Post by The Curmudgeon on Feb 20, 2014 14:35:16 GMT 2
The annual Brit Awards were on last night in the UK, and alongside a few glorious highlights (Prince presenting an award looking fucking PIMP, Bowie winning Best Male Artist, Arctic Monkeys winning Best Album), the whole affair was as corporate, soulless and "Sales = Talent" driven as ever. One Direction were handed some bullshit made up award (The Global Success Award... what??) simply because they're popular in America. Awful. Noel Gallagher summed up the entire thing when he turned up to present an award to David Bowie, only to mock the expectant crowd saying "he's too cool for this! What, did you think David Bowie was going to turn up to THIS shit?"
Anyway, the Arctic Monkeys won a couple of awards, and the usual acceptance speech for these things is "oh my God, this is amazing. THANK YOU. I want to thank my manager, everyone at the label but most importantly the fans.." That sort of eye-roll worthy garbage.
The Arctic Monkeys have always treated these affairs with the weary disdain they deserve. Instead of the usual suit and tie, they once accepted an award dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz. This year, when they won Best British Group (beating One Direction, that gives you an idea of the validity of this show), they complained it was "15 quid down the drain on betting on One Direction to win", and after winning the Best Album award, frontman Alex Turner said this, in some weird, Sherlock Holmes-esque drawl;
"That rock 'n'roll, eh? That rock'n'roll, it just won't go away. It might hibernate from time to time, sink back into the swamp. I think the cyclical nature of the universe in which it exists demands that acquiesce to some of its rules.
"But it's always waiting there, just around the corner," he added. "Ready to make its way back through the sludge and smash through the glass ceiling, looking better than ever. Yeah, that rock'n'roll, it seems like it's faded away sometimes, but it will never die. And there’s nothing you can do about it." He then told organisers to "invoice me for the microphone if you wanna" before dropping it on the floor.
Now, that's not anything too risky or confrontational, but the amount of Facebook posts I read immediately after it, calling Alex Turner arrogant, an idiot, that success has went to his head etc etc was just depressing.
On a similar note, when Lady Gaga performed on the X Factor she emerged out of a giant tea-cup and crawled around the floor in her underwear before climbing onto a grand piano while wailing like a lunatic. It was great, the exact remedy for the saccharine, teary eyed performances from the conveyor belt of forgettable drones that terrible show produces. But, again, the internet went into meltdown, saying it was "embarrassing, weird, that she'd lost the plot" etc etc.
Alex Turner giving a drole, tongue in cheek acceptance speech at a bland award show and Lady Gaga giving an OTT car-crash display on a horrible reality show shouldn't even touch the scales of rock and roll behaviour, but it seems music has become SO homogenized, so neutered, that the slightest thing that isn't 100% acceptable and everyday is now seen as everything wrong with the world.
Surely the fucking POINT of musicians/rockstars/popstars/whatever is to BE different, to be outspoken and gain attention? Not neccessarily genuinely arrogant dickheads like Axl Rose or impossible diva behaviour, and certainly not the Miley "oh, look, I'm provocative and DANGEROUS" tirseome, done to death approach, but by NOT following the same path and acting exactly the same as tedious shit-stains like Leona Lewis and other corporate whores. Example; a supposed "cool" band won the Newcomer of the Year award and the first thing they did was thank their label and their management. FUCK OFF.
Sigh. I dunno..the days of the Sex Pistols calling Bill Grundy a "dirty bastard" and a "fucking rotter" and young people EMBRACING IT just seems so, so long ago.
Anyway, the Arctic Monkeys won a couple of awards, and the usual acceptance speech for these things is "oh my God, this is amazing. THANK YOU. I want to thank my manager, everyone at the label but most importantly the fans.." That sort of eye-roll worthy garbage.
The Arctic Monkeys have always treated these affairs with the weary disdain they deserve. Instead of the usual suit and tie, they once accepted an award dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz. This year, when they won Best British Group (beating One Direction, that gives you an idea of the validity of this show), they complained it was "15 quid down the drain on betting on One Direction to win", and after winning the Best Album award, frontman Alex Turner said this, in some weird, Sherlock Holmes-esque drawl;
"That rock 'n'roll, eh? That rock'n'roll, it just won't go away. It might hibernate from time to time, sink back into the swamp. I think the cyclical nature of the universe in which it exists demands that acquiesce to some of its rules.
"But it's always waiting there, just around the corner," he added. "Ready to make its way back through the sludge and smash through the glass ceiling, looking better than ever. Yeah, that rock'n'roll, it seems like it's faded away sometimes, but it will never die. And there’s nothing you can do about it." He then told organisers to "invoice me for the microphone if you wanna" before dropping it on the floor.
Now, that's not anything too risky or confrontational, but the amount of Facebook posts I read immediately after it, calling Alex Turner arrogant, an idiot, that success has went to his head etc etc was just depressing.
On a similar note, when Lady Gaga performed on the X Factor she emerged out of a giant tea-cup and crawled around the floor in her underwear before climbing onto a grand piano while wailing like a lunatic. It was great, the exact remedy for the saccharine, teary eyed performances from the conveyor belt of forgettable drones that terrible show produces. But, again, the internet went into meltdown, saying it was "embarrassing, weird, that she'd lost the plot" etc etc.
Alex Turner giving a drole, tongue in cheek acceptance speech at a bland award show and Lady Gaga giving an OTT car-crash display on a horrible reality show shouldn't even touch the scales of rock and roll behaviour, but it seems music has become SO homogenized, so neutered, that the slightest thing that isn't 100% acceptable and everyday is now seen as everything wrong with the world.
Surely the fucking POINT of musicians/rockstars/popstars/whatever is to BE different, to be outspoken and gain attention? Not neccessarily genuinely arrogant dickheads like Axl Rose or impossible diva behaviour, and certainly not the Miley "oh, look, I'm provocative and DANGEROUS" tirseome, done to death approach, but by NOT following the same path and acting exactly the same as tedious shit-stains like Leona Lewis and other corporate whores. Example; a supposed "cool" band won the Newcomer of the Year award and the first thing they did was thank their label and their management. FUCK OFF.
Sigh. I dunno..the days of the Sex Pistols calling Bill Grundy a "dirty bastard" and a "fucking rotter" and young people EMBRACING IT just seems so, so long ago.
