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 ...
Yes, and they are part of the purchase............If someone actually pays for one...........
Which is exactly why it killed off the rock band. And you picked the exact "artist" that is my prime exhibit for the argument; Madonna. So what's the name of Madonna's band? Who plays bass in that band? It became all about "me me me," the entertainment diva was born and music died. There are very few bands that play as a unit, and compose real music that can touch your soul, both with the words as well as the notes. The divas sing but say nothing.
No different than when you had "The Wrecking Crew" playing on virtually every hit song that came out of the 60s.
“I have to disagree. Elton John is a fine craftsman on the piano”
A craftsman? Okay, but that’s an insult in some quarters.
I live in a town of around 200,000 population, and there are at least four pianists here who would kick his diseased butt in a “battle of the bands.”
“and was gifted with a good singing range.”
If green pus had a sound, his voice would be that sound.
I know, I know, millions of people have disagreed. Time will tell, but it behooves us to remember that Eddie Cantor and Rudy Vallee were once thought to have fine voices as well.
“His fame was built upon a ton of well-produced pop songs bought by fans who had no idea at the time what a disgusting freak he was.”
Anyone who cared to know could have had that information in the early seventies, at the latest. I had a friend in college who shared your opinion, but I always found him offensive, grating, and annoying.
I guess I’m the kind of music snob who holds that well-produced crap is still crap.
I loved MTV in the 80s also
12/31/89 The real Day the Music Died
“These recording companies learned that it is much easier to sell sex appeal w/o musical talent than it is the other way around (for the most part).”
Yeah. Look at Janis Ian. Stunning voice, but never a big-time star.
The pop artist backed by the session musician has always been with us. But it didn’t crowd out the rock band. For every Sonny & Cher act you still had the James Gang. But when the video replaced strictly audio, there was only room on the TV for one face. Maybe we should have seen this coming with the TV “variety show.” Sonny & Cher had a variety show. The James Gang didn’t.
Well, I guess there was “The Monkees.” So you have a point. Maybe.
Nice documentary on the WC on Netflix. At least it was a few weeks ago.
Also one on The Swampers. Ooh oooh ooh They’ve been known a song or two.
He was on MTV too????
I blame it all on The Monkeys. Dang hairless apes.
What! You don’t like Hick-Hop! How dare you slander the same hipster, lets party, get drunk and screw in my pickup sound in such a manner! One of the local DJ’s took the last 20 country his and combined sections of each into one song, they all sounded the same.
Where has George Strait, Dolly Parton, Reba, Loretta Lynn’s and Charlie Daniels gone...
Elton John has his own angle on this.
He's looking down from above or from abroad and remembering all the innovative music of the late 60s and early 70s.
American music in the mid to late 70s was pretty awful, and the 80s, even with all the video excesses, came in like a breath of fresh air.
But if you made your name earlier and were still working with others who came up with you, it's easy to ignore just how bad much of the music was in the valleys between the peaks.
When music was music. After watching the rap crap on Billboard awards last night I think these folks have lost their minds.
When the Country Music Awards actually feature pop, hip hop and rap artists (and I use that term loosely), then you know Country Music has failed. See http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2016/06/09/fans-bewildered-by-lack-country-music-at-cmt-awards.html
Thank God for Outlaw Country, Americana, Red Dirt, call it what you will.
But traditional Nashville Country sucks.
That’s how I feel when I listen to the Nylon Curtain. “Lib is a beast!”
The sins of the father are the sins of the son
BAP BAP, BAP BAP, BAP BAP BAP!
There is another guy whose name escapes me but, these frauds with their fake grills and turret style dancing, while lip syncyin another persons voice was insanely problematic.
They should have been prosecuted at the Hague for Crimes against humanity...
I know I'm getting old because this would have been cheesy and awful to me back then, but seeing that dude there with a Houston Oilers jersey -- an Earl Campbell jersey, no less -- turns him into a cult figure, in my book. LOL.
The funniest thing I remember about Christopher Cross was when SCTV did a bit on how Michael McDonald used to sing backup on like every song back then, so it would show him running from studio to studio just in time for him to sing his “Such a Long Way To Goooooo...” line in “Ride Like the Wind.....”
Wonder what ol El thinks about Rap? Wonder if he thinks they are “artists” My guess? Yeah...
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