Blogs
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Vinyl: The Last Stand Against The Digital Age? A look at the age old format...
By Robyn Lynch on 8 February 2012
The scratch of the needle, the unveiling of a shiny new piece and the crackle as the record begins to play are all reasons why vinyl is loved.
With the digital age looming and consumers giving up on owning physical copies of music in exchange for cheaper prices and instant access, it would seem that the record shop, and in turn vinyl, are a breed with an ever nearing extinction date.
Over recent years Virgin, Zavvi and Woolworths have all shut down due to the economic down turn, leaving HMV as the only music shop left standing on the British High Street. Closing over 30 of its shops in the recent months, it seems that HMV are also to let go of their live music venues Hammersmith Apollo and Kentish Town Forum.
One area that has seen a growth from HMV however is within their vinyl sales. According to The Official Charts Company, vinyl saw a rise in sales last year to 341,000 which is an increase of 44% on 2010’s total sale of 237,000. Reacting to this growth increase, HMV are to expand their collection of vinyl in certain stores to accommodate the ever growing interest in the format. Speaking after customer enquiries to broaden the amount of records stocked a HMV spokesman said “A lot of customers have been asking us to increase the amount of racking we dedicate to music in-store and we’re pleased to say we’ll be doing a lot more of that soon – in fact we’re also planning to significantly increase our range of vinyl in quite a few locations as well.”
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Madonna: The Queen of Pop? Or The Queen of Self-Promotion? A closer look at the singer's comeback campaign...
By Robyn Lynch on 3 February 2012
Behind every successful musician is a team of people whose sole job in life is to promote them. From online, to magazines, radio, tours and television appearances, there is no end to the places one can seek a little more stardom.
This weekend will see Madonna perform at the world's biggest sporting event; The Super Bowl. A performance that the star will not get paid for, it will surely do more than wonders for her comeback single 'Gimme All Your Lovin' which is released shortly beforehand. Her half time performance will also see her bring on-stage fellow track collaborators M.I.A and Nicki Minaj, whom she was recently reported to have snogged.
It seems coming up with outlandish statements is another of Madonna's favourite ways to conjure up a little more attention. This week claiming that “I mean she's not Britney Spears, Lady Gaga Is Not Built Like A Brick Sh*thouse” after also saying that Gaga's 'Born This Way' copies her hit 'Express Yourself' commenting “I recognised the chord changes. I thought it was… interesting.”
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Alex Turner The Hopeless Romantic: The Legend Of The Love Song Where did all the love go?
By Liam Britnell on 27 January 2012
It is notoriously well known that musicians are rather skilled when it comes to 'wooing' the opposite sex, this isn’t there fault as women are naturally intrigued by musicians.
Now, I have never had one written for me personally, but I can’t imagine there being anything more romantic than someone putting pen to paper, for the world to hear exactly how they feel about you?
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The Resurrection Of The Music Show: TOTP? If it's not TOTP, is it worth it?
By Robyn Lynch on 23 January 2012
With this week's announcement of a new online music show after the weekly chart run-down on a Sunday afternoon, rumours were sent flying about the return of the much adored music television show Top Of The Pops.
Ben Cooper, Controller of BBC Radio 1 has said “I hope that this will be to our young listeners what listening to the chart and waiting to record your favourite pop songs was for another generation”. However the question lingers how original the content will be when Adele and Bruno Mars have been in the chart for the last year with both their latest offerings, and Ed Sheeran won't budge further down than the number three spot.
While it is definitely time for a new type of music show, is this really the right way to go about it?
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Chase And Status For Download Festival 2012: What The F*ck! Should the duo be on line-up?
By Alex Andrews on 17 January 2012
When it was announced today (January 17) that dance duo Chase & Status would be joining the line-up for this year's Download festival, it didn't take long for one particularly riled-up individual to head over to Facebook and create a page campaigning for the group's removal.
It's a little difficult to call it a campaign when the Facebook page in question has obtained only 16 'likes,' but it was enough for Download organiser Andy Copping to defend his decision to the NME.
“They're a great live band,” he said. “They totally fit with what we've done before with bands like Pendulum and The Prodigy. I know they're going to step up and win people over. I saw them perform in Hyde Park last year and they totally blew me away with the intensity of their show.”
He then added: "They even had circle pits going on and that's what Download's all about.”
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As Pop Albums Outsell Rock: How Can We Save Music? What's going on?...
By Liam Britnell on 17 January 2012
A lot of negative press has surrounded the announcement of the 2012 Brit Award nominations, and that isn’t going to stop here.
Now, I don’t want to discredit the artists that have obviously worked hard to get to where they are, you can’t blame them for the one dimensional, lack lustre, auto tuned s*it that is now 'pop'. This is what the masses are fed, day in day out by radio stations up and down the country. We are bombarded with band after band of talent show winning, abb flashing 'singers' that simply could not perform alone on a stage with no backing, even if someone (me) had a gun to their head.
Performers such as Adele, Ed Sheeran and Jessie J were the artists with most nominations, now these are without a doubt some of the better British 'pop' Artists that are out there don’t get me wrong...but are they really the best we have to offer?
In the last 20 years we have slipped out of the Brit-pop era that bought us Oasis, Blur, Stereophonics and Supergrass to name a few, and flown through the brief mid 00's stint of Indie rock at its finest, producing Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, The View among many, many others.
Indie-Rock labels are simply not getting the backing from various forms of press to allow them to back their up and coming artists, and this is beginning to tell.
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The BRIT Awards 2012 Nominations: Reflection Of British Music? We gie our verdict on this year's runners...
By Robyn Lynch on 13 January 2012
This year's Brit Awards nominees were not exactly the hardest to predict. With Ed Sheeran, Adele and Jessie J up for the most awards, the nominees reads like a listing of the industry’s big wigs 'whose who 'and it is a little less than one dimensional.
Earlier in the week we took a look at who was likely to be nominated, who should be and who will probably win. Hitting the mark on the British Album of the Year and the Best British Group categories we think that while some are deserving, others are bordering on a joke.
First under scrutiny is Ed Sheean. Releasing his debut album + (plus) in September of last year the singer songwriter can hardly claim to be a long running British institute within the music industry, deserving of four Brit Award nominations. Nominated for British Solo Artist,
British Breakthrough Act, British Single and the Mastercard British Album of the Year, Ed Sheeran has struck gold in all the big categories of the award show. Whether you like his music or not, the question begs that can a star who has been around for less than six months really be the best thing in British music? If the answer is, as the Brit Awards would have us believe, a hollering yes, than surely we should be more worried about the ever decaying state of British music.
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Is Marilyn Manson 'God Of F*ck' Sending You Messages? We Think Not After women blames singer for telling her to burn down house...
By Alex Andrews on 10 January 2012
Arguments and Christmas go together like Turkey and Cranberry sauce, but as frustrating as you might find your own flesh and blood, you probably wouldn't go to the extent of trying to burn the house down.
The same, however, cannot be said for 29-year-old Christina Paz, who did exactly this, when she torched her childhood home in El Paso, Texas on Christmas Day.
It's a shocking story and a huge relief that no one was hurt, but what's most bizarre is how exactly Marilyn Manson has come to find himself entwined in these dark events.
Although technically still only a suspect in the case, a document released last week, detailing what Paz told investigators, claims: "She was angry at her mom and dad for trying to kill her on Christmas Day, that they had planned to sodomize her and chop her up with the help of a neighbor."
When an investigator pressed her on how she knew her parents wanted to kill her, she replied that it was “through the music of Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails.”
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The BRIT Awards 2012 Nominations: Still As Mainstream As Ever? What will top this year's awards...
By Robyn Lynch on 9 January 2012
With the nominations for this year's BRIT Awards set to be announced in a matter of days, speculation is mounting as to who will be named the cream of the crop within the British music industry. A nomination alone can do great things for a burgeoning music stars career, just take a look at Adele who flew into success after performing on the awards show last year, the You Tube video of which now has over 84 million views.
However, while all this is great for the host of mainstream popular music artist who have taken over the charts in the last decade, not much can be said for all the alternative bands battling to have their voices heard.
In the last week Noel Gallagher told The Daily Mirror “The days of Oasis and Blur were the last great assault on the charts by alternative music” only to be backed by both The Black Keys drummer, Patrick Carney who told Rolling Stone Magazine “Rock and Roll music is dying because people became OK with Nickleback being the biggest band in the world” and Kasabian front-man Tom Meighan who confirmed “There's a rock n roll drought at the moment”.
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Oasis, Blur, The Black Keys: Is Rock N' Roll Music Dead? We give our opinion...
By Andrew Almond on 9 January 2012
In the past week both Noel Gallagher and the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney have bemoaned the current state of music criticising the charts and the fact that it “became OK with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit [referring to Nickelback specifically]” respectively. But is rock ‘n’ roll music really dead? This is my, admittedly laconic, attempt at trying to come to some sort of conclusion.
Defining exactly what is meant by the term rock ’n’ roll is, like trying to pigeonhole any genre of music, hugely problematic. This is mainly down to the subjectivity of the term; rock ‘n’ roll, like music, love and politics means different things to different people. For arguments and the purposes of this blog when mentioned rock ‘n’ roll will refers to a credible melodic guitar based music.
It would appear that messrs Gallagher and Carney may have a point about the decline of rock ‘n’ roll when the current British charts are evaluated. In the top 40 album it is just Noel Gallagher himself, Kasabian and The Vaccines which could be classed as rock ‘n’ roll who sit between numbers 15 and 17. Similarly, if you look at the biggest selling albums of 2011 the only rock n roll in the top 20 is once Noel Gallagher at number 14. Rewind five years to 2006 and in the end of year top twenty sit 7 acts; Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks, Razorlight, Oasis, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Beatles and U2. Admittedly the charts are just one way to view the state of rock ‘n’ roll but the above finds would appear to corroborate Carney and Gallagher.
It’s not just the state of the charts that that point to the suggestion that a seismic shift in the nature of the music industry has occurred over the last few years. Declining record sales, the falling price of CDs (it’s seems a lifetime ago one had to pay as much as £13.99 for a chart CD) and downloads mean that artists make the majority of their income from touring. The above factors have contributed to the decline of another side of rock ‘n’ roll- the excess. Bands no longer travel everywhere by limousine or have a private jumbo jet with the bands logo plastered across the side. I doubt very much that Serge Pizzorno has a butler. Furthermore it is not uncommon for bands to finance their own records or even ask fans to contribute towards the cost of recording, recent examples of this include The Subways and 22-20s.
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