I think they were deserving winners, for me their music is highly interesting and fairly innovative (to my ears at least) - overall very listenable. It's not as if I listen to mainstream music either, I probably couldn't name any record in the U.K top 20 singles or albums chart at this moment and I generally listen to the more obscure, harder to find music anyway.
Arctic Monkeys win Mercury music prize
- Thread starter Carzy
- Start date
Personally I don't like the Arctic Monkeys. Like The Zutons, Babyshambles, etc. etc. they use a 'jangling' clean tone on their guitars for nigh on every single song that frankly gets right on my ****. I won't deny there is musical talent there (I quite like The Zutons, think they have a lot in them and a lot of potential for the future.)
The singers singing 'accent' from Arctic Monkeys irritates me too...
This whole thread, albeit using Arctic Monkeys as the regular scapegoat, is just becoming about the dire state of popular music today, and just how much the media influences it.
The state of the music industry has never been bette, in my opinion. Never before have we had such quality and diversity of music being produced. The cost of professional quality recording has plumeted, and most people can afford to knock up a professional album using their home PC, and then sell it underground or however.
The whole scenario is a marketing nightmare, but a muso's delight.
Unfortunately popular culture is not and has never been a 'muso'. Its not interested in quality, more in the unusual or quirky, or whatever reflects the current culture the most. Its the easiest stuff to advertise and brings in a guaranteed money.
Award ceremonies are often a reflection of popular culture, with only a few like the Mercury Award occasionally swimming against the flow. The Mercury prize has slowly changed to reflect 'pop' these days. An example of how it used to be: Back in '96 Courtney Pine received a Mercury nomination for his Jazz album 'Modern Day Jazz Stories', alongside acts like Pulp, Oasis, Norma Waterson, Underworld, and even Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
I can still fondly remember how annoyed Steps were when the relatively unknown (in popular culture) Belle & Sebastion beat them to an award at the Brits. Guess who's still around making and selling albums with as strong a following as ever
The singers singing 'accent' from Arctic Monkeys irritates me too...
This whole thread, albeit using Arctic Monkeys as the regular scapegoat, is just becoming about the dire state of popular music today, and just how much the media influences it.
The state of the music industry has never been bette, in my opinion. Never before have we had such quality and diversity of music being produced. The cost of professional quality recording has plumeted, and most people can afford to knock up a professional album using their home PC, and then sell it underground or however.
The whole scenario is a marketing nightmare, but a muso's delight.
Unfortunately popular culture is not and has never been a 'muso'. Its not interested in quality, more in the unusual or quirky, or whatever reflects the current culture the most. Its the easiest stuff to advertise and brings in a guaranteed money.
Award ceremonies are often a reflection of popular culture, with only a few like the Mercury Award occasionally swimming against the flow. The Mercury prize has slowly changed to reflect 'pop' these days. An example of how it used to be: Back in '96 Courtney Pine received a Mercury nomination for his Jazz album 'Modern Day Jazz Stories', alongside acts like Pulp, Oasis, Norma Waterson, Underworld, and even Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
I can still fondly remember how annoyed Steps were when the relatively unknown (in popular culture) Belle & Sebastion beat them to an award at the Brits. Guess who's still around making and selling albums with as strong a following as ever
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over-exagerated rubbish.
William said:Well yeah it is the Mercury Prize, not the bandfoundsoundergroundscrapedfromtheinsidesofapitchforkmediajournalistjacket prize.
AN example why popularity shouldn't matter:
last year antony and johnsons won it over:
bloc party
coldplay
kaiser chiefs
hard-fi
maximo park
the go! team
the magic numbers
let's face it - no one had ever really heard of antony and the johnsons and yet they still managed to beat some of the most popular bands out at the time!
