it be better to have some musical integrity, a nice discerning and appreciative fan base and a reasonable pay packet for your troubles of extensive gigging and giving what your fans want. Rather than making far too much money by churning out another coldplay soundalike song and aiming your music at mindless adults or kids who go round wearing their jeans hanging below their boxers?

 

Dude. It's not my fault that I can't get Jeans that fit ok.

 

Fucking Emo, always knew you were

 

All very English, to dispise the succesfull.

Someone can sing a reasonable tune, someone hears them, makes a record and sells it, lots of people like it, why that must be crap.

Not fussed either way at all, some I like, some I don't, think that appllies to most performers of all music.

When has the ability to be a poet (write songs) been a prequel to being a musician, hoped that had died after the 80's. Listen to the performance not the past.

 

Erm??!!?!?!! Not quite sure what you're trying to say there mate. It sounds like you're actually saying that the ability to write songs is un-important?! As for hating success, bollocks. I hate it when people are successful without deserving it. Coldplay have been churning out the same stuff since their first album (Which I loved) without any passion or progression. I love music. Live for music. So I'm very passionate about it. Look at my top-ten albums. They're mostly mainstream.
I know I'm gonna sound pretentious here, but Music is a form of art, ok, not just something to shuffle around to while you're pissed up.
I think I've mis-read what you're saying, but I get VERY ANGRY in musical arguments.
If you can't write decent lyrics then you should be a fucking instumentalist. Music is the oldest, most powerful form of communication and expression ever to exist and...and...and. Nope. It's no good. I've run out of steam..........sigh.

 

Yes, the ability to write songs is unimportant, it is the performance that matters. Sure some of the great artists performed their own material, but not exclusively, and most great singers never wrote a word.

I don't think you should get involved in "hate", just because someone dosen't impress you, they are only making a wage, it's not their fault the world is, as it is.

I would agree music is an art form, though I think it has more to do with dance myself, rythme, communication as you say.

Nearly all folk music is based upon songs written by someone else, probably dead, you may not like the music, but your argument denies the right of the song to exist.

My prose may not be good, but discussion is preferable to argument.

 

OK. I'm clearer on what you meant now. Not as clear on what I think though! You make a fair point about folk music existing as a way to pass on songs and stories from years gone by.
But, how relevant is folk today?! It has a niche, that's about it. If it were for real songwriters, creators, innovators, we would still have folk....but nothing else. That's what bothers me. Has music hit a brick wall? A dead end? Is there nowhere else for musicians to go?
I believe that there is, but recycled bands like coldplay and the huge wave of shitty sixties revivalist bands would have you think otherwise.
I wanna hear some music that makes me excited again, and coldplay certainly don't!
I'm gonna need some back up on this discussion, 'coz for some reason I'm having trouble articulating my thoughts!
PS. Sorry if it sounded like I was angry at you Dapablo, you're right about discussion bring preferable to an argument, but lets not get into semantics,eh?