Pop and the idea of bands

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

I don't really listen to bands or groups. I think poptimists has something to do with this - I certainly don't see many bands featured here, and I think they still get a bad press even among those who have rehabilitated pop to themselves? Maybe even rightly!

Do you? I feel these days like having more than one focus distracts and confuses the focus of music, making it weaker - but then I'll make exceptions for moments like golden-age Girls Aloud, when it sounded like 5 solo artists all recording at once, leading and pulling in different, exciting directions. Or at the very least - you knew who they were.

What do people think?

Comments

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's that it takes more time -- for me it's more that it takes more emotional energy. I mean, it took me about the same amount of time (but much more work!) to learn Every Single Thing about Kara DioGuardi as it did to learn Every Single Thing about Fleetwood Mac, yet being a fan of Kara feels far simpler (and a little less special). With a single artist, you're only invested in one person / point of view. With a band, you're invested in the band as a group, as well as each member as an individual -- you have a relationship with four or five people, as well as a relationship with their relationships.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I wonder if The Kids get more of their gang mentality fix from tv/film characters these days - i.e. its easier to write slashfic about fictional groups who already have a clear (or not so clear) narrative? McFly are kind of the exception here in that they seem to unwittingly generate narratives by just existing. I would be very surprised to hear that someone had written a fan comic called 'The Saturdays Go Mad In Somerset' or similar.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

*gets crayons*

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

We should totally do this in the pub. There must be highlighters to steal around here...

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to pub - not because of this comment! - but do knock yrself out :)

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

Fleetwood Mac are interesting, though, because (like Abba I guess!) a lot of the energy is directed inwards - you need an interior listening position to pick up on it? Isn't that fairly rare, though? Like, N'Sync are a bad, Radiohead are a band, but I'm not sure that's true of either - but maybe it's a continuum!