uk pop crisis: supa-koopa.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

So, according to the HQ of the enemies of pop (aka BBC), this band whose website proudly bears the legends 'This is what REAL music sounds like' and 'Against Manufactured Pop' (get fighting koganbot on the case, once he's duffed up those idolators!) might crack the top 40 with full indie credibility intact, having no record label at all. (See here for story, if you can bear it). Blimey, punk or what? (ans: NO, obv.)

The obvious response: 'who knew that REAL music sounded like Mega City 4?'.

The other obvious response: 'crikey is this the future of the UK charts?'

(Or really: 'blimey, slow news day at the beeb!')

But seriously: why does the whole '4 real' thing get up my nose so much? Obviously they're wrong, but since when did truth matter over style in the world of pop? Surely this kind of thing just IS pop, or part of it, even if the music is dire? (esp. since I don't subscribe to the lex's no-guitars-in-pop / pop and rock ought to be mutually exclusive platform) Assuage my guilt, poptimists!

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Is it the future of the UK charts? Depends on how well the downloaded tracks market holds up. We're in a weird situation right now where singles sales are very low (but growing very quickly - doubled in the last year), so there's a window of opportunity for small bands to mobilise their fanbases at quiet times of year - the standard Babylon Zoo effect, but magnified.

The 4 real positioning is so tiresome because it so often stops there - the implication seems to be is that "making real music" is sufficient reason to believe in a band, they need do nothing else. It doesn't bother me if someone like Mastodon, say, sets their colours against "manufactured pop" because at least they're making an effort, not just providing supremely unimaginative music and assuming that realness is enough. (Flawed analogy: "home cooking" meaning hugely overboiled veg etc.)

(Koopa do offer another slightly worrying selling point - they are "English through and through" as manfiested by "using phrases like Hackney and blagging" in their songs).

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Also, I think that for those of us who have lived through a cycle (and maybe the more perspicacious among us) realize how bald-faced a ploy it is, just another angle, and not even a fun one like dressing up like a New Romantic fop.

Also, what's annoying in this case is that they really don't sound that different from Busted at all, except the song's not that good.

So, um, yes, what freakytigger said.

[koganbot]

Agree as to "sounds like Busted" (or Jonas Brothers) if it had been given a better arrangement and a singer w/ twinkle toes. Which is to say that the melody isn't half-bad pop.