Non-Urban Music Adele

[Stred]

2 of my favorite songs atm, yeah I'm gay so what.. This chick can sing

Just goes to show you can wear clothes, look like a pig and still make it big time. Good to see

 

[stefanwzyga]

She's a great talent.

 

[tHuG $TyLe]

Adele is awesome. Her live performances are my favourite.

 

[Kobe]

I don't even know how to describe the cool factor of 'Rolling in the deep'. The first time I heard the chorus, I was busy thinking about the disco era with a twist of the modern era to it. I thought about the days of Abba and the Beegees, an era that was definitely way before my time. As far as an artist I'll admit I didn't think of anything beyond listening to that song. Then one day I was watching 'Ellen' on TV and Adele performed 'Someone like you'. That was the moment I thought, "I'm going to buy this LP'. Hearing that song performed live was witnessing pure vocal brilliance that anyone can hear and appreciate.

I haven't bought a music LP in a really long time and, '21' has definitely broken the trend for me. However, it was an impulse buy (bought it based solely on hearing the two songs posted here). I think more people will be buying the LP based on those two singles and will be convinced they are on the right track with their musical choice. However, after my first Listen I thought 21 could have been a way better LP. Take this article that was written in 2009.

Still, some reviewers have suggested that her songwriting isn't nearly as intriguing and fully developed as her voice[...]She concurs. "I agree with that," she declares[...]"I think I know my voice better than I know my writing skills so far. I think that's a good thing. I'm twenty, and hopefully my progression as a songwriter and as a musician — as a guitar player and a bass player — will get better. And it's good to have progression as you write more albums. So I completely agree with that. I think it's constructive criticism."

Basically, I'm really anticipating the LP where she finds that balance between vocals and songwriting. Casey normally has a broader reference to music so I'd like to see if he has any thoughts on her.

 

[Shadows]

I like her sound and everything. I honestly pictured her to look different.

In my eyes, she's putting a lot of people to shame with those 2 singles, but i haven't heard anything else.

Everyone else sounds washed up or is doing the same shit and not better quality.

 

[S O F I]

I can't get into it.

 

[Ristol]

No.

 

[FroDawgg]

both of her albums are incredible.

 

[Casey]

Not a fan. She's OK, but her songs do nothing for me.

What I have a problem with is the marketing of her. It's almost condescending. It's the Susan Boyle effect. When people are saying "Look! Look! It's all about the music! Things are changing! This proves that!", and making a big deal out of the fact that she's not conventionally attractive, then you're still marketing based on image, but simply trying to subvert expectations, which people will fall for, every time.

Except it's worse, because they're claiming not to be doing that. It's completely hypocritical. And it's led to this false belief that she's got the attention she has right now based on the quality of the music - which simply isn't the case.

If the music was really great, then it would be a different story. But it's not. It's good, but not mindblowing. There's tons of better singers and songwriters out there, in the same style and in other styles. Most of these artists are just normal looking people. They aren't going to marketed as sex bombs.... and they aren't going to be marketed like Adele because there's no potentially bigoted or naive expectation to subvert.

So they're still marketing on image, claiming not to be, getting the media attention and buzz for unremarkable music, and thus the radio play which helps secure new fans and sales. While artists making better music fall by the wayside.

Adele is business-savvy. She went to the BRIT school, one of the most well known performing arts schools here in the UK, a school that trains you for stardom. She knows full well what's going on. She has talent, but her music so far is unremarkable to me.

That said, I wish her continued success. Music industry is tough for everyone right now, so I try to congratulate everyone on their successes.... no matter how they were achieved.

 

[ArtsyGirl]

I heard her cover of Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love" on a show, and liked the sound of her voice. Then I heard "Hometown Glory" at a friends place and liked it. Got 19 and 21 and although I think there are some weak spots or atleast some songs I'm not as keen on as others I think she has a good chunk of songs that I really like and think she deserves any recognition right now. Not once did I hear about how great it was an ugly singer was doing so well. I think it's probably unfair to put so much emphasis on that argument when she's clearly so talented.

 

[Casey]

That isn't what I said. Let me be clear about exactly what they are doing.

From day ONE, the marketing angle has been - "Modern pop music is all about image. Here's something that isn't."

Thus - drawing the attention, and the support from people who want to believe that.

The problem is that by using that as their marketing strategy, they ARE making it about the image, but just in the opposite way. I even caught the head of her record label talking that shit. I'm not gonna sit here and call Adele ugly, but the fact remains that you can't even use that strategy unless the artist is not conventionally attractive. You couldn't do that with an average looking girl.

And that's where I have an issue with it, because I know plenty of artists with better voices and better material, who perhaps aren't good looking enough to be marketed like your average female pop singer, but nobody is gonna call them ugly either.... so there is no chance of a label being able to market them the same way Adele is being pushed.

You say "not once did I hear about... etc etc"...... but if what I said wasn't the truth, you wouldn't have heard about her in the first place, at all. And if you want a clear example of how that marketing seeps down to the average person, look at the very first post in this thread.

 

[ArtsyGirl]

It may be different in the UK I don't know, I haven't gotten that impression.
Every single artist at some point will be judged on their looks, people judge, it's not because the Marketing created that, they are just using it to their advantage. That's what they do. I'm not saying Adele is the best thing out there, she has some good music. It's a shallow world we live in, and not everyone gets the recognition they should and some get recognition they shouldn't. Unfortunately that's the way it is.

Stred is hardly a good example. He was just trying to make up for the fact he just admitted to liking Adele, so he made a joke to make up for it.

 

[Casey]

Why are you denying something I know to be true?

Female pop stars using ‘faux porn’ to sell records are ‘boring, crass and unoriginal’, a leading music executive said yesterday.

The entertainment industry is too reliant on promoting female singers such as Rihanna with overly sexualised videos, according to record label boss Richard Russell.


Mr Russell, whose label XL represents chart-topper Adele, suggested the 23-year-old could change attitudes because she focuses on music instead of sexuality.
He told the Guardian: ‘The whole message with [Adele] is that it’s just music, it’s just really good music.

‘There are no gimmicks, no selling of sexuality … What a great thing, how amazing.’

The only way you can SELL this message and make people believe it, is if you go with what LOOKS like the anti-thesis of what you're complaining about. And then, it's still about the image. You couldn't do it with your average girl-next-door who might have a better voice and better songs.

Stred is a good example because he's not the first person I've heard that same statement from. It's all in the marketing, that perception is EXACTLY what they are trying to sell, because even though it might be a naive and/or bigoted opinion, it gives people faith that the system isn't one way and one way only, and that in a world of reality TV stars, talent still means something even if you don't look like everyone else. Unfortunately that's still a false notion, no matter how many Adele's or Susan Boyles you might see.

 

[S O F I]

I bet most of her song content (without checking) deviates from the overly sexualised music by the likes of britney, rihanna, lady gaga, etc. That's also a conscious act of differentiation. It's not that she's "above" or "better" than that type of music, it's that her label execs know that her looks couldn't pull it off.

 

[S O F I]

Simon Reynolds on Adele's music:

Nonetheless, there is no doubt that pop music is the area where retromania really runs rampant. There is something peculiar, even eerie, about pop's vulnerability to its own history, the way the past accumulates behind it and hampers it, both as an actual sonic presence (on oldies radio, as reissues, through nostalgia tours and now via YouTube) and as an overpowering influence. If you want further proof, there is no better evidence than the record that at the time of writing enjoys its 16th week at No 1 in the UK album chart: Adele's 21. In the US, her success (No 1 album for nine weeks, No 1 single with Rolling in the Deep) is so unusual for a British artist these days, it's tempting to see it as a flashback to the glory days when the Beatles and Stones sold black American music to white America. Except that those bands were doing it with contemporary rhythm-and-blues. Adele is literally flashing back to black styles that date from the same era as the Beatles and the Stones.
Adele is not quite as retro-fetishistic about it as Amy Winehouse, with her beehive, or Duffy, with her black-and-white video for Rockferry, her sample of Ben E King's Stand By Me in Mercy, and her name's echo of Dusty Springfield. But there is no doubt that her "anti-Gaga" appeal is based around the return to bygone values of gritty soulfulness. Adele's 21 consists of "timeless" songcraft influenced by Motown, southern soul and country, framed by "organic" arrangements featuring horns, banjos and accordions, with the whole package given just the slightest lick of modern slickness. The production involvement of Rick Rubin almost proposes Adele as somehow already an iconic veteran like Johnny Cash, in need of reverent rescue in the form of a "stripped down" sound.

 

[Casey]

Exactly. The whole thing is just as inherently manufactured and specifically targeted as what they're claiming to be against.

That's that hypocrisy at play which I'm not down with, at all. Hell, it makes the whole thing insincere and deceitful.

At least the strategies behind the Britney's and Rihanna's of this world are honest ones.

 

[ArtsyGirl]

Why are you denying something I know to be true?

The only way you can SELL this message and make people believe it, is if you go with what LOOKS like the anti-thesis of what you're complaining about. And then, it's still about the image. You couldn't do it with your average girl-next-door who might have a better voice and better songs.

Stred is a good example because he's not the first person I've heard that same statement from. It's all in the marketing, that perception is EXACTLY what they are trying to sell, because even though it might be a naive and/or bigoted opinion, it gives people faith that the system isn't one way and one way only, and that in a world of reality TV stars, talent still means something even if you don't look like everyone else. Unfortunately that's still a false notion, no matter how many Adele's or Susan Boyles you might see.

Oh God forbid I consider my own opinion first before blindly believing you. So sorry.

The way I comprehend that quote is that he is saying that Rihanna and the like rely too much on SEXUALITY, that's not the same as LOOKS. Sexuality, for example her videos but especially live performances airing out her vagina like she's in some kind of soft porno. Obviously Adele is not doing this. I don't see how you can believe that was about looks, somebody can't help the way they look.. They can help the way they act. And it's obvious to anyone that we are talking about complete opposites when it comes to this.

Let me guess 90% of the Stred-like comments you've heard come from guys? And the other 10% from shallow girls? Or there abouts.

His job is to sell his artists. So I don't see the point in making a big deal about him making the distinction.

 

[Casey]

You are welcome to your opinion, but unfortunately it does not follow the facts.

Sexuality VS Looks is not relevant, your interpretation of what Richard Russell said is not relevant. Who the comments are coming from is not relevant - people repeat what they are told and the way things are presented to them.

Adele's marketing is just as image-based and superficial as the acts they claim to be against. There is no argument here - that is what is happening, regardless of whether any individual is or is not a fan of her music.

 

[ArtsyGirl]

We'll disagree then.

 

[ArtsyGirl]

Just watched her concert at Royal Albert Hall and wow. I loved it. Her voice is so powerful and her lyrics are great.

"Yes, I swam dirty waters but you pushed me in"

Her speaking voice is completely not what I expected from her singing voice. She's a crack up and the accent just accentuates that.

The director and editor of that DVD deserves some kind of award, it was beautiful and really displayed the beauty of Royal Albert Hall.

If ever she is in Australia I'm there. I hope her voice recovers and she's back touring soon.