Stop Whining and Start Your Own Band
Written: Sep 09 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Pop Will Mutate Delightfully, Again and Again
Cons: It all sounds like Disco Sucks Redux to me
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| radioguy's Full Review: Rock and Pop |
If pop music is dead and N'Sync is so terrible, why do so many truly love N'Sync? And I'm not just talking about people reading an N'Sync review because it's the only music review in People. They really like the band. N'Sync has fans of all ages and sexes (nowadays, it seems that there are about 27 of the latter). How did N'Sync get these devoted fans? Whether it's the music, the dancing, the videos, or whatever, many people find a lot to like about N'Sync and nobody forced them to get that enthusiastic about the group.
For me, personally, N'Sync holds no appeal. But I'm impressed by the wide range of fans the group has garnered. And I respect other people's right to have their own musical taste. In fact, I have a feeling that, despite my own superior musical acumen, the world would be a mighty tiresome rock in space if there wasn't a broad spectrum of musical likes and dislikes.
It seems that there's a certain crowd of folks who love to hate N'Sync. These folks go on and on about corporate media dominance, and they do have a point, about that. Time-Warner, I'm sure, has no problem putting a little elbow pressure on the shoulder of a scribe at, oh, say, Entertainment Weekly, when they want a good review of band that really sucks like, oh, say, Hootie and the Blowfish.
Of course, it will never be a good thing for media power to agglomerate into the hands of a few. But many of the people who have such hostility toward current pop acts, such as N'Sync, have surprisingly corporate tastes themselves. It rather reminds me of the Disco Sucks movement in the late ‘70's. Much of that was just disguised racism and homophobia (the beautiful irony was that within a couple of years almost every mainstream rock song recorded was backed by either a drum machine or a live drummer imitating one). Likewise, I sense quite a bit of bitterness and bigotry lurking beneath the criticisms some now make of popular acts like N'Sync, the Backstreet Boys, and the Spice Girls.
If you look at the musical "likes" of some of the N'Sync attackers, you'll find that their tastes run strongly to the corporate. I think people who think corporate rock sucks should buy records from non-corporate bands. Take a look at the music listings in your local paper. Scout out a few nearby garages and basements. You'll find plenty of bands that aren't being marketed by Time-Warner.
As for groups that are invented by record company marketing execs, Stone Temple Pilots is the most sickening example of that I've ever seen. Besides, Scott Weiland is usually so zooted that, in a fight, Christina Aguilera would kick his ass.
While we're on the subject of pseudo-integrity, let me just mention Billy Corgan. Yes, the same Smashing Pumpkin (or was it the Smashing Trees and the Screaming Pumpkins?) who kicked somebody out of the group because they were in the same room with somebody who was the victim of a fatal drug overdose. Has there ever been a purer example of wimpy knuckling-under to corporate interests? Tell me the record company didn't demand that he kick the guy out of the band. But Corgan's rich now. He can fly first class, just like Nancy Reagan, so he might as well think like she does too.
Is pop music dead? At the moment, I'd say its B/P is 60-over-40, pulse thin and thready, pupils dilated. And maybe it's a permanent condition. Or maybe it's just another one of the many dips popular music has gone through over the years.
Good, innovative music usually comes about from pre-existing musical elements being put together in an effective, innovative way. That's happened again and again in pop history, the form's plasticity being its greatest strength, and it's pretty likely that history will continue to repeat, over and over again.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
radioguy
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 - Top 100 |
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Member: R.U. Experienced
Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 228
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