Grace Jones Criticizes Current Pop Stars in New Bio Excerpt

[Taylirious]

I never had a hard time finding music I enjoy. I don't think pop music stops anyone from finding good music. Who listens to radio? I don't and I am fine. I like some pop, country, metal, rock, punk, some rap and classical.

ETA: As someone who wants to make music and was in a band, my goal was never to be a hit on the radio or win awards but just to make music and perform for people who enjoy it.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

^Good for you; I'm the same way most of the time.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Meh... "pop music" is only a derogatory label when the person doing the labeling doesn't like what he or she is placing the label on.

Otherwise it's just "music I like - that happens to be popular."

 

[eyeresist]

Meh... "pop music" is only a derogatory label when the person doing the labeling doesn't like what he or she is placing the label on.

No, some people do say they like pop music, though it may be a Brit thing. I recall Richard Curtis saying he and Ben Elton were big followers of pop music while writing Blackadder.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Anyone who thinks that 'mass production' of music is something recently...

To be fair, many of these people have grown up only listening to rock and roll (mainly alternative for the later generations) and so think that music's like they think it has been for a while. They've never read any history about the music industry, nor have they been encouraged to.

More people like this include the man who made this documentary that serves as a gripe about pop (and 'the state of the music industry') which ends with a call to go back to the music of the 60's and 70's (all rock):

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[martok2112]

I am reminded of a Far Side-esque comic panel I saw in a music store up in Kalamazoo, Michigan many years ago.

It shows (to my senile recollection) a couple of people, a singer and a producer, sitting at a mixing console in a music studio. Behind them stands an older man, looking critically at their work. He says: "Back in my day, we had another phrase for Digital Pitch Correction. It was called Singing The Blasted Song in Tune! ".

(Note: Said strip needs to be updated to accommodate the ear-offending trend of "AUTOTUNING"!)

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Grace Jones is awesome but I think she exaggerates her influence. I doubt music industry suits sit around thinking, "What can we rip off from Grace Jones' repertoire today and give it to Miley? That'll sell a million MP3s!"

Music snobbery is dumb.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

^But the thing is, what they should be telling Lady Gaga and Miley is either to be original, or give it up. Or, take after singers like Sarah McLachlan, Regina Spektor, Priscilla Ahn, Janelle Monáe instead. That would mean not being greedy and short-sighted, though.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

^But the thing is, what they should be telling Lady Gaga and Miley is either to be original, or give it up. Or, take after singers like Sarah McLachlan, Regina Spektor, Priscilla Ahn, Janelle Monáe instead. That would mean not being greedy and short-sighted, though.

Music is a business and it's silly to expect people not to treat it like one. If you don't like someone's music, you can just not listen to it.

 

[publiusr]

I think Grace Jones was (and still is) far more the real deal than all these pissy pants, so-called musicians, pop-stars, and divas that permeate the radio (and other forms of mass media) today.

Amber Rose for another example.

I remember Grace and Adam Ant in a Honda scooter commercial, shades of Bowies Bikers vs Mods.

The Warby Parker eyeglass commercial comes closest to the style Grace helped lead.

 

[Taylirious]

Taylor Swift got to fame without being a spectacle. I think she is a genuine song writer.