Gareth bloody Gates, anyone?? (The Box)

Member Name: angry chris

Product:	The Box
Date:	16/11/02 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The original of it's genre, Up-to-date vids, kids and teens love it

Disadvantages: Very repetitive, Unreliable at times, The music is AWFUL

There's something I need to get of my chest before I start. Pop Music today is bloody awful. I do not for the life of me understand why talentless, soul less, tone deaf no-bodies like Westlife, S Club 7 and the like sell records. Worse still, we have now got the current crop of "popstars": glorified kareoke singers murder Elvis songs in the name of music. It is all a shoddy, money-dominated gravy train run by ar*!holes like Pete Waterman, who's sole aim is to milk as much money as possible out of as many people as possible. Nu metal? Nivarna, Green Day and Metallica all did it better 10 years ago. Even The Offspring sold their sole for the pot of gold. And no, I'm not a 50 yr old longing for a return to the "good old days", but a very pissed off 21 yr old.
Phew, now that's that off my chest, let's get the review. Many, many moons ago, in the days of Cable TV and the Sega Megadrive, a new and original idea was spaned. The idea was of a channel which would scroll a playlist of songs along the bottom of the screen, and invite viewers to call in (at around 50p a time) and request a music video to be played. "Music Television you Control"-the Box was born.
Years later, it's still here, and the basic premise is still the same. On Sky Digital channel 449, music videos can be requested 24 hours a day according to the box numbers which scroll across the screen, which are called in (at the cost of about £1 a turn). The playlist is also available on The Box teletext, particularly important for when your song flashes across the screen at the exact minute you nip off to the toilet. The songs are very up-to-date, most chart hits are available long before they go on sale, allowing a preview of the songs before they are bought in the shops.
Someone wise once said that "imitation is the sincerely form of flattery". If this is the case, flick through your channels around the box(4
40-480ish for sky digital). There are now over a dozen of these channels available, all following the same idea: watch, choose, call, watch. Remember, The Box preceeded all of them...
Now, this is all well and good, but there are problems to be had. Firstly, the price has gone up and up over the years. I do not know the figures, but I'll bet this has been a tidy little earner for a minimum of outlay on the channel's behalf. No presenter, no sets, few overheads but nearly £1 everytime someone calls.
I have called this channel twice in all, with differing outcomes. The first time was about 4 years back, when a drunken night out resulted in a call to request a song, at about 3 o'clock in the morning. About five minutes later, my song was played, and I happily dissapeared into a drunken slumber soon after. About a year ago, I called again, same circumstances, same time. This time, my song didn't appear for over an hour, during which time dehydration and frustration kicked in at a massive rate. Needless to say, I haven't called again.
Futhermore, the songs are the same day in, day out. This becomes deeply repetitive after a very short while. A more cynical suggestion would be that the songs are simply played on a loop, and the calls placed have no bearing whatsoever on what is played. Think about it. It doesn't take a genius to work out the most popular 15 or 20 songs at any given time. Play them in a complex loop, and all those callers think that their song is being played. Shouldn't go wrong, really.
Perhaps this is over cynical. The bottom line here is that it all comes down to the music you like. If, for reasons unknown, you like Blue/Will Young/(enter own no-mark), then after a trip to the shrink, you will probably happily come back to The Box. If, like me, you would like to see these "stars" hung from meathooks in a very public place, you really will not be bothered. Personally, I
prefer Magic (Cha 452) and VH1 (Cha 443), but as always, it's a case of one man's meat is another man's poison. Now, what side is "Popstars-the Rivals" on?...

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