The Show, The After Party, The Hotel 11.12.08: Making the Band
Posted by Weng Yu on 11.12.2008
All the usual news and stuff, plus a discussion on what makes a successful group. I run the rule over new promos from Alicia Keys, Common, Beyonce, and many more!
Good day all and welcome to my column. This week in wrestling:
- I'm hype that Cena is returning, but did they really have to put him into a title match for his comeback? It's generous booking like that which makes smarks hate Cena even more.
- Despite that, YOU CAN'T SEE ME! I've always been a Cena fan, but the moment that made me a huge Cena mark was when I went to Raw last year where he had the epic match with HBK. Seriously, TV didn't do it justice, seeing it live was just incredible. The pacing was so good that I didn't even realise it went for an hour until I got home and checked the Raw reports. What I found sad was that even after an amazing match like that, people were still booing Cena out of the ring afterwards. Pathetic.
- Bye bye Paul London. It's seems such a long time ago that him and Kendrick were dominant tag team champs. Shame he f*cked himself by acting like an idiot when they got drafted to Raw. If he had learned to swallow his pride he could have got a decent push.
- Elijah Burke gone as well, in a move that has pretty much the entire IWC, and myself, saying "Why??". It's amazing that a successful business like the WWE can make mistakes like this after so many years.
Getting back to music, I've given the "Viva La Hova" project a few listens and I love it. If you've already forgotten, this is the Coldplay and Jay-Z mash up, which apparently has been approved by both artists. I highly recommend this, its a very fresh take on both artists, and there's some interesting twists in the sampling that I didn't expect. My personal favourites are "Miss Trouble", and "What if we cry". You can download it here.
Feedback!
Everything you have said in this article I have thought as well. I'm looking at my music collection and I find myself pulling out older albums, because the music now is wack. Half of the albums that I have bought in the last four years have forced me to take them back and sell them to my local record store. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels music has gone downhill.
bms
I'm glad I'm not the only person who feels that way. At least I won't sound like a jaded old fool! I can't even remember the last time I really looked forward to an album release.
This week, with Danity Kane in the news recently, I've decided to look at what can make or break a successful group.
That's a nice group.....
Making the Band
Last week when I was looking back and comparing the 90's to modern times, one thing that stood out was the lack of groups in today's big players. Back then you had groups all over the place, acts like 112, SWV, En Vogue, Boyz II Men, Dru Hill and TLC were household names that shifted records like crazy. Nowadays the groups in the spotlight are Danity Kane, Day26, New Kids on the Block, and the Pussycat Dolls. It's a short list isn't it? When you break things down it gets worse - the Pussycat Dolls are basically a vehicle for Nicole, NKOTB are making an ill advised comeback because they're run out of money, and Danity Kane and Day26 owe a large portion of their fame to a reality TV series. So what happened?
At the turn of the century, all the way through till the mid noughtes you couldn't go into a record store without seeing groups left right and centre. Acts like LFO, ATL, B2K, O-Town, 3LW, P.Y.T, Blaque, N'Sync...the list goes on and on. Platinum albums were the norm for groups in those days, while the music often varied. One thing that all the groups had in common were that they were mostly young, good looking, and while they weren't amazing singers, they wouldn't embarass themselves.
It's hard to pinpoint where it all went wrong, but as an educated guess I would use the same reasons that I went over in last weeks column. Slowly, the market changed in the noughties to a more radio and pop friendly sound. This basically meant that singing ability became a afterthought to image and style. The Pussycat Dolls are a prime example of this - five smoking babes, only one of whom does any singing, while the rest are eye candy. This kind of combination would never have been done 10 years ago because it was more important that the individual members of groups could sing and harmonise well with each other.
Also the traditional ballads that were always successful back in the 90's don't seem to have the same impact on the charts that they used to. It's rare to see a ballad at the top of the charts now - even if a love song is up there it tends to be accompanied with a heavy beat. "Apologise" is a good example, it's not a traditional ballad but it has a strong beat that can work quite well in the clubs, especially with a bit of extra sampling or juggling, so it has done very well.
To be honest, when I'm searching for other reasons I can't really find them. Even when a band like Danity Kane or Day26 gets huge exposure from "Making the Band", they can't generate really high sales figures. The only other reason I can think of is that modern groups don't have the same chemistry as their predecessors. Acts like Boyz II Men or TLC oozed class, and had a great combination of different talents that played off each other well. Modern groups cannot compare in ability, and as such are not as successful.
It's a shame that there just aren't any groups anymore. Personally, I love seeing a really good group that can harmonise beautifully together, and the music loving public are a lot poorer for not being able to experience it.
Mos Def in trouble with the law - Well this isn't the first time a celeb has assualted the paparazzi, and I'm sure it won't be the last.
New Tracks
Alicia Keys - Doncha Know Sky Is Blue: This is supposedly a bonus track which will be on the re-release of "As I am" and it's terrible. She sings in this really weird style which is meant to be like the old Motown singers, but instead just sounds like she has a sore throat.
Common - Changes: A strange song. The beat is really hard to describe - the only way I could think of to describe this is to take the music from a Final Fantasy game and mix it with a hip hop beat. I can't even decide whether I like it or not but I gotta give Common props because this is definitely different and totally unexpected.
Beyonce - Video Phone: Very different from "If I was a boy". A very heavy crunk bassline runs through this song with some suggestive lyrics from Beyonce. It makes a welcome change from what she's done in the past, and after hearing this I'm hoping the new CD might be a pleasant surprise.
Left Eye - Let's do it: Left Eye on main verses with Chilli and T-Boz singing a simple chorus. Unfortunately this track is pretty forgettable. Although this seems to be a teaser for a Left Eye tribute album coming out next year, which could be interesting.
Usher - At the time: Apparently this is a song that didn't make his recent album, which is pretty surprising as its a nice mid tempo swayer that Usher always excels in. I've always thought his style is far more suited to mid tempo jams, as shown by all the strongest tracks on each album (Something Special, Simple Things, His Mistakes, You Remind Me).
The Hiplist
Video of the week
Who else would it be? My favorite group of all time. I can't wait till their new album comes out.
