Do you remember when bands made it the hard way? Playing gigs to crowds of five in the local social club, building up a local following, releasing a few singles on a very obscure indie label. Then going on to receive constructive criticism from the music press and limited airplay on radio before signing to a major label and finally becoming huge on a third or forth album release?
Well no, nor do i. It seems as though we do not live in a time great for music, but instead we live in time where hype is being mistaken for quality. Bands are simply not noticed anymore unless they are correctly styled and therefore appearing in the correct stylish magazines and newspaper supplements, all of whom will declare the band are incredible regardless of whether they have heard them or not, or more to the point if anyone else has.
The NME appears to be the prime catalyst of the ever growing problem of hype, due principally to their habit of claiming every new band to grace their front cover is the most amazing band of all time. Of course, if a music journalist hears an amazing new band it is their duty to report this, but for this band to change weekly is just ridiculous. The NME is obviously a hugely influential magazine, predominately aimed at a mass market of 17-year-olds. To have such
Goodness, NME editor, Conor McNicolas, even managed to blag himself the ‘editor of the year award’ at the Periodical Publishers Association Editorial and Publishing Excellence Awards in May, if that wasn’t worrying enough he was beating off competition form the editor of Nuts!
A prime example of possibly the most over-hyped band of the moment is The Arctic Monkeys, who appear to be covered everywhere at the moment from the music press to the broadsheets to the teenage style magazines. The band have released one single to date and yet even before this the incredible hype surrounding them had the band playing a headlining gig, which at the last minute was swapped from the Mean Fiddler to the Astoria due to ticket demand. I find this simply astonishing, bands such as The Strokes and The Libertines have been massively hyped but even they weren’t big this quick.
However, it seems the music industry is not only suffering from an overload on all things hyped, on the other side of the coin it seems intend on breaking the bands it has built up. Bands such as The Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, The Futureheads, The Killers and Razorlight are all cruising along on one-album fame, but the pressure is now on for them to release a second album to live up to very highly set expectations. I think it will be interesting to see how the music press responds to this. Will they admit to the album being utter rubbish if it is and swiftly abandon them, or will they stick to their guns and carry on claiming the band is the greatest band of all time, even though they are clearly not.
The point of my argument is, in case you were wondering, where has the chance for a band to truly develop into something great gone? In the days of Nirvana, Blur, The Manics, Pulp, Suede and Sonic Youth each album would establish the band that little bit more and you would actually get really excited about a new album release; your love for them would grow and grow, rather than having to love them instantly and just because everyone else does.
Some of the bands around today will not make it past a second album because if you are the biggest band on the planet without even ever releasing a single, where the hell do you go next? Hype in the music industry of course is nothing new but at this level we are going to forget about the bands we love today because tomorrow there will be a band that is much bigger and better to get excited about. This surely is not what music should be about.
Jenny Tudor.
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Ten Reasons To Love Hugh Grant
The State of British Tv Drama
Mercury Music Prize 2004.
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Dr Who - Time For A Change?
Music For The Broken Hearted.
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Nelly - Work It
British Film Industry "On The Rocks"
Freeview: You Get What You Pay For?
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ITV In The Doghouse
The Lack Of British Sci-fi / Fantasy Tv
Britain's Greatest Screen Actor?
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Timelash
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