Directionless Anger And Frustration – ( Or Half Of What Could Have Been A Slightly Decent Essay On How Awful The Charts Are)
Genuinely depressed that the top 3 selling singles on the UK iTunes at the time of writing are the atrociously flaccid and characterless “Fireflies” (written by the equally beige and appalling Owl City, who also wrote an entire song about a trip to the dentist – no joke, unfortunately), the debut single from the fucking irritating teenage sensations Jedward (who only became famous because even the undemanding X Factor audience realised that they didn’t possess a single piece of laudable musicianship between the brain-dead two of them ) and a ridiculously obvious single from the cast of Glee; yet another example that youth culture is seriously and extremely fucked.
I really shouldn’t care. I should be used to this – lots of people enjoy exceptionally tired and mundane music, and that should be fine. But it’s not fine, at all. Put simply, it’s not fine because if you bother to even scratch the surface of what’s beneath the vapid layer of shit that Simon Cowell (don’t get me started on him, that would require another post) et al have spread over the charts, there has arguably never been more of a wealth of fantastic music, of all genres. It’s not a case of being a fan of pop music, or being a fan of alternative music; there’s mounds of insanely brilliant and affecting pop music out there, it just tends to get ignored because they don’t have EMI’s chequebook behind them.
What has made this dire situation even worse (if that was possible) is that Miike Snow released “Silvia” last week – to general disdain and lack of reaction. I’m not going to argue that “Silvia” is their strongest single; it’s not, but it had more than enough instant appeal to scratch the charts. Here we have a group of super-producers who between them have written hits for Kylie, Britney and Kelis, have released a hugely critically acclaimed album within the past year, and yet when they release just one of these agonisingly perfect pop songs onto the shit munching public, the reaction is just…. non existent. It’s clear that something’s wrong. The great music is there, and it’s being recognised more and more by a music loving community that, ironically, barely buys music anymore, whilst meeting nothing more than indifference from the record buying public. The trouble is that, as fun as ridiculing the indefensible Own City is, it’s going to make next to no difference, and that if we genuinely want things to change, then we’re going to have to do something about it. I’ve no idea how this is going to happen but… you know… if I find the answer I’ll let you know.
This is really more than convenient, because in the past 24 hours I stumbled across this Netksy drum and bass remix of “Black & Blue”. I’ve also been completely hammering their debut album for next to no reason in the past week – and here’s my album highlight that I have somehow not managed to mention yet.
