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Underground > Radio & Music >

Myspace or, is pop now eating itself?

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Professor Silly

19:27 / 12.06.06

No worries!

Upon re-rereading my earlier post I can see where it would get confusing (<--not sarcasm) as I am jumping aroung a bit. That's the way my mind works--thoughts come out like explosive diarrhea! I guess what I was trying to say was that if a person has talent then they should have a corresponding confidence in themselves...and upon putting it like that I certainly can see some exceptions. Still, if a person has little talent and knows it, and then gets dressed up for a performance--then the lack of confidence might seem "fake" to some of the audience. I'm thinking Ashlee Simpson at the moment.

Just to show some fairness, I'll point out an exception or two.

Beth, singer for Portishead, has very little visible confidence in the New York live performace DVD--she even apologizes (needlessly, in my mind) for not being as good as she should be. YET she sings wonderfully. Granted, she's not dressed in a stylish manner--she doesn't look like a pop-star and clearly looks uncomfortable even being there. Then there's that infamous Fiona Apple performance when she broke down on stage.
So I guess the overall point I was trying to make was this: style means little without some talent to back it up. (and now we see why language and writing have always been my weakest areas, especially when compared with music, art, math, and science.)

Enough of the thread-rotting, though! I think most of these issues have already been discussed in relation to the use of stereotypes within "The Invisibles." Stereotypes exist because similiar people do similiar things. No one person can ever really be a stereotype, because each individual is an exception...still stereotypes can be useful and fun if we're only willing to accept who we are.

Professor Silly

19:29 / 12.06.06

understood--humor in the vein of South Park is not Politically Correct.

I'll take that risk, but will try to find a way to do it in a friendlier manner.

19:39 / 12.06.06

i think proffesor silly is more than that.
i think he may be dean of the college of brain death.

there should be no problem celebrating what made him unique

how many gay jewish men do yo think there are?
and how many of them do you think are brian epstein?
why arent they all in showbiz, managing the beatles?

Anyone can level accusations of subconcious hatred at others, and I refuse to censor myself because others have a different type of humor.

okay.
you willing to if it's for other reasons?
like, say, causing offence to multiple members of this board and it's audience?
or perhaps because not censoring yourself will make it really easy for all those who find your way of expressing yourself offensive to tell you exactly how stupid they think you are?

if I had a myspace account, I might find the existence of small bands annoying if, say, they kept trying to friend me. But you'd have to ask someone with an account how that works...

that is annoying.
i have an account and feel increasingly annoyed with shit -head bands adding anyone they can find in a desperate attempt to be TehFayMiz.
they usually seem quite surprised when you tell them to stick their band up their arse, perhaps expecting you to be more of a punk rocker, with flowers in your hair.

uh uh.
not how i roll on the streets of news corp's hippest highway, fuckos.

Professor Silly

19:46 / 12.06.06

I will not be offended if a moderator removes the posts in question...in fact it might be for the best.

So noone else here is a fan of Mel Brookes? I'd like to understand the difference.

19:46 / 12.06.06

hey, professor?
...not Politically Correct.

somoeone will show it to you soon enough, may as well be now.

Professor Silly

19:53 / 12.06.06

(link doesn't work)

I've put in requests to modify all of my previous posts--I will obviously censor myself for the sake of group unity. Please--I did not mean to be devisive. I will take more care in the future.

19:56 / 12.06.06

i am a big fan of some of mel brookes' work.
and yet, i still cringe at your post...
perhaps i dont understand his work as well as i might.

Professor Silly

20:13 / 12.06.06

I was mainly thinking of "The Producers" (the musical moreso than the movie) as well as the ending of "Blazing Saddles"

all in all this brings me back to a conversation I was having recently--that the only good way to disarm emotionally-charged words is to use them BUT we can only really use the ones that apply to us personally.

All this coming from a cracker/ignorant American who sometimes speaks without thinking.

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:56 / 13.06.06

Link has been fixed. Any further discussion on Brian Epstein to go somewhere else.

So, how do you use MySpace? Do you discover new bands with it, or keep track of favourite bands? Do you feel that obscure bands found through myspace are cool, or are they disqualified by the very act of having a myspace account?

11:34 / 13.06.06

I pretty much use it to find the gigs for local bands I know that are too small to advertise much, and to send them feedback and ask questions (f'rexample to link to a review I'd written for the band's use in publicity, because they were great). Maybe if I was single or in a band I'd appreciate it a lot more, but it just smacks of Lycos or any virtual 'tween' space to me, I have better things to spend my limited time on.
I've had several friend invitations from random bands that I didn't bother to listen to just from the blurb andd influences they reference. On the other hand a friend of mine is now a 'Friend' of Capt. Beefheart and Julian Cope... he finds it a great way to surf around the music scene.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:36 / 13.06.06

There's not a lot of bands that don't have a MySpace account these days. I know that in at least a few cases, someone not connected to a quite well-known artist or band has started a MySpace page in their name, which the band or their record label have later taken over either amicably or less so. Of course there's a whole different kind of appeal that comes from knowing that a band or artist maintains their own page and is willing to 'add' you as a 'friend' - a bit like going onto a messageboard run or frequented by a writer/pop star/porn star you like and having them reply to you. OMG¬!!11!

As someone else said above, the worst thing about MySpace and bands is the ones who, either through ignorance or the use of ROBOTS, send you pointless 'add' requests - e.g. your profile says you ONLY like death metal and disco, and you receive a plaintive message from a workmanlike blues outfit based, forever, in Stoke.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

14:26 / 13.06.06

I use myspace to network for my project zebramag.com where I in turn direct them to the myspace pages of bands I like.

But myspace is a unique tool to get in touch with fans and others in ways that perhaps a website doesn't. For instance it's been very touching to see Edwyn Collins posting a blog as he recovers from his recent health issues including new music. A couple of musicians contacted me to add who are realy great and I'm grateful they did so.

However, I'm new to using myspace and I'm told by longtime myspace users this will get annoying.

It's weird to see so much attention being given to myspace as a marketing tool in the music industry. Not weird in that it's not a useful tool, but weird in that it's so new and already is placed on the same level if not higher as print advertizing... and it could either go poof tomorrow or grown into an even larger part of the group mindspace.

12:13 / 14.06.06

but this does show the danger starting a thread with wavery vague ideas. I mean, I do it all the time and I guess it must be frustrating.

On the contrary - I am finding this thread really interesting; despite all the discussion about waveriness the point of the thread has not been lost and the whole thread has the kind of ease of discussion that allows even me to feel comfortable about contributing to it although it's about music which is SCARY.

I have a myspace account because Mixmage's band is on there and we all originally joined aeons ago to friend them and so on and such. Now I get friend requests from bands in Birmingham all the time, and it's clear they are just going through the listings adding anyone from Birmingham. They are not looking for musical influences or anything and it is very annoying indeed.

However, I like myspace. It makes me really happy to have friended Mike Doughty and to have him friend me back, it's like being thanked for being a fan. You may think that's sad but I was really chuffed. Bands or musicians like that, ones who look at their space regularly use it in the correct way I think, like a muscial collective. For Mixmage's band, they have found links with other bands who play similar stuff or have a common theme and have been offered gigs which they may not have got before myspace, because these other bands might not have known them.

Of course it has its annoying bits but doesn't anything? And isn't a site that provides such excellent access to a wide range of free music fundamentally a Good Thing?

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