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Although i have records by Madonna  and Robbie Williams ive always thought they are mediocre talents , so who do you think is mediocre ?
Miss fright wig Winehouse is also very mediocre in my opinion

DaveRam

[Kevin]

I love Ami. She sounds so different from the normal poptress and has crafted a unique look.
I'm always a bit dubious about this kind of thing. Everyone's got a niche and an audience. One mans meat and all.
But like most grownups I have a problem with boybands. You know some manager has got hold of a bunch of lads, manufactured their image, they are 4 or 5 "individuals" to please the girls (you know: the shy one, the rebellious one etc). Their every move is controlled, they develope corny and predictable stage routines, and they sing silly love songs with mindless lyrics to roomfuls of screaming girls who probably aren't even listening to the music anyhow. Oops, hang on.....

I just don't get the fuss with Ami Kevin , i have listend to her but like Madonna and Robbie i find her voice a bit weak .
I agree though about Boy Bands i just don't get how Westlife can have 14 # 1 records in the UK there less than mediocre , slugs have more talent  

DaveRam

13 Brit Awards for Robbie is a tad excessive i think , he's good live and one or two of his singles are good and his first two albums are not bad , but he's just mediocre really , ive never understood why he's adored ,America never bought into him ,can they spot mediocrity better than us ?

DaveRam

[fendertele]

i dont think they can spots it better than us, they have some mediocre choices of there own and some really awful ones, backstreet boys, nsync, and worst of all gangster rap, i can get into some rap but im talking more about the original hip hop artists like fresh prince and jazzy jeff, de la soul and some modern ones like outkast where they dont rely on mindless swearing and on who is the bigger gangster.

Guys like robbie and other big uk artists dont make it as big because of there accents and what they sing about, for example  the band blur never made it big in the us because of the lead singers cockney tones and singing about life in london, they cant relate to these things where as oasis where singing about universal things like getting wasted going to a party..... and it took a song with the only two words in the chorus for blur to make it in the end wooooo hoooooo .

Maybe thats why beatles made it in the us and the kinks never for similiar reasons ?

The Kinks did ok in America they had 12 top 40 hits on Billboard 5 of which were top 10 ?
And although Blur did'nt do well Gorillaz of which Damon Albarn is a part of have done very well in America.
Don't think it's so much the accent with Robbie Williams , i think it's more he's  a mediocre  vocalist ,which is a pitty the guy as a lot of energy .
Bowie sang with a London accent and America got him ?
I agree with you about Rap i find that really hard to listen to it's clever with words , but give me Motown any day

DaveRam

[Mairi]

Personally I love Amy Winehouse. She's got a great voice (very rich and chocolately). I think she's one of the best mainstream artists in years.

As for mediocre talents... hmmm... I'll say Kelly Clarkson. Everyone always raves about what a great voice she has but I just don't see it. I find her style too screechy and over-emotive. Plus, that new song of hers is absolute, utter garbage. In my opinion, she's just a very poor wannabe of pre-crack Whitney Houston.

[fendertele]

gorillaz have donereally well but its got that whole rap pop crossover and he doesn't use his c/mockney accent with them, and also the songs are universal unlike blurs early stuff.

Bowie does have a london accent but it isnt as strong as the albarn cockney tone.

Im not a fan of Williams music at all, but i can see were people were coming from when they likened him to mercury with his energy and he also has a really good voice, its just a shame he goes and uses it on tracks like rock dj

[Dark Phoenyx]

I think most boybands are mediocre because they're pre-manufactured products.  And I still wondering what the big fuss about Kelly Clarkson, Beyonce and Britney Spears.  I still haven't found it.

[Sondra]

i dont think they can spots it better than us, they have some mediocre choices of there own and some really awful ones, backstreet boys, nsync, and worst of all gangster rap, i can get into some rap but im talking more about the original hip hop artists like fresh prince and jazzy jeff, de la soul and some modern ones like outkast where they dont rely on mindless swearing and on who is the bigger gangster.

Guys like robbie and other big uk artists dont make it as big because of there accents and what they sing about, for example  the band blur never made it big in the us because of the lead singers cockney tones and singing about life in london, they cant relate to these things where as oasis where singing about universal things like getting wasted going to a party..... and it took a song with the only two words in the chorus for blur to make it in the end wooooo hoooooo .

Maybe thats why beatles made it in the us and the kinks never for similiar reasons ?

Nope. The Kinks DID make it here. And look at the Who and Floyd who sing about very English things too. And even with accents! I will never understand this argument. Does Kurt Cobains accent and his singing about the muddy banks of The Wishkah throw you off? Or Bob Dylan and his country accent singing about the heartland? That's not very English, but I'm sure you can imagine. Nope. Good music transcends. That's all there is to it. Blur isn't big here because they get no radio play and people don't go out and discover new music on their own anymore. They want it force fed to them and American Idol isn't giving us any Blur.

[fendertele]

Nope. The Kinks DID make it here. And look at the Who and Floyd who sing about very English things too. And even with accents! I will never understand this argument. Does Kurt Cobains accent and his singing about the muddy banks of The Wishkah throw you off? Or Bob Dylan and his country accent singing about the heartland? That's not very English, but I'm sure you can imagine. Nope. Good music transcends. That's all there is to it. Blur isn't big here because they get no radio play and people don't go out and discover new music on their own anymore. They want it force fed to them and American Idol isn't giving us any Blur.

sorry i wasnt saying they have no success but just little compared to other bands, blur where biggest in the uk around 94-95 pre pop idol, x-factor kind of shows but basically got knowhere whether it was radio airplay or something else.

 i still feel that although you may be right about the other bands where from London and sang about places in london, they still never sang in the same way that blur and lot of the 90s britpop bands sang, the who and Floyd may have been from London and sounded like they were from London but they never purposely went out there way to sound stereotypically cockney, where as damon during the parklife years which was there peak of the britpop days, made an effort to come over all cockney lad like, you know the apples and pears kind of thing.

Then when they released the self titled album and songs like beetle bum and song 2 they started getting airplay and getting a little success in america, and on that album you actually hear albums real voice and not his act that he put on through 92-96.

bands like coldplay, travis have made it big in america ? and they came at a time when x-factor and pop idol was all the craze, so surely these people that want force fed there music had to go out to learn of these bands ?.

i know what youre sayign about some bands being very english and singing about very english things, but there is different levels of it and blur were slated for it, even over here they got a hard time over it with theyre constant use of cockney rhyming that people from outside of london had a hard time understanding, never mind america ?.

i think the kinks thing was a bit over the top, but i do feel that for how great a band they never got the success in america they deserved theyre highest placed single was number 6# and the majority of there stuff outside the top 100 :/.

Amd then there The small faces "The best English band never to make it big in America." and they were possibly the most cockney band of the sixties, must be something in it ?

[Mairi]

Try CANADIAN bands outside of Canada. bands like the Tragically Hip (who sell out huge stadiums here and play in sh*tty bars when they go to the US) or The Barenaked Ladies will never be as popular outside of their home country as they are here. Why? I dunno, I guess there's just a kind of Canadian sensibility about their music that a lot of Americans and English folks don't get. I hear that BNL are somewhat popular in Scotland, which makes sense. I always thought of Canada and Scotland as being like, secret best friends.

[fendertele]

The bonds that tie Scotland and Canada are very strong. There are over four million Canadians who can claim Scots ancestry. Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A Macdonald was a Scot. And many of Canada's place names, from Renfrew to Bannockburn, have their roots in Scotland.

"Indeed Scots have been making the journey to Canada for over 400 years, helping to shape your history, and your future too.

the celtic connection maybe thats why we share similiar likingsin music, also the weather is big thing in common it is always cold and rainy here and ive heard Canada unlike America can be quite chilly

i stay in paisley which is right next to renfrew

and also on a note, i see you like fashion of the 60s, well the placei live in paisley was were the paisley pattern was invented that the likes of lennon, hendirx, prince all wore it was made about 5mins from my house in the anchor mill

[Sondra]

I just don't agree with the: they just don't get it argument. There are so many factors to consider and that makes the least amount of sense to me. First of all, America is a HUGE market to crack. And because of regional differences, what makes it in one area may totally bomb just a few states away. Musical tastes have so splintered that a band can't just come on over like the Beatles or Stones did and have everyone fall in love with them. That doesn't even happen with our own bands anymore! The UK and Canada is different because the population is much smaller and tastes don't vary as much. This is a fact.
Also, we are inundated with new music daily. The music industry  is pumping out all kinds of crap constantly and it's overload. So bands like Blur or Barenaked Ladies may get lost in the shuffle. BTW, I thought Barenaked Ladies did pretty well over here Mairi. I used to hear them all the time.
Another thing about Blur and Britpop. Remember when that was going on over there, we were all about grunge and being p*ssed off over here. Quite a contrast to the sixties type throw back music of those Brit bands. So maybe the musical climate here wasn't ripe for the poppy sounds of London. But even still, Oasis somehow hit it pretty damn big. And is there anyone more difficult to understand than Noel and Liam? The difference is MTV and radio picked up on them. They were played and so people were exposed to the music. That just didn't happen with Blur for some reason. Maybe they weren't commercial enough, maybe they didn't come over here and tour enough and suck up or whatever the protocol is. They're still pretty well know among rock fans over here though. But like I said, it isn't all about rock music anymore especially over here. We've got country, country pop, hip hop, rap, rock, pop, indie, etc. Our own bands can't even get record deals anymore and there's a lot of talent out there. The music business has changed. I really don't think it has anything to do with not getting it.
I'll give one last example about the whole English thing: Syd Barrett. He has a huge American following and I really don't think you can get anymore English than him. Now if Syd came around today, you'd never know he existed. There's just no chance for people like that anymore. They will be stuck playing small venues or just fade away. I could say the same about the Sex Pistols who sang about things that were very exclusive to what was going on in England at the time yet they somehow made it here bigtime.
Anyway, I think things might change a little with satellite radio. They've got tons of stations that play new music, deeper cuts from bands old and new and they support talent. So regular radio is getting with it again. We now have an indie station in L.A. that plays some awesome music new and old. And hey, the host even happens to be a Brit with a cockney accent. No lie. Hopefully other areas and states are starting to change their radio format and we'll get to discover stuff the way we used to. Although with iPods, the whole going to the record store,  flipping through all the different sections, listening to imports and buying a record just based on the amazing album art is unfortunately forever dead.

Now what about the very American bands? Why is it that you guys

[fendertele]

 okay this is what i mean, it isnt the places they sing  about but the words they use the rhyming slang that anyone outside of London would need to Google to translate it.

syd barret wasnt a true working class cockney, he was  well spoken middle class as were the rest of pink Floyd, and they all spoke very proper and very easier to understand. trust me talking to someone like syd barret then going down the west end of london and talking to some guy on the market is a completely different kettle of fish.

i've been down London a few times and i still have a hard time as there are so many words and meanings that i just wouldn't know and they talk with such am extreme accent, just like macca would used to say about everyone would think of the stereotypical liverpool accent, the Beatles weren't but they're are people who do have that accent.  



hers that last paragraph with the some cockney words thrown in



okay this is what i mean, it isnt the places they sin' about but the words they use the rhymin' slang that anyone outside of London would need to Google to translate it.

syd barret wasn't a true workin'' aristotle and glass cockney, he was  well spoken middle aristotle and glass as were the rest of pink Floyd, and they all spoke very proper and very easier to understand. trust me talkin' to someone like syd barret then goin' down the west end of london and talkin' to some guy on the market is a completely differen' kettle of fish.

i've been down London a few times and i still have a hard lemon & lime as there are so many words and meanin's that i just wouldn't know and they rabbit with such am extreme accen', just like macca would used to say about everyone would cocoa tiddley wink of the stereotypical liverpool accen', the Beatles weren't but they're are people who do have that accen'

[Mairi]

I just don't agree with the: they just don't get it argument. There are so many factors to consider and that makes the least amount of sense to me. First of all, America is a HUGE market to crack. And because of regional differences, what makes it in one area may totally bomb just a few states away. Musical tastes have so splintered that a band can't just come on over like the Beatles or Stones did and have everyone fall in love with them. That doesn't even happen with our own bands anymore! The UK and Canada is different because the population is much smaller and tastes don't vary as much. This is a fact.
Also, we are inundated with new music daily. The music industry  is pumping out all kinds of crap constantly and it's overload. So bands like Blur or Barenaked Ladies may get lost in the shuffle. BTW, I thought Barenaked Ladies did pretty well over here Mairi. I used to hear them all the time.  

What I mean is that there are certain bands that do have a Canadianness about them, like BNL, The Hip, or whatever. Generic rock bands that don't have that- Sum 41, Nickelback, and their ilk, ARE popular. Well, they're crappy. But there are good bands like The Arcade Fire that manage to cross over. Joni Mitchell, too.

Oh, yeah, about the BNL- they may have gotten played a bit over in the USA but they are practically GODS here. It's insane.

[Kevin]

I am a big believer in a UK/US divide but damn, Sandra makes a good arguement.
Maybe UK acts can be a little camp for the US market. Didn't Queen's fanbase plummet in america after they dressed in drag for "I want to break free."?
Maybe it's the image, not the music, that holds some UK bands back?

America copes quite well with the UK 's different regional accents i think they have embraced lots of different bands and solo acts that talk funny from Oasis ,ELO , Artic Monkeys ,Eurythmics, Bowie ,Tom Jones  , Dire Straits all are fronted by people with quite thick regional accents they don't all speak with posh English accent ?
The Beatles were quite clever they sang with American sounding accents but the content in their songs is very  English .
Also America's embraced Swedish accents quite a bit ABBA ,Ace Of Base ,Roxette for example which is a very different accent ?
Dick Van Dyke is responsible for stoping the Cockney accent travaling abroad listen to his dreadful parady in Mary Poppins ? Blur should track him down and kick him down the Apples and Pears  
I also agree touring and getting your face known is just as important as the music

DaveRam

[wingsman]

Who's Mediocre? Well, definitely the Beatles.  

[mr kite]

OH God DaveRam you have Robbie Williams records  
You think hes mediocre  :-/ i think he`s s*'*  
Thats just my opinion of course , i think 90 percent of todays music is mediocre , but thats just my opinion