Beyonce (with an acute accent) to headline at Glastonbury in 2011? Well, that seals it - I'll never attend again.
There was a bit of fuss a couple of years ago when B's hubby Jay-Z headlined, but I was fine with that. Glasto is (largely) about good and/or interesting music and Hova (as I believe he sometimes styles himself) ticks those boxes. The old reactionary Noel Gallagher whined about the lack of guitars, but he missed the point as usual.
But Beyonce is a different proposition. Karaoke. Cabaret, at best.
Actually, as I write this I realise that I am a little late to the party. Kylie headlined last year and what is different about her? Well, not a lot except that she appears to be a nice person whereas Beyonce is just, well... icy corporate product. But I guess there is (for the purposes of this argument) essentially no difference. Kylie... Beyonce... Glastonbury? No.
Glastonbury, by all accounts, used to be a beautiful thing, and it was still a pretty unique experience when I first went in the late 90's. But now? You might as well save yourself for Liz's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. The journey home will be a lot easier, you won't be surrounded by wannabe hipsters or pissed undergraduates with nouveau riche daddies pretending to be poor, and you might get to see some genuine talent like Brian Wilson or Paul McCartney. Of course, you won't have the opportunity to see some of the really exciting new bands on the fringe stages, but admit it: you wouldn't have bothered anyway.
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Friday, 11 February 2011
Monday, 10 January 2011
Musicola
The BBC has announced that it's "Sound of 2011" is a young lady called Jessie J. The fact that J's career is owned by Universal, the largest record company in the world, rings alarm bells. I am not suggesting that the BBC is in Universal's pocket, but they simply would not have noticed J if she had been on a true independent label. Having said that, she sounds mildly interesting in a Ms Dynamite kind of way and I predict her career will follow a similar trajectory - mild critical acclaim, a couple of hits, universally ignored second album, followed by occasional reality TV appearances.
But there is something quite depressing about this award. We are asked to view singers like J (and Dynamite, Lily Allen, Rumer, etc etc etc) as true artists striking a blow for female empowerment. But scratch the surface and you inevitably find some middle-aged male musician billed as a "co-writer"/mentor. This isn't an exclusively female phenomena - the same applied to Robbie Williams/Guy Chambers - but the record industry has clearly seen it is onto a good thing with young female "singer-songwriters".
The real shame is that there must be great female artists out there who ARE in charge of their music in the same way as forerunners such as Bic Runga, Tori Amos, Kate Bush & Carly Simon. It would be wonderful to hear that the BBC's "Sound of 2012" is a young woman otherwise unheralded by the industry, and who is producing her own music from scratch. Sadly the reality is that the next 'next big thing' will be another record company mannequin. So much for 'Girl Power'.
But there is something quite depressing about this award. We are asked to view singers like J (and Dynamite, Lily Allen, Rumer, etc etc etc) as true artists striking a blow for female empowerment. But scratch the surface and you inevitably find some middle-aged male musician billed as a "co-writer"/mentor. This isn't an exclusively female phenomena - the same applied to Robbie Williams/Guy Chambers - but the record industry has clearly seen it is onto a good thing with young female "singer-songwriters".
The real shame is that there must be great female artists out there who ARE in charge of their music in the same way as forerunners such as Bic Runga, Tori Amos, Kate Bush & Carly Simon. It would be wonderful to hear that the BBC's "Sound of 2012" is a young woman otherwise unheralded by the industry, and who is producing her own music from scratch. Sadly the reality is that the next 'next big thing' will be another record company mannequin. So much for 'Girl Power'.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Them Rappers
I have owned Straight Outta Compton for about 10 years, probably since a period around my 30th birthday when I decided it was important to own every seminal rap record ever made. While that appears as, and probably was, a slightly sad early mid-life crisis thing, it does mean that I have early efforts by Afrika Bambaataa, Melle Mel, Run D-M-C, Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Jay-Z, The Roots, Outkast and Roots Manuva on CD and on my iPod (sorry, MP3 player). However, I have never really got around to listening to Niggaz With Attitude's only album that counts. I set that straight this morning on the train.
It happens that I had been listening to a couple of Public Enemy's less obvious albums a few days ago - Yo! Bum Rush the Show and Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age - so given the traditional critical contrast between the two groups I was well primed. To cut to the chase, I find that SOC is almost unmitigated rubbish. Even some of Public Enemy's more laboured efforts have passion and ambition in them. SOC sounds like a BBC children's television director's idea of what rap music is. With added profanity.
There is another rap band that comes to mind and they were notable for two reasons. Firstly they had the first ever pure rap hit. Secondly they are widely renowed for being a pathetic, watered-down, lilly white, half-hearted excuse for a facsimile of the street music that was being produced in the late 1970's. I am talking, of course, about The Sugarhill Gang. The title of their hit almost says it all - Rapper's Delight.
(I found a wonderful 'fact' on Wikipedia about Rapper's Delight, the track being based around a sample (or perhaps copy) of Chic's Good Times: apparently "the song currently holds the record of sampling a previously recorded song in the shortest period of time, less than two months." I now intend to become the new world record holder by going into a record shop later today and buying any of this week's new releases - doesn't matter what - and recording it on my mobile phone or any other handy recording device. While not obviously necessary, I will then avoid any dispute with the Guinness Book of Records by creating a further recording of myself talking over the top of the first recording and copying this second recording onto a CDR. So long as I can manage to achieve all of this within two months I will then become the new world record holder for sampling a previously recorded song in the shortest period of time, and perhaps someone will write a Wikipedia entry about me. Idiots.)
Anyway, the only shocking thing about the supposedly shocking SOC is that it sounds like it could have been recorded by The Sugarhill Gang. Although to be fair, with extra "fuck"s and "bitch"es and "I don't believe in foreplay, just spread ya legs"s. Actually, there is one other shocking thing about SOC. 8-Ball (Remix) by Eazy-E sounds exactly like the title music to The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air -you know, where Will Smith raps about "a couple of guys, they were up to no good, started making trouble in my neighbourhood". It is to my great disappointment that Will Smith's track was recorded a couple of years after SOC, so i can't accuse Eazy-E of ripping it off. However, if Will Smith can copy your music undiluted, then I think it says rather a lot about your music (apologies there to Stewart Lee).
I said that SOC is almost unmitigated rubbish. Express Yourself remains a thoroughly enjoyable romp and, tellingly, quite atypical of the record as a whole. It was primarily rapped by Dr Dre. Now, as everyone knows, Dre is not considered a good rapper. His flow is ponderous and devoid of inflection unlike... well, unlike Calvin Broadus or Marshall Mathers. Even Express Yourself suffers from this failing, but the funk in the backing track and the humour in the lyrics is enough to carry the day. The same cannot be said of the rest of SOC. And where does that leave the revered production abilities of Dre or the supposedly sublime rapping skills of Ice Cube?
Shocking indeed. 1 out of 10. I'll be listening to It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back on the way home, to remind myself what rap music can aspire to.
"I got a letter from the Government the other day. I opened and read it, it said they were suckers."
It happens that I had been listening to a couple of Public Enemy's less obvious albums a few days ago - Yo! Bum Rush the Show and Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age - so given the traditional critical contrast between the two groups I was well primed. To cut to the chase, I find that SOC is almost unmitigated rubbish. Even some of Public Enemy's more laboured efforts have passion and ambition in them. SOC sounds like a BBC children's television director's idea of what rap music is. With added profanity.
There is another rap band that comes to mind and they were notable for two reasons. Firstly they had the first ever pure rap hit. Secondly they are widely renowed for being a pathetic, watered-down, lilly white, half-hearted excuse for a facsimile of the street music that was being produced in the late 1970's. I am talking, of course, about The Sugarhill Gang. The title of their hit almost says it all - Rapper's Delight.
(I found a wonderful 'fact' on Wikipedia about Rapper's Delight, the track being based around a sample (or perhaps copy) of Chic's Good Times: apparently "the song currently holds the record of sampling a previously recorded song in the shortest period of time, less than two months." I now intend to become the new world record holder by going into a record shop later today and buying any of this week's new releases - doesn't matter what - and recording it on my mobile phone or any other handy recording device. While not obviously necessary, I will then avoid any dispute with the Guinness Book of Records by creating a further recording of myself talking over the top of the first recording and copying this second recording onto a CDR. So long as I can manage to achieve all of this within two months I will then become the new world record holder for sampling a previously recorded song in the shortest period of time, and perhaps someone will write a Wikipedia entry about me. Idiots.)
Anyway, the only shocking thing about the supposedly shocking SOC is that it sounds like it could have been recorded by The Sugarhill Gang. Although to be fair, with extra "fuck"s and "bitch"es and "I don't believe in foreplay, just spread ya legs"s. Actually, there is one other shocking thing about SOC. 8-Ball (Remix) by Eazy-E sounds exactly like the title music to The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air -you know, where Will Smith raps about "a couple of guys, they were up to no good, started making trouble in my neighbourhood". It is to my great disappointment that Will Smith's track was recorded a couple of years after SOC, so i can't accuse Eazy-E of ripping it off. However, if Will Smith can copy your music undiluted, then I think it says rather a lot about your music (apologies there to Stewart Lee).
I said that SOC is almost unmitigated rubbish. Express Yourself remains a thoroughly enjoyable romp and, tellingly, quite atypical of the record as a whole. It was primarily rapped by Dr Dre. Now, as everyone knows, Dre is not considered a good rapper. His flow is ponderous and devoid of inflection unlike... well, unlike Calvin Broadus or Marshall Mathers. Even Express Yourself suffers from this failing, but the funk in the backing track and the humour in the lyrics is enough to carry the day. The same cannot be said of the rest of SOC. And where does that leave the revered production abilities of Dre or the supposedly sublime rapping skills of Ice Cube?
Shocking indeed. 1 out of 10. I'll be listening to It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back on the way home, to remind myself what rap music can aspire to.
"I got a letter from the Government the other day. I opened and read it, it said they were suckers."
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