JUDGE POP vs THE PIPETTES

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

In the first of a rub new POPTIMISTS SERIES, Mega-City Pop's toughest JUDGE needs YOUR help to decide what sentence to pass on today's hot new "talents". First up are 'girl group' The Pipettes, who seem to divide Poptimists opinion, requiring arbitration from the unbending arm of THE LAW.

[Poll #759407]

So erm basically the poll is 'do you think the Pipettes are a good thing or a bad thing' and the comments box is where you suggest WHY.

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

reposted from ilx:

the problem with the pipettes is that the concept is brilliant and the execution is abysmal. they don't have any pop performative sensibilities at all, they don't have any understanding of how to convey all the things they want to. and they can't sing.

obviously this is not either/or but compare the way the pipettes sing their lyrics to how girls aloud, sugababes, christina milian, christina aguilera, will young and rihanna sing theirs - all of the names i mentioned have pretty instinctive commercial pop nous, they're extremely adept at conveying emotions and emotions-beneath-the-emotions and emotions-at-odds-with-actual-words and subtleties and nuances, and their producers and arrangers are also extremely adept at this. the pipettes are sterile in comparison - i don't feel compelled by their songs at all.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Yep, that about sums it up why the don't work musically. And that's before we get on to the whole business of the drooling indie boy fans, the 'ooh, aren't they a glamourous antidote to other indie' attitude and the whole pure pop concept which is an idea which should have fvcked off and died in 1988.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

yes, they often seem to make people call them "PURE PERFECT POP! (unspoken but implied: as opposed to all that horrid pop in the charts)"

They seem to me to be playing at pop rather than being pop.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well the "perfect pop" meme is an old and recurring one, and yes there is the unspoken "we are an alternative to pop as well as being pop" thing, but that doesn't really annoy me much if the songs are good. (I have only heard Pull Shapes, it is a jolly pastiche).

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

In case it wasn't clear, I rly hate them, and they totally bring out the Lex in me.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

And I hated them before I heard them, because of the critical reception, which was so, so offputting. I was v.glad that they sounded bobbins as well.

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

You see, this doesn't strike me as a particular good argument, viz. hating them before you see them, or hating them on account of others' reception of them. (No matter how true an indicator it may be...)

However, alexmacpherson's argument is v. good and almost convinces me I hate them despite finding their tunes quite jolly.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

It's not an argument for why anyone else should, no, but I can't exactly help my initial reaction to their press, which was 'oh no, not one of THESE'.