Comments on: The Guardian: No overlap with me

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 11:00:51 +0000

“Logan’s Run in music” – I’m stealing that!

I think the obsession with the new is part of the problem; there are very few long- establised acts in their their top 40 unless they’re so huge they can’t be ignored (for example, Bowie). Probably a connection with the way they favour the sorts of things that tend to peak early, so that they’ll fade away to make room for the next new thing.

By: Ian Almond

Ian Almond — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 09:51:27 +0000

What the supine media and the cynical music companies want to create is the view that the only good valid music that exists is that music that is supplied and controlled by the big companies.
In recent weeks we have seen lists of new acts for 2014 in the guardian and other media outlets of course these are mainly non rock. These lists are simply the new acts that the big companies are going to promote this year and the lazy journalist scan these lists and simply play the game and repeat them pretending they are in tune with modern music.
Result the general public buys what they are told to and the journalist stand back feeling proud that there ability to spot talent is as good as ever.

By: PaulE

PaulE — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 09:27:03 +0000

Some people seem quite determined to enforce a kind of Logan’s Run rule in music. The industry allows a few acts for older people that seem to perform in a style popular before rock’n'roll. Not sure what they expect people between 30 and 70 to listen to.

By: Serdar

Serdar — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 22:02:07 +0000

You make a great point about “playing below one’s ability” — I strongly suspect a lot of artists in today’s market are doomed to do things like this. They can do something that’s very much “them”, but the market won’t pay them to do something unique and interesting. But it will pay them to follow a trend, and so they often end up producing something that’s either an uneasy compromise between what they want to do and what they know they can sell — or they produce total trend-seeking sellout.

This is not to say that everyone who follows their heart will automatically produce something of value. It does say that paying people to be mediocre is a terrible cultural blight.