Post by The Curmudgeon on May 3, 2007 8:53:03 GMT 2
Manipulative and exploitive - apart from that its rubbish.
Did anyone ever see that program where it had the magicians revealing their "secrets"? You know, the guy in the black mask showing you just HOW he cuts a woman in half etc? Well, just imagine you sat through that and THEN he came back onstage and performed the same trick. Would you applaud?
Exactly.
And its the same problem with this single. In fact, "Electric" and, indeed, Lisa Scott Lee aren't the first victims of this newfound curse - there's a whole load of popstars on the scrapheap now thanks to our age-old friend - Reality Television.
You see, thanks to Popstars and American Idol and all that other hateful vomit, the general public now KNOWS how cynical and lazy the pop business really is. We KNOW these puppets don't write their own songs - we SEE how they rehearse their dance moves as instructed by someone else. We have seen now there is no magic - only pretty people being told what to do in order to make money. And yet we're all still supposed to sit and believe in what they're putting in front of us in music videos as "real"?
So, this single takes that angle and turns it up to a Spinal-tastic Eleven. You see, "Electric" was the by-product of a reality television show that showed fallen popstar Lisa Scott Lee (formerly of Steps fame - a real pop group, back when there was such a thing) having a last attempt at stardom. If THIS song didn't make the top ten - she would quit the music business once and for all.
And so, before all that we watched a loathsome, spoiled brat, whining and crying at the fact her last single only made number 23. And we sat and watched as she spoke to song-writers who played this track for her, watched as she cried about having to look "sexy" in her video's, watched her management reveal every corporate trick in the book to steal OUR money from us.
All it showed is EVERYTHING that is wrong with the music business today. A brainless bimbo obsessed with chart positions and sales (nothing so old fashioned as being into her own music or anything) who, after being given hit after hit from being in a plastic pop band, was now suddenly devastated when this didn't happen when she went solo.
There's no passion here. No love or artistic merit. Hell, it was quite clear she didn't even like her own songs. It's money money money, all fuelled by the need to constantly appear in the top ten and on the cover of glossy gossip magazines.
It was a vile program. Lisa was a vile girl. And this is a vile single. She didn't even want to RELEASE this song. She hated looking sexy for the video. And then, hang on, we were all supposed to BUY it..?
I think not. And for once, the British public thought not. And so it didn't make the top ten and she vanished from MTV (hopefully) forever.
Let me make one thing straight - there is NOTHING wrong with pop music. If it's done right and its a good song performed by someone who, if they didn't write it, at least looks like they BELIEVE what they're saying, then pop music can be fun, ace and brilliant. Now, thanks to reality television blowing the pop bubble once and for all, there may now be no real pop stars left. And dross like this will not help.
See Lisa Scott Lee: Electric
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RvO3MP5xwQ
