Comments on: Extruded Music Product

By: Synthetase

Synthetase — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 05:20:07 +0000

To be honest, I think you’re being a bit harsh on Ed Sheeran. Okay, he’s not Steve Rothery, but he’s not too bad. He does fuse several different musical styles into his ‘singer songwriter with an acoustic guitar and a notebook full of poems’ thing, so it isn’t just a carbon copy of Neil Young or Bob Dylan. It’s not the most intellectually stimulating stuff, but does all music have to be? Sometimes people might just want to enjoy a tune.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sat, 30 Jan 2016 12:23:00 +0000

In a way I actually feel sorry for Jack Garratt. He’s facing a massive backlash before he’s really got started. Reminds me of the cookie-cutter indie band Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong whose hype bubble burst so quickly that they never got as far as releasing an album.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 11:52:02 +0000

“or realised that their favourite genre didnâ€™t just stop when fashion moved on”

That’s very true, and likes at the heart of the “There’s no decent music around today” arguemnt you still hear. We know it’s a case of people with kids and jobs and mortgages and trips to Ikea not having the time to discover new music like they used to.

By: PaulE

PaulE — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 11:37:01 +0000

It sometimes seems that the public accept the “tastemakers” as quality control but reject their actual choices (something like “if that is the best you have then the rest must be rubbish, so why bother”).
If only they took that next step and found some music they liked (or realised that their favourite genre didn’t just stop when fashion moved on).

By: Tom B

Tom B — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 09:01:15 +0000

Quote: “Itâ€™s hard having to bite your lip when a friend starts gushing about how wonderful someone like Mumford and Sons are, and not come up with something dreadfully patronising in response. ”

This made me smile. It describes one of my friends perfectly.

Quote: “But it still breaks my heart when I see so much genuine talent playing beautiful life-changing music before audiences so small the gigs cannot possibly cover their costs. And meanwhile busker-level talents like Ed bloody Sheeran whose appeal is difficult to fathom are playing stadiums.”

It makes me angry too, but on a purely selfish level I’d much rather see bands playing in intimate settings like the Robin and Assembly Rooms rather than arenas and stadiums. I do agree though that it’s a tragedy some of the audiences are not bigger. That’s the challenge, how to raise the awareness of the general public to the existence of these bands.