POP OR PAP?
/06.10.2011

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Now that there’s a slight lull in our number of commitments before we head to the studio to record our second album, there’s ample time to have another good whinge about how everything was so much better back then and tomorrow will be worse than today!

 

One of the most frustrating things that most ‘real’ bands are up against these days is the tv talent show, or more to the point the incredible amount of exposure that the media gives to such programmes. Many such shows like X Factor are essentially designed to promote the next “performer” rather than “creator of songs”, while others such as “Must Be the Music”, on the one hand seemingly promote new ideas and compositions, but also inevitably favour the banal, instantly-accessible, viewer-friendly dross. We came up against one such “manufactured band” in TOP Trendy earlier this year whose eloquence in verse extended to a chorus that went: “I wanna wanna wanna wanna wanna wanna wanna, be the King of the disco” – more McDonalds than Macbeth! Maybe I am an old traditionalist, but one thing that I really do miss is good old-fashioned gigging and would love something similar to the UK University circuit in Poland, where groups would establish themselves, buid a fanbase travelling and performing around the country, and create their own identity and personality, not having their personality created for them by tv or vast powerful media companies in general. Even though it’s a little too early for Christmas wishes, my main wish for the future is to see the demise of such programmes and for creativity to be encouraged in music and not pushed to the sidelines by large sections of the media in favour of moulded, celebrities who have created nothing and will create nothing as they themselves have been created!