Monday 12 January 2009

U WILL LOVE THIS ... er




I am SO fucking bored right now of countless mediaclones ramming lazy, lazy 'tastemaker' shit down our throats. Every magazine, every supplement, every radio show has been awash with features along the lines of 'SOUNDS YOU WILL LOVE IN 2009'. It's the same story every year, and every year it makes me seethe with self-important audacity of a tiny pack of Barleys (ie. Nathan Barleys) pre-determining the year ahead, as if they are already focusing on 2010. It then goes without saying that their 'predictions' will simply become self-fulfilling prophecy as the year unfolds ... after all, it's hard to imagine an eventuality unfolding whereby they prove themselves wrong.

I'd like to think that the blogging network was the natural reposte to such establishment, agency-generated (and let's not forget label paid-for) hype, and there still many out there with independent voices and deeply personal leanings, but all too often the herd mentality seems to dominate, and the whole community veers towards a generic flatlining.

Music's a deeply personal thing. Find your own way. Be resourceful. Your soundtrack is yours alone. And if anyone tells you that "YOU WILL BE LOVING LITTLE BOOTS", this year, laugh openly at them before very politely kicking their faces off. You won't be alone.

10 comments:

MinceyFresh said...

AMEN, SHACK!

Years ago when I used to listen to Californian FM radio, I would always wonder why the "DJs" would never play the songs I'd call in to request... One fellow at the station finally admitted to me (after getting tired of me calling in) that the songs I asked for were never getting played because they were not on the pre-determined list of songs that the station was required to play.

So that just meant that all of the listeners getting their song requests "granted" just happened to be asking for tracks that were going to be played regardless! This was long before file-sharing, music blogs, social networking, and Internet radio (and unfortunately before electronic music became fairly common in the US outside of movie soundtracks), so there really wasn't very much the average person could do other than continue to accept being force-fed the same major label garbage day in and day out.

It's nice seeing where the music industry is heading these days. Although the afformentioned radio station is still pumping out the same commercially-produced crap, people today actually have the option of turning off the radio and logging into Last.fm, Pandora, or Slacker (to name but a few excellent sources of music discovery) and taking things from there.

Sorry, I suppose I'm just preaching to the choir, but reading your post just made me want to vent in agreement with what you had just written.

- J. Mincey

Anonymous said...

but what about kinky boots?

elite force said...

Ah yes - now that's a whole 'nother story :))

Kristian Dando said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kristian Dando said...

Well bum!" etc....

Speaking of 2009 punts, there are some right zingers on this article from the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/02/pop-rock-2009-preview-music

Jaimie Hodgson, New music editor of the NME does him or his magazine no favours by dropping this gem:

"it's a mix of new wave, anti-folk and urban influences like dubstep, but it's the perfect soundtrack to walking around London, taking in the architecture."

Priceless.

Anonymous said...

FUCINA-Fuck mainstream, and that covers tv, radio, the 'zine bullshit, AND the twat head up their own arse, music reviewers,what the fuc makes them so self important!.
No matter how you write it up and package it, put a party hat on it and rave it up, you can't polish a turd!
Music shouldn't be thrown into a 'box' with a label that says "oh aye this is a dubstep/physcotrance/twitterhouse newage/rave track, CHRIST ALMIGHTY!!!-if it touches you on a level that makes you wanna move, dance, sing or cry, then its a hit as far as I'm concerned and at the end of the day, like ALL of you out there...my opinion and what blows me, is what counts, and more importantly it counts.... really..only to me and me alone.

rektchordz said...

A horrible marketing technique that uses presuppostion to direct groups of highly suggestable types (teenagers and ones with adolescent minds) into thinking a certain type of music is 'cool' this year, and like you said shack it suggests there already thinking of next year, therfor they've written off this year and left no room for creativity what so ever.

This sort of thing goes on constantly through out the media and is partly the reason why everything sounds and looks rather life less and generic, Im just glad there are still scenes out there that do not follow the same nonsense.. techfunk all the way :P

Unknown said...

The music industry is being geared more and more towards the teenagers because their the ones who are buying the shit, all that fucking rehashed X factor crap, teenagers and their wildly misguided grans who buy them the entire throwaway album for christmas the last few years thats what has dominated the charts, whilst the proper artists those who might actually give a shit fall by the wayside, but what were all saying now was said back in the in the 60's about the beatles and those that followed the 70's and the disco/punk music the 80's with the new romantics and the 90's with rave but its all endured and been rehashed thats all music seems to be now in the mainstream, plaguerismn of the highest degree and its pathetic what happened to people having their own ideas or their own visions? these tend to be found on the independant labels being told they aint "marketable"

One day it'll all come to an end and it's then that the independant will get his say, but ofc it'll just turn him into another asshole and the loop will just continue ad infinitum such is the fickle nature of not just the music business but EVERYTHING.

cow741 said...

amen shack, amen.

As soon as someone says "you're gonna be listening to this" or hypes it the fuck up, i hate it, either because its genuinely shit or out of principle.

Here's to making our own choices about the music we love

LITTLEWARS TV said...

haha, i love that quote from me... I didn't however say it, shame.

Jaimie