h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Pop music in the late nineties and why selling your soul to satan is bad! - A701074
Author: lonemoose - U190325

First time I have entered anything on this site, just hope it's up to scratch. Cheers.

Wow! In many parts you spoke off my soul. Pop-music is a decrepit business. - OK, but let's talk about something else first:

1- The form of this entry and the possibilities to make it into the edited guide: There is a 'How to write' section and a 'Writing guidelines' section for entries that are supposed to make it into the edited guide. It's not that difficult to get entries in there, but there's a certain format you must follow. Go check the sections out - You'll see what I mean (you use 1st person, and the entry is mainly a oppinion, you don't have paragraphs etc..)

Otherwise it's a great entry. I had a good laugh, and I feel reassured that I am not alone out there.

Cheers. Get the entry some paragraphs and get rid of the first person. The personal oppinion bits are a topic per se, but that's most probably going to be discussed later.

See you around,

HELL

Wow! In many parts you spoke off my soul. Pop-music is a decrepit business. - OK, but let's talk about something else first:

1- The form of this entry and the possibilities to make it into the edited guide: There is a 'How to write' section and a 'Writing guidelines' section for entries that are supposed to make it into the edited guide. It's not that difficult to get entries in there, but there's a certain format you must follow. Go check the sections out - You'll see what I mean (you use 1st person, and the entry is mainly a oppinion, you don't have paragraphs etc..)

Otherwise it's a great entry. I had a good laugh, and I feel reassured that I am not alone out there.

Cheers. Get the entry some paragraphs and get rid of the first person. The personal oppinion bits are a topic per se, but that's most probably going to be discussed later.

See you around,

HELL

Sorry for the Double post!

Hi Lonemoose,

Yeah, you definitely need to put some breaks in there! (If you can write GuideML, so much the better. Though it's not strictly necessary, it will make the piece look better and it's not so hard.)

As this piece seems to be an opinion rather than a factual article, perhaps you might consider applying it to the Post rather than Peer Review?

The 90s did seem to be a bit of a musical low point, unless you like drum machines, though even the 80s were dominated by Prince, Madonna and Michael Jackson. And teenage buying-power goes right back to the 50s.

Gif

P.S. What wrong with Bon Jovi?

Hi lonemoose!

I completely agree with Hell and Gifford here about the need for paragraphs. If you've written this in GuideML, the all you need to get paragraphs is to put at the beginning and at the end of each one.

Usually I would look at an entry in a block like this and just be turned off, however it's a credit to your writing that I didn't.

I also agree that pop music is not the only factor in turning children into 'I want' machines. I think the influence of commercial TV has *an awful lot* to do with that! TV tells people what to think and gives us false norms much of the time.

I'm sure that you can add in paragraphs and take out the first person stuff fairly easily.

1) drivvel has only one v

1a) there is an entry on manufactured bands and how to avoid them which would be a good link. you can find it using the search engin. the author is a guy who lives in the same vilage as me and whos name here i cant spell, but he is very nice and would love to be linked to, and would get a realy kick out of reading your entry.

2) i can't see how you are goping to get this into the guide without compromising it's character

3) this is absolutley brilliant. well done. if you can't adjust it enough for the guide PLEASE submit it to the post so everyone gets to see it.

4) write some more. we like your opinions an wish you to elaborate. perhaps you could have your own column in the post. it doesnt have to be every week, it could be fortnightly or just occsional.

well done, a very impresive first try. we likes the way you think......


FABT

it should be at

A581122

and the author is lokuz, muse of dark thoughts and disturbing doodles

FABT

Well, there seem to be a consensus on the format thing.

Now, let me comment on something else:
"inhuman acts like Barbara Streisand, Abba, Bon Jovi"

Barbara Streisand: She was probably not a member of the fabricated pop-merchandise-industry. While her singing might be a debatable subject, you cannot put her in there along with Abba and Bon Jovi. Her music was not poured upon us in the same way as 'C&C Music factory's music was, or NKOTB. Barbara Streisand's music was not aimed at comsuming teenagers, it was music for Moms and Dads (or Grandmoms and Granddads)

Abba: I think with ABBA it's the other way round. They've found a commercial way to sell their music, and everybody else started to copy their formula (it's the same with the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Iron Maiden - they were the first to try out a formula and then all of the sudden you had bands looking a lot like them doing very similar music). Even musically ABBA was not as bad as you think. They actually SING, often in more voices.

Bon Jovi: OK. Bon Jovi IS metal for girls teenage mags. You cannot have some distorted Guitar and diagonal Zippers, looking like Mr. Badass singing 'You were born to be my baby...'. But he had some good moments too though.

----------

Another thing:

There was a lot of good music in the eighties:

Pink Floyd, Yes (80125), Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Frank Zappa

There is still good music today.

I'll elaborate more on that later.

HELL

Cheers for the input Giford, much appreciated and I shall definitely act on the suggestions you made. In answer to your question about what is wrong Bon Jovi, well I really don't know where to start. I have nothing against their music, I think everyone should have the right to produce and subject the public to as many different types of music as possible as long as it is done with a vague sense of integrity and honesty. Now, having been a listener of Bon Jovi in my (some would argue mis-spent) youth, specifically during the New Jersey & Slippery When Wet (my god, with hindsight they did come up with some immensely tragic album names) albums and can say according to various sources that i researched, Bon Jovi are in fact a not entirely honorable, contrived band. This can be freely observed if you look at the way they have changed both aesthetically and audibly over the years, it would appear that they do in fact follow whatever everybody else is doing rather than producing anything original. Every stage of their career they have bowed to the demands of the music 'industry', which to me stinks, because being a musician is about stretching boundaries, taking risks and basically being original, and I cannot seriously say that Bon Jovi have ever done any of these. (Apparently Jon Bon Jovi is quite hated by his family and everyone he grew up with because they consider him to be ungrateful, they apparentely helped him get as far as he is today - a fact that he doesn't agree with - he thinks he got famous because he is so talented?)

Hi Hell (that seems to sound more like a cuss than a greeting),
Thanks for your feedback, I have considered your kind words of wisdom and will be acting on the cool advice that you've offered. Just to inform you that i do admit that i was having a pop a Barbara Streisand, and you are in fact completely right that I had no business grouping her with the other 2, but I have suffered a lot of hardship through listening to her so-called music in the past (As I'm sure anyone under 50 whos heard her sing or seen a picture of her for that matter will have experienced) and am therefore very afraid that I will probably never rate Ms. Streisand as a performer. As for Abba, I'm afraid I completely disagree with you. Yes, it can be loosely said that they were musically good, but personally I don't think they even scratched the surface as far as creativity is concerned, from what I've heard, all they produced was unimaginative three chord ditties with some of the most nonsensical and pathetic lyrics i've ever had the misfortune to stumble across. They make Mr. Blobby look like Shakespeare! I do agree that the eighties spawned some good music, especially some of the bass lines composed in this decade, some of them really were completely infectious, but from the examples you gave, I think all of them were actually bands formed in the seventies who were even in the eighties carrying on the legacy of the seventies stadium rock bands such as Zep, the Who & Hendrix, and I do agree that all of the bands you mentioned are in fact pretty amazing artists and have done well- in my humble opinion - at holding on to the flame of providing people with good, honest music that is not simply reeling off cloned sign-of-the-times hits, emptying their fans pockets and swelling their own.
My pennies worth.

Thanks FabT for your insightfull input, much appreciated.
Just a quick question, how do I submit my article 'to post'?

Well, you got a point there.

And to be honest I don't really care too much about ABBA, leave 'em there...

Now to something different. In all eras there's good and there is bad music. People in the subsequent eras will remember the good bits and the rest pop-doo is washed away from their memories. Good music fortunately has the remarkable capability of surviving. That's one thing. But that doesn't mean that the artists doing good music will get rich.

Here's something I read in Zappa's book, which I had to agree to:

Astonishingly it was the old generation of record-company owners who gave younger artists some space. This older generation was used to taking risks from time to time. They didn't care about the music or the appearance of the band. Now, as these guys grew older, a younger generation of suckers got their jobs. The problem with those guys is that they believe that a magic formula (Boom boom - bap and 'I love you' all 4/4 timed) will make their business thrive as long as they keep the merchandise and payola business alive. Ambitious artists had to find smaller labels, and as a consequence got less known to a wider sexually mal-adapted teenage generation. It's the same with rap today. Rap used to be aggressive - now it's cute. It was the same with metal, trance and acid-house... even punk. The riffs and the double-bass drum are still there, but it's gotten sterile and docile. (Along with the P.C. conspiracy - but that's another one of my personal problems.)

--------

I like your entry... It gives a lot of space to discuss and evolve ideas. (I am not ultimately sure whether it's suitable for the edited guide, or if it's way better off in the post - you don't get that much readership in the edited guide...) --- I'll have another read soon.

Bye,

HELL

Aw man, Zappa is completely the don,
He's completely summed up the state of the music business since the 30's (have you got a title for his book, cos I'd love to read it). As for the comment about artists making good music do not necessarily make money, I do agree, & I also maintain that it should not be an essential factor for a musician. Music is supposed to be a sacred form of communication which is as personal as it is general & I believe that any 'musician' who believes otherwise is fooling themselves. I myself am fluent in four instruments and can just about play 3 more and have actually tried my hand at actually writing songs. I can definitely say that at the time of writing a song, whatever your state of mind is at that point in time is completely reflected in how the song eventually turns out. I have also found that as a listener, once you have a basic understanding of the mechanics of songwriting, you can normally quite easily pick up the vain the song was written in. When a song is written simply to make money for the author (as the majority are) I think it is quite indicative and easy to pick up on, whereas when a person writes a song because they needed to get something off their chest, or simply wanted to communicate something that was easiest done in this medium, this is also blatant (and normally means that the former is far worse than the latter). The only way I can describe the difference is that the non-profit tune will tend to sound a lot more organic and genuine (sorry, I know these terms are vague, but I can't really describe it in any other way without ending up with a novel sized bible of wishy-washy descriptions) than the money-spinner tune. Therefore I conclude that money spinner tunes are the everyday equivalent of someone not being entirely honest with you - i.e. they're lying to you, and by purchasing their products you are essentially paying someone to lie to you!

The real Frank Zappa Book
by Frank Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso
Poseidon Press

Get it!

-H-

The Post, as in the h2g2 newspaper. type ThePost inyour tool bar and you go straight there. if you are interested in contributing then i think there's a link off the front page, or you could just ask pastey and shazz, the editors.

FABT

Hi FABT,

I have welcomed LoneMoose to the AWW, where he has posted this entry and re-worked it a bit. Paragraphs and smileys galore!

Why not come and join that thread? If you like, anyway.

seeya
spiff

Oops, sorry Hell, you too, naturlig!

spiff

cool

FABT

No, I meant "What IS wrong with Bon Jovi?" as in - is there a cure?

Just kidding. See you in the AWW.

Gif