Every now and then, Daily Mirror columnist Brian Reade has something valuable to say, and his most recent column is one such example.
First, a little history. Here in Britain, a massive campaign is underway to declare Rage Against The Machine's "Killing in the Name" the No. 1 Christmas single. Currently, that little ditty is neck-and-neck with X-Factor winner Joe McElderry's current single "The Climb."
Like every other thing that X-Factor (and Britain's Got Talent / America's Got Talent) has produced, the music is syrupy and has got a bigger corporate stamp on it than Microsoft, another meaningless mass-produced bit of balladry for the masses. And that's my problem with it.
Like Reade, I have absolutely nothing personal against Mr. McElderry. He's handsome, can obviously "play the vocals" (my little term for singing), and seems like an all-around great fellow. He earned his fame and deserves the resultant limelight.
But it's the way he earned his fame that bothers me. He went through the corporate music world's machine to achieve it, with the unctuous Simon Cowell as Chief Executive Officer, monitoring the young man's every move and coaxing every note. It's no wonder that a band called Rage Against The Machine is being brought out of their hiatus to offer some no-holds-barred competition.
It's this sort of corporate mush — with all the sappy violin backgrounds and boring piano playing and gooey, pointless warbling — that rendered one of my own favorite bands ineffectual. So I have a reason to be particularly outraged.
I speak of Chicago, a band that used to have killer rock chops, but cannot produce this kind of creative honesty anymore thanks to their record company overlords who can't understand it. Nothing disturbed me more than their last effort, recorded in Nashville (shades of Miley Cyrus here) with Jay DeMarcus of the Rascal Flatts as producer. Their entire 30th album consisted of the sort of bland, countryfied American pop so prevalent on the radio these days. That's when I knew this band that I love so much had officially lost it. British radio is no different — it just doesn't have the cheesy C&W influence.
A guy like Harry Nilsson paid his dues, honing his skills as a producer, recording assistant, a songwriter for others and a television commercial crooner. But it was only through applying himself through his own vision and individuality that he became the legend he was. Same for Randy Newman, Billy Joel, Steely Dan, anybody from the '60s and '70s. Talent was about more than how many sticky love songs you could sing. You had to have individuality and strike out with new sounds.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Great piece and I hope Rage wins. When does the voting end and when is the announcement?
btw, is Reade seriously using "original sound" and "Gallagher" together?
2 - Glen Boyd
Where do I sign up?
-Glen
3 - Dave
C’mon, guys! It’s a scam! If you are truly RATM fans, you certainly must know their other track “No Shelter” :
“…
Empty ya pockets son, they got you thinkin that
What ya need is what they sellin
Make you think that buyin is rebellin’
…”
This together with the Facebook campaign saying that the money would go to Shelter, you must have guessed the joke!
4 - Mark Edward Manning
El Bicho:
Mssr. Reade is referring to either Noel or Liam Gallagher, of the band Oasis.
5 - El Bicho
Yes, Mark, I figured it was one of the Oasis brothers and not the watermelon-smashing comedian.
6 - max
"They once burned an American flag onstage, and that was during the Clinton era " oooh deary me....The pistols were deforming images of the queen back in 77 ...get over it
7 - zingzing
mark, while i agree with you in spirit, i have to wonder if you know about the other 99% of the music industry?
"How many bands who actually had a sound worth hearing during those brilliant two decades would we have missed if today's music industry rules had applied?"
you act as if the major labels are all that's out there. the indie scene is huge now. and with the advent of digital music and file sharing, there are no "music industry rules."
at the top, it is and always will be shit. but thanks to punk, we no longer have to worry about it. to a lot of people, music means the top 40. but the rest of us know better.
there's also a long-standing tradition in england of following the christmas #1. the fact that simon cowell has decided it for the past 4 years has got some people pissed off. people order the x-factor single before they even know what it is or who it's by. the thing is that this vote doesn't say jack to the music industry in england. it just demonstrates that english public taste isn't uniform. (it's just shite.)
8 - Mark Edward Manning
Max, there's nothing for me to get over. Bands can express themselves as they see fit. I just don't have to go along with it or validate said expression. R.E.M. probably shares a lot of RATM's views but they express it in a subtler, subdued manner, but then, R.E.M. is pop-rock and RATM is hard rock, so RATM is simply more intense ... I understand that. Still, I wouldn't burn anyone's flag, I just don't believe in it.