BR
I guess a journalist at The Times had some time on their hands - nothing there at all which suggests it'll return - the whole story is based on the desire of an unnamed "music executive".
There is absolutely no need at all for it to return - the way the audience finds it's music has changed dramatically and the only people interested in it's return are those that want a return to the commercial money grabbing formulaic groups of the last century.
Quite frankly British music is in a better state than it has been for numerous years.
There is absolutely no need at all for it to return - the way the audience finds it's music has changed dramatically and the only people interested in it's return are those that want a return to the commercial money grabbing formulaic groups of the last century.
Quite frankly British music is in a better state than it has been for numerous years.
DV
Have to disagree, there are no mainstream regular opportunities for established musical appearances in primetime at present. The BBC need to restore this pretty soon.
BR
Mmmm.... they're appearing every week in shows like Strictly and The X Factor which get audiences TOTP could only dream about. Outside of primetime there are shows all over the place for people to find the music they like, from the likes of Later through to T4 and 4 Music Presents. And after all, as music is about the audio, not the vision, there's the small matter of Radio 1 and Radio 2 too.
TOTP axing was long overdue as the one size fits all approach just didn't reflect what was happening. So it's about time the culture minister grew some bloody balls and rather than moaning about specific dated shows which shouldn't be at the top of the agenda he started doing something about the main problems actually facing TV at the moment - namely the slow death (or murder by ITV) of both children's television and regional broadcasting.
And it's about time BBC reminded the Government of their supposed political independence - MPs shouldn't be dictating what the BBC should or shouldn't be showing!
DVB Cornwall posted:
Have to disagree, there are no mainstream regular opportunities for established musical appearances in primetime at present. The BBC need to restore this pretty soon.
Mmmm.... they're appearing every week in shows like Strictly and The X Factor which get audiences TOTP could only dream about. Outside of primetime there are shows all over the place for people to find the music they like, from the likes of Later through to T4 and 4 Music Presents. And after all, as music is about the audio, not the vision, there's the small matter of Radio 1 and Radio 2 too.
TOTP axing was long overdue as the one size fits all approach just didn't reflect what was happening. So it's about time the culture minister grew some bloody balls and rather than moaning about specific dated shows which shouldn't be at the top of the agenda he started doing something about the main problems actually facing TV at the moment - namely the slow death (or murder by ITV) of both children's television and regional broadcasting.
And it's about time BBC reminded the Government of their supposed political independence - MPs shouldn't be dictating what the BBC should or shouldn't be showing!
DV
Put TOTP in the right slot ... Saturday evening, for an hour, as it's format shows are overseas, with decent presenters, and it'd work well. As for the Strictly and X-Factor element the established act isn't the point of both of these programmes.
PT
...since Andi Peters became Executive Producer and pretty much stuck the nail in the coffin.
Brekkie posted:
TOTP axing was long overdue
...since Andi Peters became Executive Producer and pretty much stuck the nail in the coffin.
MU
DISCLAIMER : The following rant is in no way aimed at Brekkie, it's just that his comment has prompted me to vent something that's been brewing for a couple of weeks now
That really does depend where you sit Brekkie. Underground is mostly OK, as always, however overground it's HORRENDOUSLY BAD IMO.
Personally, I've never really liked much chart music since I discovered pirate radio and the few House / Hip Hop shows there were on legal radio in the late 80s and early 90s. I'd found something that I liked and it was hard to get to listen to it unless you could afford to buy the records, which as a kid I couldn't do. The music was exciting and new to me, and the fact I could only listen to it at certain times just made it more so. I really don't envy the kids these days who can just go to the net and listen to anything they want.
My choice of music has had it's moments in the commercial field but you never really get the best stuff entering the charts, just the most popular or more accurately the most hyped.
This is also true of Rock music right now. The bands on the TV and Radio right now are mostly pretty awful IMO, mostly style over substance rubbish. OK, I dislike a lot of Rock anyway, but I'm not totally adverse to it.
The problem is this. People follow whatever is pushed at them by the media who are always looking for the safe, fashionable bands so they get as many viewers / listeners as possible. This extends to the rest of the music industry as well. So, nobody is out there looking for bands that are actually any good, it's all about the fashionable gimmicky bits that they shroud their lack of talent with.
What's my point you ask? Well, I'm getting around to that.
The other night I saw a repeat on E4 of a T4 programme called 'Unsigned'. It was pathetic. There was a great little metal band on there. One of the guitarists had one arm, Def Leopard style. They were very 80s and did need some work to bring them into the 21st centure, but they had a good melodic song and they could play. There was nothing wrong with them essentially and the judges (Kelly Osbourne, Lauren Laverne, Simon summatorother and Alex James) all agreed. However, they passed them up. "You're not right for this show". Load of rubbish.
Then, this lot came on...
http://www.myspace.com/fangsfangsfangs
Terrible band.
1) No song, just standard 00's indie-disco 80s rehash backing with screeching and spoken word lyrics (OK, nothing wrong with spoken word, obviously, but wait...) in a mockney accent. They are from GLASGOW FFS!
2) Punk / New Wave / New Romantic throwback fashion that was OK back then but why would you want to repeat it? Oh, because it's fashionable to do so again and everybody will think you're really out there and cool if you do it
That's really pushing the envelope isn't it.
3) The most pretentious, arrogant attitude going. OK, that's RnR, but I hate that, it's exactly what music isn't about. Their interview consisted of them going, "We're amazing, we're so great. We were a band before we met each other because we all looked like we look now before we met each other." Looking the same doesn't make you a good band, sorry to break it to you guys!
The judges lapped them up, including the one who's supposedly against style over substance, which clearly isn't the case.
TBH, with Fangs I detect something of a KLF style wind-up going on.
Then there was some 16-yo cutesy indie boy who sang via the Antares Autotune plug-in so you couldn't even tell if he could sing or not. It was designed to gently re-tune a singers voice so that any large wobbles in pitch were fixed. However, Cher's producers put it into over-drive in that big hit she had and a monstrosity was born. It's not a vocoder, it doesn't sound like one, it sounds horrible. Recently, It's infected RnB, Dancehall Reggae and now it's infecting Indie Rock too. Once again the judges were more concerned that the kid looked really cute than whether he could sing or not.
You'd think at least Alex James and Lauren Laverne would see through the crap, but there you go!
So, in conclusion, whats on TV now is partly to blame for actually harming the music industry in this country. Before you know it, all chart bands will look and sound exactly like one of about 3 different styles. Actually, that's almost already happened.
What's really needed, is not a return of TOTP but an honest endeavor to uncover the real musical innovations going on in this country and not what the NME is chatting about this month (or Smash Hits if it still existed), broadcast at prime time.
I can dream
Brekkie posted:
Quite frankly British music is in a better state than it has been for numerous years.
DISCLAIMER : The following rant is in no way aimed at Brekkie, it's just that his comment has prompted me to vent something that's been brewing for a couple of weeks now
That really does depend where you sit Brekkie. Underground is mostly OK, as always, however overground it's HORRENDOUSLY BAD IMO.
Personally, I've never really liked much chart music since I discovered pirate radio and the few House / Hip Hop shows there were on legal radio in the late 80s and early 90s. I'd found something that I liked and it was hard to get to listen to it unless you could afford to buy the records, which as a kid I couldn't do. The music was exciting and new to me, and the fact I could only listen to it at certain times just made it more so. I really don't envy the kids these days who can just go to the net and listen to anything they want.
My choice of music has had it's moments in the commercial field but you never really get the best stuff entering the charts, just the most popular or more accurately the most hyped.
This is also true of Rock music right now. The bands on the TV and Radio right now are mostly pretty awful IMO, mostly style over substance rubbish. OK, I dislike a lot of Rock anyway, but I'm not totally adverse to it.
The problem is this. People follow whatever is pushed at them by the media who are always looking for the safe, fashionable bands so they get as many viewers / listeners as possible. This extends to the rest of the music industry as well. So, nobody is out there looking for bands that are actually any good, it's all about the fashionable gimmicky bits that they shroud their lack of talent with.
What's my point you ask? Well, I'm getting around to that.
The other night I saw a repeat on E4 of a T4 programme called 'Unsigned'. It was pathetic. There was a great little metal band on there. One of the guitarists had one arm, Def Leopard style. They were very 80s and did need some work to bring them into the 21st centure, but they had a good melodic song and they could play. There was nothing wrong with them essentially and the judges (Kelly Osbourne, Lauren Laverne, Simon summatorother and Alex James) all agreed. However, they passed them up. "You're not right for this show". Load of rubbish.
Then, this lot came on...
http://www.myspace.com/fangsfangsfangs
Terrible band.
1) No song, just standard 00's indie-disco 80s rehash backing with screeching and spoken word lyrics (OK, nothing wrong with spoken word, obviously, but wait...) in a mockney accent. They are from GLASGOW FFS!
2) Punk / New Wave / New Romantic throwback fashion that was OK back then but why would you want to repeat it? Oh, because it's fashionable to do so again and everybody will think you're really out there and cool if you do it
That's really pushing the envelope isn't it.
3) The most pretentious, arrogant attitude going. OK, that's RnR, but I hate that, it's exactly what music isn't about. Their interview consisted of them going, "We're amazing, we're so great. We were a band before we met each other because we all looked like we look now before we met each other." Looking the same doesn't make you a good band, sorry to break it to you guys!
The judges lapped them up, including the one who's supposedly against style over substance, which clearly isn't the case.
TBH, with Fangs I detect something of a KLF style wind-up going on.
Then there was some 16-yo cutesy indie boy who sang via the Antares Autotune plug-in so you couldn't even tell if he could sing or not. It was designed to gently re-tune a singers voice so that any large wobbles in pitch were fixed. However, Cher's producers put it into over-drive in that big hit she had and a monstrosity was born. It's not a vocoder, it doesn't sound like one, it sounds horrible. Recently, It's infected RnB, Dancehall Reggae and now it's infecting Indie Rock too. Once again the judges were more concerned that the kid looked really cute than whether he could sing or not.
You'd think at least Alex James and Lauren Laverne would see through the crap, but there you go!
So, in conclusion, whats on TV now is partly to blame for actually harming the music industry in this country. Before you know it, all chart bands will look and sound exactly like one of about 3 different styles. Actually, that's almost already happened.
What's really needed, is not a return of TOTP but an honest endeavor to uncover the real musical innovations going on in this country and not what the NME is chatting about this month (or Smash Hits if it still existed), broadcast at prime time.
I can dream
BR
DISCLAIMER : The following rant is in no way aimed at Brekkie, it's just that his comment has prompted me to vent something that's been brewing for a couple of weeks now
That really does depend where you sit Brekkie. Underground is mostly OK, as always, however overground it's HORRENDOUSLY BAD IMO.
LOL - don't worry. I only got that far before I got the Wombles theme tune stuck in my head so the rest was just a blur!
mulder posted:
Brekkie posted:
Quite frankly British music is in a better state than it has been for numerous years.
DISCLAIMER : The following rant is in no way aimed at Brekkie, it's just that his comment has prompted me to vent something that's been brewing for a couple of weeks now
That really does depend where you sit Brekkie. Underground is mostly OK, as always, however overground it's HORRENDOUSLY BAD IMO.
LOL - don't worry. I only got that far before I got the Wombles theme tune stuck in my head so the rest was just a blur!
RM
I think that was So It Goes , wasn't it? That was pretty radical, and Tony Wilson often claimed he was the first to bring the likes of the Sex Pistols on to telly. Sadly the series was discontinued after dispute over Iggy Pop's swearing, if I rightly recall
amosc100 posted:
regional programme that the late Tony Wilson once presented?
I think that was So It Goes , wasn't it? That was pretty radical, and Tony Wilson often claimed he was the first to bring the likes of the Sex Pistols on to telly. Sadly the series was discontinued after dispute over Iggy Pop's swearing, if I rightly recall