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

I think I see what you're getting at, Saturnine. The "put-together" bands were primarily about making music that people would want to buy. The boy bands are about the boys and their sex-appeal/image. The music comes after this. This is why modern Boy Band music (Westlife et al) is forgettable pap and often just identikit covers of old songs, and older manufactured acts (The Monkees, Wham) have more memorable records.

Woohoo! Yes. Something like that.

As I see it, boybands are usually about a whole lot of publicity and false fronting, as well as bland generic music, and the teenage market to sell the merchandise to. This only came about at the end of the 80's.

The Monkees, the Sex Pistols, were more than that, does that make sense? Yes, they might have been put together by external forces to appeal to a certain market, but that's about as "boyband" as they get.

the monkees and the sex pistols (and the clash, i might add. simonen was chosen for his looks, not his bass ability) are exactly the same as boyzone et al except for quality. they were there to make money. they were tailored to their audience. punks wanted attitude and political rhetoric, and they got it. todays kids want dreamy looks and fasionable threads. they get it.

i happen to like the music of all three, but it doesnt render them any different, or any better from a moral point of view

I'm with UnC13 on this.

"Generic pop music to appeal to as vast a section of society as possible based on fashion/ideology." A definition stretching back decades. Only the style of music changes.

And I agree that all three have made good songs (Boyzone had a couple, my friends will ridicule me, but I don't care. "Picture of you" was fab!)

deemikay

Like I said many posts back many bands and artists shift units (key rings, ruck sacks, dvds and somtimes recorded music) more reliant on their image or the way they look. Making pop records is just one way ofcapturing a market share. Unless someone is really daring they are not going to gamble with their money and get the band to release anything but syrupy love songs or watered down dance music.

The ultimate music factory was Motown who turned out prefabricated pop like no other label ever had. They were damn good at it too and had a better ratio of good that people liked and still sounds good today music to lame, forgetable dross than any other label I can than any other label I can think of. It was the label that gave us Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye to name but two.

I mentioned the old chestnut of Boy bands not playing their own instruments to provoke debate and its sort of pleasing to see that no one fell into just trying to give boybands a slagging.

Having thought about it for a bit I can sort of see where Blathers is coming from. With the arrival of TV and pop bands with pretty people flogging music of varying quality based mainly on how bright their smile is, the shortness of skirt or how nice their hair is it would be easy to say that music has gone down hill.

I think there is a lot more crap about than there was five years ago but some of the artists who come through the factory route do have the potential to find a voice of their own and make classic music that does not need an image to sell it. If Kylie had shut her gob like I had wished in the 80s she would not have gone on to make "cant get you out of my head". Public Enemy's second and third albums were better than their first.

Is music improving?

If the answer to the question is not YES it does not necessarily mean its getting worse.

I thought Some Kind Of Bliss, which Kylie did with the Manic Street Preachers, was erm, actually quite good, if a bit repetitive.

If Boyzone had any good songs then I'm sure I should know since my sister used to like them. Very loud. For about 4 years non-stop. Despite this I can't remember a single lyric or even what they sounded like, except that it annoyed me.

May I make a startlingly obvious point?

Record companies.

They only sign people that will make them money.

Does that make all bands with record contracts manufactured?

No. Just makes them successful.

My point about the difference between the Sex Pistols and Boyzone, are more about the format. But nevermind.

yeah. absolutely. bands hate making money.

Honestly, letting other people listen to their music? Sellouts...