Are Ideas Enough?

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

A thread that's currently languishing over at ILC[omics], could work here too.

Is just having ideas enough in pop? The answer is probably, "No", but it ties in with the Rachel vs Sugababes thing on the other thread: I think Rachel has more/better ideas than the Sugababes, but I'm not sure it's the reason I prefer the former. Similarly, for Lex, who prefers the latter, is this prefence based on the fact that the ideas on th RS don't hang together or make it muddled?

Thing is: "hipsters" into pop tend to go mad for the IDEAS; does the ordinary public, dya think?

Comments

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

On the last point: maybe not ideas per se, but novelty is a very strong force in general pop consumption.

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

Possibly novelty as gimmick though, rather than novelty as the new. Though a) I guess the Crazy Frog ringtone thing is at the forefront of something and b) nowt wrong with gimmick in pop.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'm not sure there's a difference. Quite a lot of very much beloved and canonised singles are basically gimmicky novelty hits.

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

I actually really like the idea that today's trail-blazing ideas are yesterday's pop gimmicks.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i don't think it's clear what is meany by ideas in this context - well not to me :-(

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

I suppose I mean like when Mr Pop Magician stands up and goes, "For my next trick I will speed up the vocals on this track" or "For my next trick, I'll play this guitar backwards" or "For my next trick, I'll be nicking my beats from some bhangra that I heard the other day."

That sort of thing. :)

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

Schnappi is still rubbish though.

I JUDGE THAT...

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

ideas are the hooks of the mind

Re: I JUDGE THAT...

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

Do you mean that the ideas give critics something to write about/theorise about?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether I prefer Sugababes to RS! I definitely think RS's is the better album, it's just that I'm listening more to the Sugababes one (and their back catalogue), poss more to do with where my head is at.

The ideas/success axis is dependent on where one is in one's career, I think. Sugababes couldn't have released an album like Taller In More Ways instead of 'Freak Like Me', no one would have cared. But it's exactly right for where they stand in the British pop firmament in 2005 (ie approaching status of National Treasures).

This trajectory probably holds true for all types of career.

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

What about bands who attempt to build a career out of ideas or An Idea?

The Beatles are funny here, because I think their career wavered from gimmicks to ideas and back and forth. They're best when they're gimmick-y though, I think: ie I prefer a pastiche-y thing "I Will" to labourious patchwork like "Happiness is A Warm Gun".

Gimmick = pop. Ideas = something more rock-ish?

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

Sorry for spamming this thread. I'm kind of house bound right now.

Here's a question: how does the growth in technology effect the Idea? Do y'all think it's a hindrance? Does the Idea, the gimmick, depend on accident? Like DJ Pierre messing about with a 303 or whatevah. Increased technology makes the best Ideas simply presets of some machine?

I'm not sure it is a hindranc, tbh.

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

I like the term Thrill-Power that Tom used on the ILC thread.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'ideas' = things you're committed to, sounds which are not just sounds but signifiers of a whole aesthetic
'gimmicks' = no commitment, magpie-pop, sounds which mean as much or as little as you/they/we/us want them to

?