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 ...
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.
It's like Linda Ronstadt singing backup on half the country and rock albums from the 1970s and 1980s.
Or it was like the BeeGees singing on everybody’s records in the late 70s.
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.
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.
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.
Part of what purchase? I’ve never gotten a copy of a video with any CD or MP3 I have ever purchased.
Stevie Wonder was so cool, sometimes I think back to when I was a little nappy headed boy...
One thing I will give Elton props for, he was a BIG fan of Levon Helm.
Does your mp3 player do video?..............
Not since 2008.
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.
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.
Well makes me laugh a bit. The initials MTV stand for music television, but that’s not what their programming is.
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.
Well, they’ve actually been running videos now on one of their subchannels, stuff from the 80s, for maybe an hour or two.
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.
I agree but I bet there won’t be many re-creating rap.
There’s a video on youtube of Chicago and Earth Wind and Fire playing 25 or 6 to 4 live onstage...together.
Incredible.
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