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Who's on Top .. and Who Should Be
- Comments [11]
Ne-Yo's "Year of the Gentleman" debuts at #2 on the Billboard charts but one critic thinks rapper Izza Kizza should be blowing up instead. In the second installment of this monthly series, Slate critic Jody Rosen helps us crack open the Billboard charts to see what the biggest selling albums have to say about the state of pop music today. And, he weighs in with his picks for who should be the best selling artists in America.
Soundcheck blog: John Schaefer on today's "Who's on Top"
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Comments
I seriously dispute your guest's assertion that the best music rises to the top of the charts. The most commercially successful music becomes so by offending the fewest people, by avoiding anything that's challenging, provocative or artistically sophisticated.
darius rucker is still lame. hootie or no hootie. nashville can sell this has-been schlock because their market (wal-mart nation) will buy anything that is hopelessly dated. sheryl crow, kid rock, bon jovi, jewel, jessica simpson, brett michaels, even latoya jackson have attempted kuntry-komebacks.
John, with all of your years of introducing me to great music, why are you subjecting me to Hootie and the Blowfish and country pablum. Please, it's too much to bear!
walmart and Itunes are the two biggest retailers of music today.
Izza Kizza sounds more like Outcast than Missy Elliot. I'm going to download the album now.
Let's talk about the singer songwriters who should be on top. For every breakthrough like Ingrid Michaelson, who deservedly belongs on the charts, there are about 50 others who also should be on the charts Steve WAitt, Lowry, Tanya Buzniak all of the Local Correspondents
I agree that the cream generally does rise to the top. There are lots of example. A lot of crap also rises to the top. So rising to the top does not equate to artistry
Also most avant-garde and challenging stuff is mediocre. After all, most of anything is mediocre. So avant-garde should not be equated with 'artistic'.
I especially appreciate those true artists who also broke new ground. The sixties had Dylan, the Beatles, and Brian Wilson. Who do we have today?
The lists of real artists that have risen inc
If you're fond of the Ne-Yo song, dig through your old tapes and give another listen to Michael Sembello's "Maniac" from 1983's "Flashdance" soundtrack -- it's the same hook ("And she's dancing like she's never danced before.").
Not that there's anything wrong with that....
Still, it's a good way to subtly recycle a hit tune....
Ugh. That Hootie guy. Soundcheck, how could you?
It's mainly the fault of radio who's dominance, until now really, ruinned it all many years ago by forcing very tightly controled formats on listeners and squeezing out content that didn't fit a cookie cutter mold. For example: Classic rock from the 70's (where you never hear a new song) is a format that won't completely die for another 15 years, until baby boomers croak by the millions, because they'll be listening to 'shook me all night long' in their wheel-chairs.
Sadly there are interesting new groups out there, from whom not every song sounds the same as the last one, example: MGMT. But in the U.S. they're unknown by radio. At least the internet gives young bands like this a chance.
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