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Elton John: MTV Era Produced Many Untalented Musicians
Variety ^ | 5-22-2017 | Leo Barraclough

Posted on 05/22/2017 11:28:23 AM PDT by Snickering Hound

Elton John told an audience at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday that the MTV generation had promoted many musicians who didn’t deserve the attention, but he also paid tribute to the positive role that music videos have played in the music business.

John, who was on-stage with his long-term song-writing partner Bernie Taupin, said: “We were before the MTV generation and I’m glad we were because we were real artists. The MTV generation brought along a lot of people who were great but a lot of people who just made videos. So a lot of the artistry went out of the music.”

The singer, who was answering questions from Spike Lee at the winners’ presentation for a new music-video competition, added: “Visuals — whether it is a painting, a drawing, a piece of film, a video — enhance music. You get to use your imagination; you get into it.”

(Excerpt) Read more at variety.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: mtv
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To: Responsibility2nd
The 1980s saw the introduction of a new quasi-genre called "Country Rock," and it brought an occasional rare gem where the music video actually enhanced the music:

Steve Earle -- Copperhead Road

I'm hard-pressed to think of a better collection of stringed instruments in one song in the last few decades.

101 posted on 05/22/2017 1:51:20 PM PDT by Alberta's Child
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To: dfwgator
LOL. I gotta find that and check it out.

It's like Linda Ronstadt singing backup on half the country and rock albums from the 1970s and 1980s.

102 posted on 05/22/2017 1:53:27 PM PDT by Alberta's Child
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To: Alberta's Child

Or it was like the BeeGees singing on everybody’s records in the late 70s.


103 posted on 05/22/2017 1:54:28 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Snickering Hound
MTV gave artists the opportunity to show us just how vacuous their music and lyrics were.
104 posted on 05/22/2017 1:54:50 PM PDT by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: Snickering Hound

John is a pathetic person, but he is a master entertainer.

He is absolutely correct. Modern pop music has little to no staying power.

About ten years ago, I was at an event with about 250 middle and high school aged boys. While waiting for the event to start, there was some sort of nonsense music playing, probably chosen by some old guy trying to think he’s one of the cool kids. It was being roundly ignored. Then, Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey came on and nearly every kid immediately began to sing along with a song written when most of their parents were still in junior high school.

Quick, name three Brittany Spears songs. OK, Katy Perry then. How about that other skank from Disney channel, I forget her name.

Now, name three songs by Chicago, Gordon Lightfoot and Whitney Houston.


105 posted on 05/22/2017 1:58:03 PM PDT by cyclotic
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To: cyclotic

I’ve been on a big Chicago listening kick lately. I love “Chicago V”, and it just makes me more angry that Terry Kath had to be such an idiot with that gun. Maybe the most talented guitarist/singer of the rock-era.


106 posted on 05/22/2017 2:00:51 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator
Modern music ain't all that bad. I swear this would be the national anthem of Trump Country if you carved the "red" counties out of the U.S. and made it a separate country:

Jason Aldean -- Fly Over States

I'm almost embarrassed to call this collection of mutants a country band, but this song is one more piece of evidence that there's no such thing as a bad song with "Amarillo" anywhere in the lyrics. LOL.

107 posted on 05/22/2017 2:01:36 PM PDT by Alberta's Child
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To: Red Badger

Part of what purchase? I’ve never gotten a copy of a video with any CD or MP3 I have ever purchased.


108 posted on 05/22/2017 2:02:58 PM PDT by Flying Circus (God help us)
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To: Cecily

Stevie Wonder was so cool, sometimes I think back to when I was a little nappy headed boy...


109 posted on 05/22/2017 2:03:32 PM PDT by cyclotic
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To: dfwgator; Opinionated Blowhard

One thing I will give Elton props for, he was a BIG fan of Levon Helm.


110 posted on 05/22/2017 2:04:20 PM PDT by Bodleian_Girl ("Amazing how far a 84 IQ and a James Brown wig can take you.")
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To: Flying Circus

Does your mp3 player do video?..............


111 posted on 05/22/2017 2:05:33 PM PDT by Red Badger (Profanity is the sound of an ignorant mind trying to express itself.............)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
does MTV even have music videos anymore???

Not since 2008.

112 posted on 05/22/2017 2:09:01 PM PDT by Drew68
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To: webheart

Many of today’s singers that I actually like share an odd trait. I often cannot discern what they’re singing until after many, many listenings. It’s not Ebonics. It’s not even Spanglish. It’s almost as though I’m hearing someone sing in a language that is not English.
I guess many are not taught to value annunciation while singing. Not all of them, but quite a few.

Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald were well known for their clear articulation of the syllables and vowels in a word when appropriate. It could be overdone too, as with Little Anthony & the Imperials.
For years I heard a song on radio, here and there, loved it, but could never make out what the lyrics were. Suddenly I caught a few key sounds in repetition.

Now I know that song to be ‘Because of You’, by Kelly Clarkson. I enjoyed the performance, but never understood what the heck she was singing till now, 12 years after the song came out. I don’t listen to a lot of ‘new’ music on the radio. So I’m still playing catch-up.
I used to listen to a lot of talk radio until Cumulus took away most of my local favorites! Left me high and dry on Terrestrial Radio.


113 posted on 05/22/2017 2:09:12 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: Joe 6-pack

A good video compliments and enhances the content, mood or themes of the music.
++++
Correct. What I remember was that the best video enhancements were achieved by simply including Stevie Nicks in the video.


114 posted on 05/22/2017 2:12:37 PM PDT by InterceptPoint (Ted, you finally endorsed. About time.)
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To: Drew68

Well makes me laugh a bit. The initials MTV stand for music television, but that’s not what their programming is.


115 posted on 05/22/2017 2:13:19 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: ClearCase_guy

Re; expensive cds

Options:

$1 per song on Amazon
YouTube has everything anyway
Sirius radio

I use the last 2. Never without my favorites.

With Sirius, I also get local games like the Cubs and comedy channels.


116 posted on 05/22/2017 2:14:08 PM PDT by AlmaKing
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Well, they’ve actually been running videos now on one of their subchannels, stuff from the 80s, for maybe an hour or two.


117 posted on 05/22/2017 2:15:36 PM PDT by AlmaKing
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To: cyclotic

I think a hundred years from now, just as people still go to see symphony orchestras play works by Bach and Beethoven, we will have bands portraying The Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stone on stage performing their music to approximate what it was like to see the real thing back in the day.


118 posted on 05/22/2017 2:16:38 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

I agree but I bet there won’t be many re-creating rap.


119 posted on 05/22/2017 2:21:11 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (Willie Sutton went into robbing banks and Hillary Clinton went into politics)
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To: dfwgator

There’s a video on youtube of Chicago and Earth Wind and Fire playing 25 or 6 to 4 live onstage...together.

Incredible.


120 posted on 05/22/2017 2:21:43 PM PDT by cyclotic
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