New British Diva Invasion

[Corpsey]

I've already seen an awful quote from the independent on a forum today.

Bonus

 

[michael]

Latest Mutya whatshername (ex-Sugababes) song is all soul-y too. Pity.

This kind of stuff has been around for decades in British pop, hasn't it? Everyone from Phil Collins to the Spice Girls have had a go. Not that Phil's much of a diva.

 

[nomadthethird]

Oh, who gives a fuck.

Don't really give a fuck, just noticed that suddenly wherever I noticed mainstream music press/media I saw another new British diva getting a lot of play. We've always had "British invasions" in different waves over here I just thought this one seemed unique in that it's never been so consistently "female singer/songwriter"-y and definitely never so focused on flagrantly "retro" aesthetics. I do think a lot of what's getting released as part of this trend is great pop--was just being sarcastic up there about "who thought this was a good idea?" Some of it isn't so great by the same token.

If you'll note, I acknowledged that the whole bid *was* working and that Americans were lapping it up. Bear in mind that record companies easily buy spots on the top 40 without this reflecting tastes too much anymore. (Restrict the flow of information/consumer goods and there will only be limited sources to consume and all of that...)

Just seems very 'k-punk "end of history" post-modern ontological nostalgia mode crisis manifested in music" to me, especially if it's true that people feel weird about buying Aretha because her music was recorded before they were born. (For a while there it seemed that this might finally be going out of style...)

Guess it must be a case of the Y generation being completely out of touch with "roots" music.

Not necessarily a bad thing from a creative standpoint. Potentially.

 

[nomadthethird]

I never understood Joss Stone but she was phenomenally successful - really amazingly so - which led to this trickle-down effect. I wouldn't put Leona Lewis in with that lot, she really is one of those girls with a great voice on the back of a bus, good luck to her.

Yes, you're right, Joss Stone was probably really the "first" in line. She was nowhere near as big as Amy Winehouse has become here, though, which makes it interesting to read that Joss was huge over in the U.K. Unsurprisingly, I think a lot of the continuing and lasting American interest in Amy Winehouse, especially "iconographically", has a lot to do with her presence in the American tabloids. She sort of took Pete Doherty's place as world's biggest hot mess in the eyes of US Mag readers. (Bear in mind the two most important trends in Hollywood, from a PR standpoint, are pregnancy/childbearing and checking into rehab.) Methinks Amy has extremely saavy "people" behind her image. I also think she is the prototype for the others who've followed with retro haircuts and bluesy vocals which makes her much more interesting to me than they are.

That Amy Winehouse album is a genuine Thriller type phenomenon, every country I've been to in the last year, she's being belted out of shops and restaurants globally on some crazy scale, and still, and deservedly - her lyrics are amazing. It just kind of follows that after that there's going to be a flood of music in similar style that is seen as something that commercial and retail properties can be marketed to.

On a zeitgeist level you've had (over here at least) so much guff about 1968 in the press and book media that it feels, on some sort of level, like a liberal attempt to recreate the vibe of around that time, almost sympathetic magic; people who were affected then would be in positions of power I guess. I'd put alot of it down to left-wing nostalgia, as well as music that appeals to people who still buy CDs, who would again be people in that age bracket.

All of this is very interesting. I agree on the significance of Amy's singles as highly significant pop events--also love her lyrics, love that she's a wreck and unlike Britney seems to know it and intentionally play into tabloid expectations, love that she's pretending to be as grand and tragic as the tabs will allow--but she seems to also typify something new going on in the industry where musicians are under the same sorts of pressures that Hollywood show biz types are to carefully and aggressively execute their own public image.

Still digesting second part about 60s Zeitgeist mining...I think you're probably right. Remember when people used to say "This generation needs its own Vietnam"?

 

[nomadthethird]

your particular brand of patriotism is incredibly bizarre nomad.



presumably they think that because currently you guys are lapping it up.

I think you're reading my post too literally.

I have no brand of patriotism. I was being glib. And I clearly stated that these artists were indeed being lapped up by Americans. Maybe you didn't get that far.

 

[mistersloane]

Yeah, I think also that both her and Doherty represent a particular form of culture in the UK at the moment, which is complete lawlessness in the face of, well, 1984 really. They're the public face (grime the less public) but it's a very real resentment that people are displaying. We haven't really had pop kids in and out of jail since Boy George and the Blitz kids in their heyday.

A GREAT thing which you may not have seen is Winehouse (pre-boy-in-jail) on this programme, which is just a fantastic piece of a person glowing in their prime

(three, maybe four parts to it)

She's about 5 steps ahead of everyone else there, which is saying something as there's a couple of pretty fast fish in that programme.

And there was just a conference - not too good but you might like some of the titles - analysing the deal women have been getting media-wise

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...ities-face-new-degree-of-scrutiny-851594.html

But I reckon, as usual!, that South Park has it about right

http://allabout-sp.net/?p=season12/1202

xxx

 

[noel emits]

Yeah, I think also that both her and Doherty represent a particular form of culture in the UK at the moment, which is complete lawlessness in the face of, well, 1984 really. They're the public face (grime the less public) but it's a very real resentment that people are displaying. We haven't really had pop kids in and out of jail since Boy George and the Blitz kids in their heyday.

That's interesting but did you see what George Michael said recently about how he thought the media circus around people like himself was a useful diversion from other stuff that should really be more prominently in the news? It's obvious I know but I still think it's more useful for someone in a celebrity role to point something like that out than to simply act up in public, that doesn't really say much of substance at all. I mean those people can react however they like but it's still just turned around as cheap entertainment. They are quite lidderally making Spectacle's of themselves no?

George Michael: The kind of celebrity we're now talking about is very damaging to us in other ways. I think we're all watching each other make stupid mistakes whilst people change the world around us. I think people like me are a great cover, these days, for other people. You see my meaning?

Interviewer: You sell newspapers....

George Michael: Yes, I sell newspapers, but not just that. I'd love to know what actually happened that people should know about on those days that I made my mistakes, you know?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7450238.stm

 

[STN]

does the fact that they're british make the retro aspect more palatable to americans almost in a swinging london/austin powers sort of way? also, I can't believe it's young americans buying this stuff...