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Post by MikeMusic on Feb 26, 2016 9:04:11 GMT
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Post by Chris on Feb 26, 2016 9:23:38 GMT
I reckon the Brits should simply be renamed The Adeles. Award for best Adele,Best song be Adele,
I'm going to stop now
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Post by zippy on Feb 26, 2016 9:50:35 GMT
Being an 'old geezer' I fail to understand what people see in most contemporary bands / singers. At best they seem to be highly diluted versions of previous groups. At worst they're just plain awful.
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Post by mikeyb on Feb 26, 2016 10:03:12 GMT
Being an 'old geezer' I fail to understand what people see in most contemporary bands / singers. At best they seem to be highly diluted versions of previous groups. At worst they're just plain awful. No doubt your parents were exactly the same  |
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Post by Tim on Feb 26, 2016 11:05:20 GMT
Can't understand why she is so popular I don't personally think she's a nice girl, but that's another story. The answer to the above though is at the start of the article you linked to Mike, she's now 'a brand'. Heavily marketed and hyped which as a consumerist society we buy into big-time. She makes huge amounts of money for both herself and the machine which drives her. Is she that special? Well she has a voice that's for sure, but there are countless more talented artists out there with better voices, one of her previous backing singers Yolanda Quartey comes to mind. But unless the marketing and brand making money machines get behind them, that's where they stay, in the background. She is the perfect example of modern mainstream mass consumerism, hopefully as lovers of music we can see beyond that and support other artists with true, honest talent. I'm not saying Adele isn't talented, just that there are thousands of others with equal or more talent. Having said that, many of those would be terrified by her level of exposure. Tis all a big game at her level, the music is just an engine pulling a very long money train and the masses just blindly buy into it as it's 'the thing to do'. |
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Post by dsjr on Feb 26, 2016 12:00:08 GMT
Adele, Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis, Dire Straits - and that's the first few 'products' that spring to mind. They do one or two good tracks (well, rather more in Dire Straits' case), the suits get hold of them and then they're hyped to hell and back. Since Adele can now do no wrong, I do hope she can have some say over the diabolical way she's produced and made to 'sound' - why is she always shouting every note, even quiet ones? I have inherited FLACs of her first two albums - can't bear them  |
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Post by MartinT on Feb 26, 2016 12:03:58 GMT
Adele does nothing for me. Having a good voice is just one aspect of a performance: are the songs good, is there emotion in the delivery, does she have tonality or techniques that make her special etc.
For me, she is bland and sings bland songs in a bland way. I just don't hear anything special at all.
I was listening to a few singers last night, all of whom could be said to have less perfect voices (only k d lang is vocal perfection on a level not attained by anyone else). Nina Persson, Lorde, k d lang, Beth Gibbons, Sia - they're all way ahead of Adele because of what they put into a song.
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Post by MartinT on Feb 26, 2016 12:08:10 GMT
They do one or two good tracks (well, rather more in Dire Straits' case) Dire Straits had the benefit of being fantastically well recorded throughout their career. Generally great songs, too. I don't think they fit in with the others you mention. |
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Post by dsjr on Feb 26, 2016 12:59:34 GMT
I meant in the way they were hyped ad nauseum for a few years in the 80's and thinking a bit more about it, the fact that for a few years, HALF of CD player purchasers had a copy of Brothers In Arms in their collection. I heard it too many times to be able to 'listen' to it, even now...
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Post by MikeMusic on Feb 26, 2016 13:04:03 GMT
I'm not in a minority then !
Superb marketing, shame about the music
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Post by julesd68 on Feb 26, 2016 15:30:37 GMT
I really, really, really, really dislike Adele in every way ...
Really.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2016 15:40:24 GMT
Adele, Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis, Dire Straits - and that's the first few 'products' that spring to mind. They do one or two good tracks (well, rather more in Dire Straits' case), the suits get hold of them and then they're hyped to hell and back. Since Adele can now do no wrong, I do hope she can have some say over the diabolical way she's produced and made to 'sound' - why is she always shouting every note, even quiet ones? I have inherited FLACs of her first two albums - can't bear them Where on earth does Dire Straits come into this equation? I remember the self titled debut coming out to little publicity and latching onto it due to a recommendation in a hi-fi magazine. Actually they just about preceeded the suits taking over the music industry from music people. Once an artist becomes popular by word of mouth or luck initially it is pretty obvious that record labels will use the money they have made to publicise their cash cow. If you look at Adele she was on an independent label called XL which now has links to Sony. I doubt any suit could predict her success and certainly the enormous sales of 21 and 25. Frankly I don't think she is the type of artist they would have latched on to hype as these are usually creations of management and songwriting teams ( pick any girl/boy band from last 20 years or more). Of course 25 received massive hype as it was obvious it would get big sales on the back of the previous album. Having said that there have been a number of artists that had one massive album and rapidly flopped whether the label promoted them properly or not. Duffy and Lucie Silvas come to mind. So why is Adele popular? Could be a combination of pure chance and a few good songs but likely she is something a little unique in having a slightly retro style and thus appealing to a wider audience to the string of auto tuned R&B influenced singers that populate the charts. I quite enjoy most of her music though it's not what I would call serious listening. The songs are well arranged , she writes them (though increasingly with help) and the recordings are passable if you avoid brickwalled CD mastering (vinyl). It's unfortunate that the snowball effect with sales and publicity likely means other artists get ignored. The string of awards speak for themselves - brits are about sales not quality. At least she is more listenable than Coldplay who have turned away from their roots to processed commercial ditties to maintain their sales. Neither of these artists are industry creations however but have become enormous by a combination of initially strong material and chance. The main factor being that for whatever reason the American market bought them in droves where others have made little impact in spite of cash and publicity being thrown at them. BTW Skyfall was recently voted best ever Bond song by a TV audience and have to admit it is up there with a couple of Bassey numbers. |
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Post by speedysteve on Feb 26, 2016 15:56:33 GMT
Grumpy old gits corner?  Agree with some of the above, especially the ' that's just how your parents reacted' one, but you could also look at it that the best / easiest to market / easiest to relate to at a given time etc rise to the top, in a weak era it is not always great. |
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Post by Eduardo Wobblechops on Feb 26, 2016 16:25:29 GMT
They do one or two good tracks (well, rather more in Dire Straits' case) Dire Straits had the benefit of being fantastically well recorded throughout their career. Generally great songs, too. I don't think they fit in with the others you mention. Agreed. |
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Post by Eduardo Wobblechops on Feb 26, 2016 16:30:35 GMT
Adele, Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis, Dire Straits - and that's the first few 'products' that spring to mind. They do one or two good tracks (well, rather more in Dire Straits' case), the suits get hold of them and then they're hyped to hell and back. Since Adele can now do no wrong, I do hope she can have some say over the diabolical way she's produced and made to 'sound' - why is she always shouting every note, even quiet ones? I have inherited FLACs of her first two albums - can't bear them Where on earth does Dire Straits come into this equation? I remember the self titled debut coming out to little publicity and latching onto it due to a recommendation in a hi-fi magazine. Actually they just about preceeded the suits taking over the music industry from music people. Once an artist becomes popular by word of mouth or luck initially it is pretty obvious that record labels will use the money they have made to publicise their cash cow. If you look at Adele she was on an independent label called XL which now has links to Sony. I doubt any suit could predict her success and certainly the enormous sales of 21 and 25. Frankly I don't think she is the type of artist they would have latched on to hype as these are usually creations of management and songwriting teams ( pick any girl/boy band from last 20 years or more). Of course 25 received massive hype as it was obvious it would get big sales on the back of the previous album. Having said that there have been a number of artists that had one massive album and rapidly flopped whether the label promoted them properly or not. Duffy and Lucie Silvas come to mind. So why is Adele popular? Could be a combination of pure chance and a few good songs but likely she is something a little unique in having a slightly retro style and thus appealing to a wider audience to the string of auto tuned R&B influenced singers that populate the charts. I quite enjoy most of her music though it's not what I would call serious listening. The songs are well arranged , she writes them (though increasingly with help) and the recordings are passable if you avoid brickwalled CD mastering (vinyl). It's unfortunate that the snowball effect with sales and publicity likely means other artists get ignored. The string of awards speak for themselves - brits are about sales not quality. At least she is more listenable than Coldplay who have turned away from their roots to processed commercial ditties to maintain their sales. Neither of these artists are industry creations however but have become enormous by a combination of initially strong material and chance. The main factor being that for whatever reason the American market bought them in droves where others have made little impact in spite of cash and publicity being thrown at them. BTW Skyfall was recently voted best ever Bond song by a TV audience and have to admit it is up there with a couple of Bassey numbers. Have to agree. It's all very well saying how over hyped some things are, but the fact is, people buy her albums, whether you like it or not. You can't argue with success. As for recording quality, a while back I recorded a live gig of hers from Sky Arts onto the reel to reel. It's a stunningly good recording. |
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Post by jandl100 on Feb 26, 2016 17:24:41 GMT
I think she's got a great voice and good emotive delivery. I like some of her songs a lot and think Skyfall one of the great Bond songs. And it's great to see a 'normal looking' lass doing well - too many of today's singers seem to rely on spectacular looks. Sorry - I must try harder to be a grumpy old git.  |
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Post by MikeMusic on Feb 26, 2016 17:33:07 GMT
I think she's got a great voice and good emotive delivery. I like some of her songs a lot and think Skyfall one of the great Bond songs. And it's great to see a 'normal looking' lass doing well - too many of today's singers seem to rely on spectacular looks. Sorry - I must try harder to be a grumpy old git. She carries more weight than the usual chart toppers and doesn't dance like a ninny as most do |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2016 18:02:52 GMT
FWIW I think it's probably pointless trying to identify the "deserving and undeserving" pop stars. Some people might even think The Beatles had no merit ...........but I hope nobody goes and says that because Classicrock is still struggling with Dire Straits getting dissed    Edit: forgot to add that I'd place more value on a Blue Peter Badge than a Brit Award. The Brits have been a grotesque and nonsensical spectacle from day one. |
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Post by MartinT on Feb 26, 2016 18:08:33 GMT
I think Dire Straits were superb, mostly thanks to great songs and Knopfler's superb playing. They have staying power, too, especially the early albums.
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Post by Eduardo Wobblechops on Feb 26, 2016 18:23:36 GMT
Yep, agree Martin, always were a great band.
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