Bunch of flowers (The Charts)

Member Name: redcockney

Product:	The Charts
Date:	01/11/00 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An occasional pleasant surprise here and there.

Disadvantages: Is it really reflective of popular taste? I mean, really?

I detest chart music. I thoroughly do. It’s a barometer of some kind of popularity albeit one which measures how much punters are willing to delve into their pockets for.

In this day and age, when most people sensible just tape the songs they like off the radio (c’mon, it’s old-style Napster, everybody!) and the B-sides become less important, I’m surprised the singles chart has survived although barely from the proud and dominant beast that it once was.

Everyone knows that they’ll be a new ‘Number One’ any moment and occasionally it can be quite unexpected (recently Steps’ Stomp springs to mind).

When ‘bands’ put out singles, it invariably has at least two remixes of the same main track tacked on to try and make it a worthwhile purchase (Spice Girls, you know who you are!) and do nothing but rip off grateful fans who have far too much pocket money.

A ‘NEW’ attack has had critics proclaiming The Beatles being nothing more than a boy band. If we were to reduce modern music to such a level, then they at least had the capabilities of writing and performing their own songs, which appealed to BOTH girls and boys.

Although can you seriously think of the possible future permutations of future musical acts? And what about the more disturbing thought on how the likes of the Backstreet Boys, the Spice Girls, Britney Spears and Robbie Williams will be like in ten years time? And who, if what might be replacing them!?

We are stuck in a rut. But what can we do about it?

An argument that is always used when defending these acts is that they always put on spectacularly stage shows and thus ALWAYS entertain. Entertain who exactly? The mindless audience members of kids and kids-at-hearts who insist on getting their money’s worth? Or the critics who half-heartedly want to rip them to shreds?

They are about as likely/unlikely (I’m h
edging my bets here….) of producing a lasting legacy as your David Cassidys and your Helen Shapiros but will probably command an even more important footnote in cultural history….but what a thoroughly depressing history we’ll have to look back on.

Who is to rescue us from this tepid brew of manipulated yet half-baked musical acts (and that is all they are really)? Radiohead? The Manic Street Preachers? Blur?

And of course there’s always the rebuttal of ‘Then don’t listen!’ Well if I didn’t, how could I complain, and if I didn’t complain how would anyone know whether it’s complete pap or not?

We are in a cultural cul-de-sac but my God, at least it’s better than the Eighties.

Summary: