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Okay, can I just settle one thing?
Everybody moans that these bands can't sing to save their lives. Not just the occasional moan either. We're talking consistent griping here, unrelenting criticism. Own up, you're all guilty.
For the love of god, stop talking rubbish. Of course they can sing. If they couldn't, they wouldn't have gotten the jobs in the first place.
It just happens that they can't play any instruments, write any songs, or display any other talent whatsoever, apart from being photogenic. Don't get me wrong, they irritate me just as much as the next guy, but at least dis them for something a little more accurate, huh?
It just strikes me as so detestably prejudiced that people keep slating the vocal talents of these bands. Fine, they are annoying, and they top the charts by looking nice, prancing around on stage and singing a gut-wrenchingly cheerful song that somebody else wrote, but don't dis them by pretending to be a connaseur of tuneful singing. Another thing - who cares if they mime or not? It won't make any odds to you - unless of course, you go to see them live - any of you that will admit to doing that?
Naturally, in order to appear to have some semblance of musical taste, you have to hate these boy/girl bands, (and god forbid you should have the guts to develop your own tastes, rather than copying your friends) but please, have some independant thought - don't just say they can't sing, really THINK about what you don't like.
Is it their music you don't like, or their image?
Wonder what the answer to that will be?
Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough now, I'll only repeat the same points if I carry on. I hope I haven't gone over the top too much here, and I apologise if I sounded offensive at all, but I needed to get this off my chest.
Everybody moans that these bands can't sing to save their lives. Not just the occasional moan either. We're talking consistent griping here, unrelenting criticism. Own up, you're all guilty.
For the love of god, stop talking rubbish. Of course they can sing. If they couldn't, they wouldn't have gotten the jobs in the first place.
It just happens that they can't play any instruments, write any songs, or display any other talent whatsoever, apart from being photogenic. Don't get me wrong, they irritate me just as much as the next guy, but at least dis them for something a little more accurate, huh?
It just strikes me as so detestably prejudiced that people keep slating the vocal talents of these bands. Fine, they are annoying, and they top the charts by looking nice, prancing around on stage and singing a gut-wrenchingly cheerful song that somebody else wrote, but don't dis them by pretending to be a connaseur of tuneful singing. Another thing - who cares if they mime or not? It won't make any odds to you - unless of course, you go to see them live - any of you that will admit to doing that?
Naturally, in order to appear to have some semblance of musical taste, you have to hate these boy/girl bands, (and god forbid you should have the guts to develop your own tastes, rather than copying your friends) but please, have some independant thought - don't just say they can't sing, really THINK about what you don't like.
Is it their music you don't like, or their image?
Wonder what the answer to that will be?
Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough now, I'll only repeat the same points if I carry on. I hope I haven't gone over the top too much here, and I apologise if I sounded offensive at all, but I needed to get this off my chest.
I agree with Goaty about the whole Mel C thing. I remember that first single and how embarrasing it was, and her getting, quite rightly, bottled. She tried to be clever and it failed, so she went back to singing fauny, sickly songs about nothing. Look at the first video and laugh at her, as loudly as you can, until your neighbours complain.
I agree with Goatboy and Devo on this one.
I don't think anybody would argue that some of these 'bands' can sing, but what is really needed is to draw the line between entertainment and music. It's easy enough to do, look at television for example. TV has been the most powerful way to get a message across to the masses for a long time now, only the advent of the home computer and the internet has made a dent in the cathode rays hold on us. What it is used for is generally to entertain. Programming on the box spends 80% of it's time entertaining us with whatever floats your boat, the remainder covers the more serious side of the medium, whether it is documentaries, the news or some other form of enlightenment.
Music must be viewed in the same way, Girl/Boy bands are the 'musical' equivalent of You've Been Framed, Surprise Surprise and Neighbours, all rolled into one. They are there to entertain you if you like that sort of thing, which most people do.
Look at books, they are the same. Look at the successful authors (financially) and tell me that they actually possess any real writing ability. Can anybody sit there and say that Gilly Cooper can actually write? Her books are tripe. Large print, small worded soft porn for the bored housewife. Yet ask the person in the street to name a famous current writer and her name will spring up more than once.
The indelible truth is that these type of bands exist only to make money, praying of the impressionable youth with attractive meat puppets who dance and sing on the end of the corporate entertainment machines well constructed and often used strings. I don't hate these people, I just hate the arrogant presumption that they have about their 'talent'.
Thousands of people can sing and dance, but if your face and image doesn't fit then it's just too bad for you. Very few of these entertainers have any type of real musical ability, which is the ability to convey expression through their music. Though when I say their music, I am invariably referring to someone else's music, either written or reproduced then shipped out to an audience, which for the most has no idea that half the songs they buy with their parents hard earned cash is probably somewhere in their old mans record collection anyway. Except that the first time round it was performed by someone who had a reason for writing the words and setting them to music. Other than just to get paid.
I don't think anybody would argue that some of these 'bands' can sing, but what is really needed is to draw the line between entertainment and music. It's easy enough to do, look at television for example. TV has been the most powerful way to get a message across to the masses for a long time now, only the advent of the home computer and the internet has made a dent in the cathode rays hold on us. What it is used for is generally to entertain. Programming on the box spends 80% of it's time entertaining us with whatever floats your boat, the remainder covers the more serious side of the medium, whether it is documentaries, the news or some other form of enlightenment.
Music must be viewed in the same way, Girl/Boy bands are the 'musical' equivalent of You've Been Framed, Surprise Surprise and Neighbours, all rolled into one. They are there to entertain you if you like that sort of thing, which most people do.
Look at books, they are the same. Look at the successful authors (financially) and tell me that they actually possess any real writing ability. Can anybody sit there and say that Gilly Cooper can actually write? Her books are tripe. Large print, small worded soft porn for the bored housewife. Yet ask the person in the street to name a famous current writer and her name will spring up more than once.
The indelible truth is that these type of bands exist only to make money, praying of the impressionable youth with attractive meat puppets who dance and sing on the end of the corporate entertainment machines well constructed and often used strings. I don't hate these people, I just hate the arrogant presumption that they have about their 'talent'.
Thousands of people can sing and dance, but if your face and image doesn't fit then it's just too bad for you. Very few of these entertainers have any type of real musical ability, which is the ability to convey expression through their music. Though when I say their music, I am invariably referring to someone else's music, either written or reproduced then shipped out to an audience, which for the most has no idea that half the songs they buy with their parents hard earned cash is probably somewhere in their old mans record collection anyway. Except that the first time round it was performed by someone who had a reason for writing the words and setting them to music. Other than just to get paid.
My Doctor has forbidden me from entering these discussions, because my blood boils and my head gets funny for a while and I have to go lay down.
Suffice to say that I detest boy/girl groups because of the pure blandness of the music.
The fact that every week there's another one, they all look so durn pretty sitting on stools singing about "love" and "my baby" whilst staring fawningly at the audience.
Or the fact that it's just faces to music.
The old groups that were just singers were talented, they could emote.
The Tempations, The Supremes, The Commodores..all these people just sang but they did it with feeling and emotions.
If I hear another soppy Westlife song and see another video with teen boys/girls walking in the rain proclaiming "endless love to you", I will hunt them down and make them listen to The Temptations whilst screaming "There! That is what you should be doing!"
It's not the fact they don't play instruments or write their own songs, it's the fact that they think they matter at the end of the day.
If your fans are under 10, which most pop bands have, then your shelf life is 2-3 years max, and that's for the lucky ones.
The Spice Girls are over. They had little kid fans, whilst the older generation shook their head and held their nose.
The little kids grew up, Spice Girls release their latest album, all slick R&B, the kids don't care and the adults can't even remember who they are.
Anyone here remember Mel C?
The "Rock" one? Sang "Anarchy in the UK" at a festival? Got booed at and bottled.
Why?
Because she made the mistake of thinking that she could break the rock market.
Any serious rock fan wished physical injury on the Spice Girls, and one of them tried to step into another genre and got busted.
So she released a dance track, that bombed.
So she tried a ballad with Lisa "Left Eye Lopez" that hit number one, and proceeded to release more ballads.
boy/girl bands are purely marketing exercises, that's what I object to.
Nothing to do with singing, but the motivation behind these groups.
Record Exec:
"We need a new boy group. We need a cheeky one that the girls will love, a sweet one the mums can like, one that think's he's in a rock band, an ugly one to dance and a normal one to write the songs."
Same blueprint for them all.
Suffice to say that I detest boy/girl groups because of the pure blandness of the music.
The fact that every week there's another one, they all look so durn pretty sitting on stools singing about "love" and "my baby" whilst staring fawningly at the audience.
Or the fact that it's just faces to music.
The old groups that were just singers were talented, they could emote.
The Tempations, The Supremes, The Commodores..all these people just sang but they did it with feeling and emotions.
If I hear another soppy Westlife song and see another video with teen boys/girls walking in the rain proclaiming "endless love to you", I will hunt them down and make them listen to The Temptations whilst screaming "There! That is what you should be doing!"
It's not the fact they don't play instruments or write their own songs, it's the fact that they think they matter at the end of the day.
If your fans are under 10, which most pop bands have, then your shelf life is 2-3 years max, and that's for the lucky ones.
The Spice Girls are over. They had little kid fans, whilst the older generation shook their head and held their nose.
The little kids grew up, Spice Girls release their latest album, all slick R&B, the kids don't care and the adults can't even remember who they are.
Anyone here remember Mel C?
The "Rock" one? Sang "Anarchy in the UK" at a festival? Got booed at and bottled.
Why?
Because she made the mistake of thinking that she could break the rock market.
Any serious rock fan wished physical injury on the Spice Girls, and one of them tried to step into another genre and got busted.
So she released a dance track, that bombed.
So she tried a ballad with Lisa "Left Eye Lopez" that hit number one, and proceeded to release more ballads.
boy/girl bands are purely marketing exercises, that's what I object to.
Nothing to do with singing, but the motivation behind these groups.
Record Exec:
"We need a new boy group. We need a cheeky one that the girls will love, a sweet one the mums can like, one that think's he's in a rock band, an ugly one to dance and a normal one to write the songs."
Same blueprint for them all.
I get your point, but I'm not sure who you're directing it at? Most of the boy/girl band slagging off I've seen here hasn't been criticising singing abilities. Like you say, most of them can sing (Geri Halliwell being a notable exception). It's the pre packaged 'interchangeableness', and the lack of depth. Sometimes they make songs which are supposed to convey emotion, and they just don't. It's just like a post millenial 'Kids from Fame'. Very few have *distinctive* voices. As much as I dislike David Gray and the Stereophonics, at least you can place the voices instantly.
I can't say I like the boy/girl band image, but then again, it's not aimed at me. But it's the music that puts me off first and foremost.
I can't say I like the boy/girl band image, but then again, it's not aimed at me. But it's the music that puts me off first and foremost.
Okay, can I just settle one thing?
Everybody moans that these bands can't sing to save their lives. Not just the occasional moan either. We're talking consistent griping here, unrelenting criticism. Own up, you're all guilty.
For the love of god, stop talking rubbish. Of course they can sing. If they couldn't, they wouldn't have gotten the jobs in the first place.
It just happens that they can't play any instruments, write any songs, or display any other talent whatsoever, apart from being photogenic. Don't get me wrong, they irritate me just as much as the next guy, but at least dis them for something a little more accurate, huh?
It just strikes me as so detestably prejudiced that people keep slating the vocal talents of these bands. Fine, they are annoying, and they top the charts by looking nice, prancing around on stage and singing a gut-wrenchingly cheerful song that somebody else wrote, but don't dis them by pretending to be a connaseur of tuneful singing. Another thing - who cares if they mime or not? It won't make any odds to you - unless of course, you go to see them live - any of you that will admit to doing that?
Naturally, in order to appear to have some semblance of musical taste, you have to hate these boy/girl bands, (and god forbid you should have the guts to develop your own tastes, rather than copying your friends) but please, have some independant thought - don't just say they can't sing, really THINK about what you don't like.
Is it their music you don't like, or their image?
Wonder what the answer to that will be?
Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough now, I'll only repeat the same points if I carry on. I hope I haven't gone over the top too much here, and I apologise if I sounded offensive at all, but I needed to get this off my chest.
Everybody moans that these bands can't sing to save their lives. Not just the occasional moan either. We're talking consistent griping here, unrelenting criticism. Own up, you're all guilty.
For the love of god, stop talking rubbish. Of course they can sing. If they couldn't, they wouldn't have gotten the jobs in the first place.
It just happens that they can't play any instruments, write any songs, or display any other talent whatsoever, apart from being photogenic. Don't get me wrong, they irritate me just as much as the next guy, but at least dis them for something a little more accurate, huh?
It just strikes me as so detestably prejudiced that people keep slating the vocal talents of these bands. Fine, they are annoying, and they top the charts by looking nice, prancing around on stage and singing a gut-wrenchingly cheerful song that somebody else wrote, but don't dis them by pretending to be a connaseur of tuneful singing. Another thing - who cares if they mime or not? It won't make any odds to you - unless of course, you go to see them live - any of you that will admit to doing that?
Naturally, in order to appear to have some semblance of musical taste, you have to hate these boy/girl bands, (and god forbid you should have the guts to develop your own tastes, rather than copying your friends) but please, have some independant thought - don't just say they can't sing, really THINK about what you don't like.
Is it their music you don't like, or their image?
Wonder what the answer to that will be?
Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough now, I'll only repeat the same points if I carry on. I hope I haven't gone over the top too much here, and I apologise if I sounded offensive at all, but I needed to get this off my chest.