A kung fu fighter in a disco

...to my fellow Ting Tings tickers. I can't remember when I last hated a band this much, even Katy Perry doesn't annoy me to this level.

I have still not read an adequate defence of them, either.

From:

skyecaptain.livejournal.com

Sorry, I kinda like a Ting Ting song or two. Can't do it.

From:

skyecaptain.livejournal.com

(Then again I like a Katy Perry song or two, too!)

From:

chezghost.livejournal.com

I haven't read an adequate attack on them!

I don't care for them much but I'm mystified by why they'd be DESPISED, their name aside.

From:

- her voice which is really grating, really mannered and really characterless all at once
- the stupid awkward pose she does to go with her stupid awkward voice
- the totally rudimentary, incompetent music
- AND THE DRUMS AND THE DRUMS AND THE DRUMS etc being maybe the worst and most unlistenable moment in any song I have ever heard in my life
- except EEE-EEE-EEE in the same song (why would you even DO THAT)
- their boring boring fans thinking they're being "fun" and "edgy" by listening to tedious self-conscious indie

From:

chezghost.livejournal.com

i'm just sort of relieved it's a girl and a guy and not the usual bunch of nobheads. i think they are generally 'a bit crap', i can't muster feelings stronger than that. glasvegas and other more 'conventional' bands seem far worse.

one good thing about them is that they're from manchester BUT don't shout about this much - hopefully we'll get more manc bands that don't set themselves out as part of some revered tradition of 4 miserable blokes with terrible voice and clothes. at least it's a different kind of meh, for me.

From:

They stand out more than the four-blokes Glasvegas/MGMT/whoever rabble, so annoy me more; plus, there is the unfortunate matter of people I know - people within this very circle! - being pro-Ting Tings, while I can't say I know anyone who gives a toss about Glasvegas at all.

From:

freakytigger.livejournal.com

With Glasvegas it's simply a "price of keeping Alan McGee bands at bay is eternal vigilance" kind of thing.

I might switch The View vote though to the Ting Tings, having read your all too convincing summary.

MGMT I believe is two blokes not four. They use those newfangled computer things for the other two.

From:

koganbot

No, switch your Katy vote, so Scouting For Girls can win!

From:

- her voice which is really grating, really mannered and really characterless all at once

Ah, but that is the best bit! Reminds me of The Flying Lizards' cover of "Sex Machine". The combination of grating, mannered and characterless can be fantastic, if it's sufficiently arch.

From:

Aaargh I hate archness in pop, and would have added that adjective into the mix if I'd remembered. I don't get how any of these things are positives, they're certainly not good character attributes.

From:

I think it's situational. Some do it really well, others are just annoying. I'm not sure how to articulate what I think is the necessary quality distinguishing the two.

"Arch" can be enjoyable; anything with the adjective "knowing" tends to make me very suspicious.

From:

koganbot

I think you are permitted to invoke the Boney Joan Rule in this circumstance.

From:

I approve of this rule!

From:

AND THEIR FUCKING NAME

From:

freakytigger.livejournal.com

I flipped back and forth between them and Perry for my third tick, before settling on Perry, for the reason that the hotel I stay in each week at least never plays the Ting Tings album when I'm trying to eat my breakfast in peace.

From:

bengraham.livejournal.com

I disagree... Katy Perry was the first tick for me. The Ting Tings were a close second though!

From:

lockedintheatti.livejournal.com

Is there any way I can vote for them three times? Rarely have I loathed a band so much. I'm not even sure why.

From:

I quite like them. Er, they're sort of fun?

From:

My quasi-defense of the Ting Tings (and why people dismissing them for being arch and self-conscious reminds me of me wrong-headedly dismissing bands like the Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode back in the '80s for pretty much the same reasons) (among other tings):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/06/apparently-at-l.html

From:

PSB (and Depeche Mode, of the little I've heard by them) had a superb grasp of songcraft though - their appeal (to be a bit reductive) was in the way their surface self-consciousness was allied to really substantial lyrics and melodies, like a Trojan horse sort of deal. The Ting Tings don't have anything except their mannerisms.

From:

koganbot

I think you were right the first time about Spandau, Duran, PSB as to their draining the life from disco (which doesn't mean they weren't any good at all, of course)(and recall that last year my number one single had a Spandau Ballet sample).

By the way, I still haven't made up my mind about the Ting Tings. They've got something - force, a way of focusing the attention, OK beats. The singer is an irritant, but "irritant" isn't necessarily bad. She seems nice in interviews. She sings like an idiot. I gave them "borderline nonticks" whenever they showed up in Another Year In Pop, with the proviso that I was to go back and rethink (which I haven't done yet, and I have less than three weeks remaining).

From:

Oh yeah, I'm not saying the techno-pop bands *didn't* drain the life from disco; I'm just saying that that was no reason to dismiss them as harshly as I did at the time for that reason alone. I'm still not a huge fan of most of that stuff. As for the Ting Tings, I don't love them either -- they made, like, maybe by 135th favorite album of the year or something. Give or take 10 or 15 notches. I'm not a big new wave revival fan, either. But they do the new wave bounce at least as well and consistently as, oh, CSS or Franz Ferdinand, to name two. (Or Black Kids, whose album I actually like more.) *All* of whose singers can also can be irritating. And Ting Tings' singer only irriates me sometimes (with yeah, the drum the drum the drum and eeeee topping the list.)

Bottom line is, nobody I've ever heard who says they don't like arch and self-conscious pop or dance music (including me in the '80s) has ever been consistent about the issue. Erykah Badu and Solange Knowles are at *least* as arch and self-conscious as Ting Tings are -- a lot more so, if you ask me. Personally, I think Ting Tings are a lot more fun. But if folks disagree, cool.

From:

Actually, looking back at that Rhapsody post, I *did* kind of say that those Anglo-fops didn't drain the life from disco. Well....some of them didn't. Dead Or Alive maybe. Or Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Or Haysi Fantayzee. Or somebody. Sometimes. But I do definitely still prefer Donna Summer to the Pet Shop Boys (whose first albums, at least through the end of the '80s, I like. After which they drained the life from their *own* sound, to my ears.)

From: