Does anybody pay attention to this back-slapping ceremony?
I don't just mean on this site, I mean in general.
So they are voted for by the public, but the public have notoriously short memories. For example, best song of the last 25 years is a joke. Robbie Williams won for Angels, and Will Young was nominated for a song which most people have forgotton if they ever heard it in the first place.
Bob Geldof wins an award for "outstanding contribution to music"! The best thing he ever did for music was stop making it and start doing charity stuff. Seriously, he has done a lot since his music career, but was only ever a third rate post-punk band anyway.
Of the other bands that won and were nominated, they are pretty much what Jo Wiley and Radio 1 "youth" programming tells us what is "cool" this year.
It reminds me a bit of the annual polls they used to have in music magazines with categories like "best drummer", "best singer", etc. and people would just vote for the drummer, singer from their favourite band, regardless of ability. In Kerrang it was always: best band: metallica, best singer: james hetfield, best drummer: lars ulrich, best album cover: metallica's black album, etc.
After having read this back, maybe I should have posted it in shav's thread about getting old...
No, I'm right there with you Varg, I read an article earlier in the year claiming that the people were tired of industry manufactured pap and that the Brits would reflect this later in the year. Did it? Did it b@ll@cks! Bands like Kasabian, The Killers were unmentioned. McF@ck got an award?!?! If the best song in the last 25 years is Angels then I'm a stick of pink candyfloss. And apart from I don't like Mondays, can anyone name a Boomtown Rats song off the top of their heads? I think not. Trash, pure and simple trash. The Brits is and always will be an award for pop pap, voted for by immature teens who wouldn't understand good music if it dropped their balls for them. Will Young???? I can't even remember any of his songs! The only thing that comes to mind when I hear his name is 'big gay, fat-lipped gorilla' and that is certainly no substitute for musical talent. And while I like Keane's singer (great voice and good stage presence) their album is just a collection of different mixes of the same song. Bedshaped is a good tune, the rest is just dull. Joss 'pig-nosed' Stone gets best urban act eh? Well paint me grey and slap my in a cardboard box, call me tramp and give me a banjo! Urban my puss-filled boils! Wtf is urban about Joss Stone?!? I despair! I suppose though I can't blame the spotty little cretins for their taste in music, they are born into the swirling maelstrom of industry agenda and scarcely have time to settle on their tastes when they are busy deciding which band has the best merchandise or appears in the most magazines.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its music: "We hold these sounds to be self-evident: that all bands receive equal airtime." I have a dream that one day on the radios of our world the Kinks, Leonard Cohen, Bob The Dog and the Queens of the Stoneage will be able to be heard together on the turntable of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of pop, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. A dream that my children will grow up in a world where music is judged not by colour of it's wrapping and glossy starlet clothing accessories, but by the content of it's creativity! I have a dream today!
Nice to see Muse get best live act though 🙂
I concur. You can also add things such as the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, the Oscars etc. to the list of award ceremonies that mean nothing...
I've stopped listening to normal radio nowadays, prefering to seek out crazy internet stations from around the world. My favourites at the moment are:
http://www.wfmu.org/ - some strange "freeform" radio from NJ
http://www.eoradio.com/ - promise to only play unsigned bands
Originally posted by mmanuelInteresting, I'll take a look.
I concur. You can also add things such as the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, the Oscars etc. to the list of award ceremonies that mean nothing...
I've stopped listening to normal radio nowadays, prefering to seek out crazy internet stations from around the world. My favourites at the moment are:
http://www.wfmu.org/ - some strange "freeform" radio from NJ
http://www.eoradio.com/ - promise to only play unsigned bands
In reply to the comment about it not doing any harm, it does do harm. It takes effort to seek out new, good, interesting bands. Not everyone can be bothered or they don't know any better (teenagers) so they rely on radio stations to introduce them. Thing is, the stations are in the pockets of the record companies who do not care one iota about talent or innovation, but about $$$ and units shifted. Even someone like Robbie Williams is seen in terms of how many units he can shift.
But well done for the Scissor Sisters. Too gay for the USA but they do well in Europe. Take for example a lovely bit of writing in this little ditty:
Song title: "Tits on the radio". True enough, most bands / celebs / DJs are a bunch of tits. 10/10 for that observation.
The chorus "You can't see tits on the radio" echos of the title, but also adds a huge body swerve into a sensible question: if you can't see an image lead celeb on the radio, e.g. J-lo's ass or Peter Endre's abs, why on earth are they on the radio at all? Keep that trash on the TV where it belongs.