Manufactured Pop
Will the Brit Awards be more flop than pop in 2003? Children's Express considers the evidence.
| What happened to music with meaning? Music that inspires and motivates? |
The Brit Awards Ceremony, or the British Music ‘Oscars’ as they have been called, should be a celebration of all that is best in contemporary music, and for many they will be a genuine recognition of talent.
However there are growing concerns that this year’s event will be more low-profile because of the lack of interest of the performers themselves. The Streets, aka Michael Skinner, has been nominated for four awards, but is unlikely to attend. He is reported to have said that ‘he has no interest in the event’. Kylie and Dido have no nominations and Robbie Williams, only one.
So what is the state of modern UK music, and what do young people think of it? Are we in danger of being flooded by the alternative of predictable, manufactured pop music?
Daniel Thompson, 15, of Sheffield, has no doubts. ’The band organisers probably know they will split after seven months and lose their so called fame.’
His theory certainly seems to be backed up by the events of last year. Popstars was the first of recent programmes to launch a so-called manufactured band. A year and a half ago, the winners, Hear’Say, launched their first single Pure and Simple. It sold 500,000 copies in the first week and became the fastest selling single of all time. Now if record sales are to be believed they are yesterday’s news.
Even the finalists of perhaps the most popular show, Pop Idol, are feeling the effects of quick fame and just as quick fade. In this year’s final, watched by over 10 million viewers of whom 8.7 million voted, Gareth Gates was the expected winner. Despite losing, he became a quick target for sponsorship - £750,000 to endorse Pepsi.
Last November. Pepsi announced they were dropping him from their campaign. A spokesman said: ’The partnership will come to a natural conclusion and we wish him all the best for the future.’
But should we be surprised by the quick turn round of today’s pop stars? Joe Ashton, 15, of Sheffield, certainly isn’t: ‘The shows don’t really give young hopefuls a break. Maybe for the first few weeks, yes, but then when a new TV talent show comes along, everyone is like ‘Hear’Say? Who?”
Jarvis Cocker, lead singer with Pulp and himself a ‘celebrity’ at a previous Brit Awards, recognises the same problem in an interview with the NME. He talked about the singles chart being so different to how it was five years ago and how it’s all about marketing, with bands rising really high and then sinking back twenty places next week.
Natalie Ansell, 16, from Sheffield agrees: “The top forty chart hits, voted in every Sunday, is now a collection of manufactured pop acts and past-age songs given an updated beat. Rock and Indie bands, however, appeal to people because of the originality of their music and the inspiration given by some of the leading members of the alternative music world, for example Kurt Cobain.”
Joe Ashton points to another problem with programmes like Popstars: ’Young people enter these shows for fun and a bit of publicity, but mostly I think for their five minutes of fame.’
The fact that winners are picked mainly for their image does not help. Rachel Walmsley,15, of Firth Park, has her own theory about the short lifespan of popularity: ‘They never last because people are just thrown together in a band and are made to get on with each other.’
‘New sounds come from those who work to find other artists interested in creating their own sounds,’ says Tom Hutt, 16, from Sheffield, ‘not those thrown into a band by the men with the money. The fans put them there. The least they can do is repay them with their genuine talent, not simply to turn up and move their lips about.’
Not all young people buy into the marketing ploy. Holly Gillway,14, of Sheffield, has strong opinions on manufactured pop bands: ‘What happened to music with meaning? Music that inspires and motivates? Where did the days go of bands meeting in garages and slogging their hearts and voices out to finally get recognised? It’s now a pool of pretty faces that get hooked up to machines that make them sound as though they can sing.’
Perhaps the final comment should be left to the scathing words of Oasis front man Liam Gallagher, talking to The Observer magazine: ‘There are people in this country who would go the opening of an envelope and are only arsed about getting their picture taken.
It’s not all about having a knees-up and looking pretty in the papers. It should be about making something good and getting paid for it.’
The Brit Awards were set up to celebrate talent. It would be a shame in the new Millennium to see talent low on the agenda, and that not simply the audience but the performers themselves were becoming disillusioned. We’ve had Britpop, we’ve got manufactured pop. What comes next may be too awful to think about.
About the team
This story was produced by Natalie Ansell, Jenny Matthews and Louise Hardy, 16, Jasmine Stewart and Rachel Walmsley, 15, Laura Smith and Holly Gillway, 14.It was published on Sky television's Reach for the Sky website.
