Come back Simon Reynolds all is forgiven

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Come the 21st century, however, and the mainstream began to congeal into a certain beige perma-blandness, neither soulful or soulless, semi-tasteful, efficient pop fare made by capable, acceptable sorts, a music rich in everything but inspiration.

Oh good grief...

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Some random samples of those occupying the charts throughout the decade give a sense of the encroaching flavourlessness. So, in December 2002, we have Blue & Elton John, Robbie Williams, Gareth Gates, Eminem, Las Ketchup, S Club 7, Pink, The Cheeky Girls, Daniel Bedingfield and Atomic Kitten. In December 2004, it's a revived Band Aid version of 'Do They Know It's Christmas', Natasha Bedingfield, Ice Cube, Nelly and Christina Aguilera, Green Day, Destiny's Child, Girls Aloud, U2. The winter of 2006, meanwhile, yielded Take That, Nelly Furtado, Gwen Stefani, Jamelia, U2/Green Day, Justin Timberlake and Emma Bunton.

Phew, I'm glad that all of those artists listed together like that after the word "flavourlessness" explains itself.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I mean for chrissakes, he qualifies this statement with THIS: "overall there is the sense of carefully honed and varnished acts produced by a sophisticated machine manned and womanned by people who know their pop heritage, and doubtless in their private lives are passionate about their Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley."

Yes, I see exactly how that applies to everyone on that list who is not Eminem or the Cheeky Girls. Why do people who demonstrably have no interest whatsoever in a subject find reasons to write at length about it?

I mean, yes, there's an argument to be made about the ways in which pop might homogenize or worsen or any number of negative things that I wouldn't necessarily dismiss out of hand over the course of a decade. But in order to figure that out you'd probably have to listen to some of it first.

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

Why do people who demonstrably have no interest whatsoever in a subject find reasons to write at length about it?

Visibility? Profile? Money?

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

B-b-b-b-but, that would mean that there's something downright cynical about all of these pieces!!! *naivete crushed*