Amy Winehouse

[thalbergmad]

I am sick to death of reading about this poor woman in the papers. Barely a day goes past when she does not appear in the papers or on the telly.

However, out of interest i did listen to some of her music and simply cannot see (or hear) what all the fuss is about concerning her "unique" voice.

Am i alone in this, or does anyone else here fail to recognise the genius?

Thal

[chopininov]

She's part of this new wave of English "soul" singers; i.e. Joss Stone and Natasha Bedingfield. The musical attraction to the singers is supposedly their deep, rich voices.

I called shenanigans on this whole movement when it started--the British are just as soulless as Americans, if not more.

[thalbergmad]

Dunno about deep rich voice, but she will have a deep rich coffin if she is not careful.

Thal

[opus10no2]

Good singer, fairly nice girl deep down, but a useless waste of space.

No, literally, she wastes a huge amount of space with her hair-do.

LULZ (c)

[rhapsody4]

Good singer

This is irony, I hope. To my ears, it reminds me of the sound of a strangled cat . . . . . .

[lucylucy]

she's sooo beautilful !
she's got a lot of problem with drugs... but i think that people just have to leave her alone !!!
she's just a little lost inside !!
everybody has some problem !!!!!!!
i think she's got a great voice, but there's a lot of people with the same : )

[thalbergmad]

I sometimes wonder that if you are some kind of freak, you have a chance to make a lot of money out of a mediocre talent.

I almost feel sorry for her, but drugs has been her choice.

If she didn't carry that absurd wasps nest on top of her head, i wonder if she would be so well known.

Thal

[shortyshort]

A complete waster. 
Her so called talent does not impress me.
But not much does. 

[Petter]

Interesting is how press treats Peter Doherty (who has sever drug problems) as opposed to Amy Winehouse whos sympthoms are mild in comparison. Amy is patronised while Peter is pitied.

[ahinton]

I have to admit that Ms Wiener Konzerthaus does nothing at all to impress me; even her much-vaunted (not to say also much-derided) talent for attracting frequent publicity is less than spectacular (although that may be just as well, really). Describing her as a "singer" would be laughable were anything about her actually funny; it's almost like calling Andrew Lloyd Webber a composer except that, whatever he may be, he has at least ensured that thousands of people have secured gainful employment in the world of musical theatre entertainment in the West End (London's theatreland, for anyone here unfamiliar with it) and elsewhere for almost four decades.

As Thal knows (since he's referred to the fact on occasion), I prefer to keep reasonably decent wine in the house (well, as decent as a composer's modest budget can afford, anyway); that said, one may suppose that one could almost hide half a case of any wine in that extraordinary hairdon't that looks more as though it's been designed by Tracey Emin rather than by Vidal Sassoon...

Best,

Alistair

[debussy symbolism]

I have to admit that Ms Wiener Konzerthaus does nothing at all to impress me..

Greetings

Neither do you hinty....

[ahinton]

Greetings

Neither do you hinty....

It is indeed true that I do not especially impress myself, but then I do not seek to do so either...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Tracey Emin

Would compete with Winohouse for the Pointless Tart awards.

Thal

[debussy symbolism]

edit post

[ahinton]

edit post

Try the delete button...

Best,

Alistair

[zheer]

she's sooo beautilful !

  Are you serious, I had a really strange dream about her and I'm not kidding. In my dream I saw her totally naked, but she was a shemale, you know she looked totally women but with a you know what. Anyway I've always thought in some photos she looked like a man, not attractive at all.

[healdie]

I would never call her a Genuis, I think Genius is a word that gets used way too often and it is often unjustified, Does She write her own songs? but i do think the press should leave her alone but she also needs to clean up her act, but what i really want to know is how is she not in prison? she has even taken drugs onstage so how is she still walking free, i hate this legal system if an average joe is on the phone whilst driving they go down, but a celeb takes drugs in public then the courts turn a blind eye.

[instromp]

Pop doesn't need great singers.

Mediocre singer+catchy tune.

[indutrial]

Pop doesn't need great singers.

Mediocre singer+catchy tune.

Pop is definitely in need of more good singers, and by that I mean people who can bring a unique voice into a genre that lots of people can enjoy. Guys like Freddie Mercury and John Lennon were able to do it. These days it suffices to show up and do something that reminds somebody of something that they heard elsewhere. The way that pretty much every genuine subgenre of popular music from 1940 forward has been repackaged and shamelessly resold in the past few years is downright vomit-inducing.

Beatles ------------> Oasis and about 50 other shittastic Brit-Pop acts
swing music-------> Cherry-Poppin Daddies, resurgence of Brian Setzer
doowop------------> Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone
80s hair metal----> The Darkness, Atreyu
Talking Heads-----> Modest Mouse, other bad indie rock acts
Rolling Stones-----> White Stripes
grunge bands-----> Nickelback
anything that ever made a buck---------> American Idol contestants

Not to mention how inundated our culture is with the cultural leavings (or sustained greed) of former generations. I live in the NYC/NJ/Philly area and there's like 7 classic rock stations playing the same greased-in setlists to the same conservative shitbag audience day-in-and-day-out. It's remarkably easy to go weeks without even hearing a new song on the radio whilst hearing tons of repeats of Freebird, Carry on Wayward Son, and Born in the USA (BLLEEEECCHH!!!!)

[Essyne]

^ I think that you would be one of the more fascinating people to sit and have a conversation with, indutrial.

Take that as you will (is intended as a compliment).

[thalbergmad]

^ I think that you would be one of the more fascinating people to sit and have a conversation with, indutrial.

I second this, but i also submit he is the type of person likely to get you thrown out of a nightclub.

I can imagine him telling the disk jockey to stop playing the same old shamelessly repackaged subgenre of popular music.

Thal

[Petter]

Pop is definitely in need of more good singers

Rufus Wainwright <3

[thalbergmad]

Me fave singer.

Amazingly worse dressed than Whinohouse, probably the better singer.

Thal

[instromp]

I agree with Thal on that.

i was merely stating from what im seeing that is going on with "Pop" music now these days. There are great PoP singers.

[indutrial]

I second this, but i also submit he is the type of person likely to get you thrown out of a nightclub.

I can imagine him telling the disk jockey to stop playing the same old shamelessly repackaged subgenre of popular music.

Thal

You'd have to get me pretty piss-drunk to actually get me INTO a nightclub. Besides, I don't think I own nice enough clothes to get past the doorman under the best circumstances.

I'm way way less assertive with my musical opinions in real life. When I hear something that sucks, it just makes me walk faster to get the hell away. Plus, I'm a part-time guitar/bass teacher, so I have to swallow my pride constantly when my students show up asking me to teach them the new All-American Rejects song or whatever else they heard on Guitar Hero III and downloaded for their Ipod. Almost all of my students are 5th-8th grade aged, so I'm subject to a steady diet of what kids are into these days and what's going on with popular music culture. I thank heavens that I grew up in an age where record stores still existed and kids actually spent their money on albums.

The impression I get from widespread musical culture is that, these days, everything is treated like a soundtrack for something else. This is probably why the record industry has become such a complete joke. Punk songs belong to skateboarding and extreme sports, nu-metal is perfect for lacrosse advertisements and the hardcore video-game market, rap and r&b sell clothes and jewelry, electronica and trip hop sells cars and gadgetry, classic rock brings back a notion of one's rebellious youth (especially for mid-life crisis a-holes who are making too much money and wondering why they never have any fun) and probably sells lots of Harley Davidson crap..... Even classical music and jazz seem like they're most often contextualized as a soundtrack to one's status of being sophisticated. If you don't believe me, you should see how over-packaged the "music scene" of Princeton, NJ is nowadays. Most folks around here don't have a musical bone in their body, but their Princeton-ness will compel them to attend every local performance of The Marriage of Figaro or the Four Seasons because it makes them feel more cultured. Of course, when they're at the performance, it's likely they will worry over the list of charitable donors more than they'll read about the piece or the performers.

I met a rock band one time whose crowning acheivement was getting 10 seconds of one of their songs tacked onto a Dawson's Creek episode. Aside from that, they almost never rehearsed or played shows out. What's sad is that they are probably just as likely to succeed in grabbing a market share as some raw-dog rock band that sports a killer setlist, develops its own merchandise, and hits the road 300 nights a year.

I agree with the last point that there are tons and tons of talented singers out there, even in the pop scene. The problem lies in how they are framed by the overall music scene, which makes them strive for American Idol and riches instead of striving for real musical achievement.

[ahinton]

Me fave singer.

Amazingly worse dressed than Whinohouse, probably the better singer.

Momentarily leaving the question of sartorial elegance or even appropriateness to one side, one has only to contemplate for a moment what a real singer has to go through to develop his/her voice to the full to recognise that the very thought that people of the order of Aimless Winebar are widely described as "singers" is more than enough even to make such a comparison not merely odious but entirely redundant.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Yma Sumac is 85 and not in the best of health, but even now she could sing the pants off Winohouse.

Shame Miss Sumac never recorded any of the Sorabji songs.

Thal

[ahinton]

Yma Sumac is 85 and not in the best of health, but even now she could sing the pants off Winohouse.

Perish the thought! (at least in the sense that keeping her pants on might at least save us all from the ultimate ignominious spectacle).

Shame Miss Sumac never recorded any of the Sorabji songs.

I cannot help but express curiosity as to why in particular you think that Sorabji's songs - far too few in number though they are (less than sufficient to fill a CD, in fact) - would represent a favourable repertoire choice for Ms Sumac; do you know these songs? if so, how well do you know them? and by whom have you heard them sung?...

Best,

Alistair