Sex, Svengalis, Songwriters and Chartpop!

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From an article in this morning's Guardian about former musicians turned boy/girlband songwriters:

So when Atomic Kitten inevitably retire, will Andy McClusky start all over again with a new pop act?

"Yeah, but I'd do it differently, I'd have a boyband. It's a piece of piss, a boyband. Girls have to survive on instinct, wit, talent and quality of song. Atomic Kitten's success this year is not because there are half a million barely post-pubescent girls fainting at the sight of their poster on the wall. You can write the most contrived drivel for a boyband and sell millions because teenage girls are in love with the members."

OK, this offends me on two basic levels, on an aesthetic level, and on a guy reaction towards the sexism and exploitation of it.

But then I started thinking, isn't this the opposite of what one would have expected? What think you, oh Chartpop! gourmets? True, false or frightening?

― kate, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Here's me thinking this thread was going to be about Jonathan King

― Anas FK, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I suppose the cynicism ov it is depressing. I suspeckt mr mcluskey is wrong too, judging by thee destiny's chold poters on thee bedroom ceiling ov thee teenage charver who lives up thee road from us. At the moment though, I am hearing "Whole Again" in my head as if it were performed by Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark. It doesn't sound too bad.

― Norman Phay, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Destiny's chold??? gawd....

― Norman (hic) Phay, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

everyone always thinks the things they have done or are doing are noble and difficult compared to eg that piece-if-piece classical string quartet dodge

boys always assume their own engagement w.music is less trivial but all it is iz more sublimated

Charver One: "Beyoncé's tummy is a glimpse of the visage of the Godling"
Charver Two: "However the Mellotron on Lizard limns yay the very undulations of the pathway to elysium" etc

― mark s, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Beyoncé's tummy is a glimpse of the visage of the Godling

Might be me, but the Godling could do with a little less reflective light gloss.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And to answer the question seriously -- *thinks...* You know, I'm sorta stumped. I'm with Kate in that there's something about this to get annoyed at (and I proudly wear my OMD fandom on my sleeve!), but it's a bit harder to pin down immediately than I thought. Certainly, though, there's something about this in the way that we here seem to have been talking about Brit's "Slave 4 U" vs., say, N'Sync's "Pop." In large part this is because the Neptunes are to my mind understandably seen as whomping BT's sorry ass when it comes to creativity -- but had the producers been swapped, what would we have said?

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sublimation = civilisation?

― dave q, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I dunno, wasn't it tough for AK cuz McClusky and other fella wrote shit songs for them? I can't even recall a vague tune pre-'Whole Again'. Blue (ferinstance) got to #1 with 'All Rise' surely cuz it was hooky and kind of cherishable, just like 'Whole Again', and not because they're good-looking (which can only guarantee #7 = not good enough anyway!).

Blue and AK both generated enough good will with their HIT that they could repeat success with a god-awful follow-up single. McClusky's boy band could concievably follow the exact same path as AK, couldn't they? Which is to say I don't believe there is a difference in terms of capturing the attention of audience (even if the audience itself is fractionally different), and that both types must win the right to release contrived drivel.

― joel, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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