The Naughties - How Was It For You?

Before I start this, I would like to offer my sincere apologies for continually saying the word Naughties. I know I sound like some sort of Carry On character, but if there were another word to use, I would use it. Sadly, there isn’t so tough shit! So, the Naughties eh? Wasn’t much was it? Personally I think this was the decade music became more easily available to the consumer. Look at itunes, downloads (legal and illegal), Twitter, Facebook and, most significant of all: the rise of music sales through supermarkets. Personally I think the last thing on people’s minds when buying spuds is to have Leona Lewis and Alexander Burke blasting out of the tannoy speakers that are specifically designed to locate kids who have ran off from their Ma’s. In some examples, quite a few tabloid and broadsheet newspapers gave away free vouchers to download music these days. Quite a long way from giving away a free CD on the front cover of Smash Hits or the NME isn’t it? As regards the music scene, nothing of the previous ‘controversial’ eras such as punk, grunge and rock seemed to be present in this decade. Everything seemed more ‘nice’ and ‘clean’ and, if were being coy here, pleasant. Apart from the obvious Doherty and Winehouse, Pop stars have become, in my opinion, too approachable this decade. Too squeaky clean! Too nice! And, it has to be said, too POP! Remember the days when you used to see musicians falling out of nightclubs with a page three bird on their arm or throwing telly’s out of hotel windows? I can’t remember the last time I seen anything like that happen. As for the darker side of music this decade, there really is no contest when it comes to who has been the Big Bad Wolf, and I’m guessing you know who I’m talking about here. Music ‘Gurus’ such as Simon Cowell & Louis Walsh became bigger than some of their acts this decade. Their operations for their Ego Extensions and Sense of humour by-passes must have took all of the nineties to prepare themselves for the Naughties. Reality television gave birth to the humble unknown who can make it big, which, of course leads me to X Factor. Love it or hate it, it has been without doubt the biggest music phenomena this decade. Maybe that’s the reason mainstream & underground music has took such a ‘back seat’ and had the rather controversial figures of the afore mentioned Pete Doherty & Amy Winehouse replaced with the squeaky-clean-image-conscious-media-friendly likes of Alexander Burke, Gareth Gates, Will Young and, forgive me for saying this, ‘Jedward’ (or Jihad as I like to call them) As regards decent music (as most readers of Mol’s Sound Words would probably listen to and appreciate) The White Stripes brought Blues to the main stream making it cool for the likes of Kings of Leon and The Strokes to play guitar music again and pick up the mantle. Radiohead offered ‘Pay What You Like’ music for the first time in history giving music executives heart attacks (that they probably had to pay for) and a ‘Mini Britpop’ revival was started by the likes of Artic Monkeys and The Libertines (with a little help from the NME, of course). But, as we all know, revivals are born out of boredom and desperation by certain members of the music media who have fuck all else of interest to write about. From a personal music point of view I had a few favourites this decade. Bands like The Rakes, The Walkmen, The Killers, The Go! Team, The Strokes, Sound Track of Our Lives and the marvellous Vines all made me shake my grey wig in a vigorous fashion. It’s a damn shame that most of them fizzled out and split up now, but what can ye do? Some of the outstanding concerts I attended in the 00’s were from the likes of The Darkness (they made up for their ‘no show’ by playing a stunning set over Christmas and even made it snow on stage for the encore), The Go! Team, The Rakes (twice), Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes (I managed to get the set list from their sound man as well) and, most enjoyable of them all, The Polyphonic Spree gave two of the most amazing performances I have ever had the joy to witness in my entire life. I personally don’t think we will ever see such a live act again until the likes of Arcade Fire tour again that is So! That’s it. The Naughties = the decade of music that bowed down to the consumer and made it easy for them to ‘obtain’ music and the decade that killed off any last real mavericks in music and replaced it with train-crash reality TV pop from your average Joe. Not very eventful was it? Think I’ll go back to bed PS, I won’t be around for a few weeks so Abby Titmus and a Happy New Year Peace Mol

Set The Controls For The Stars My Son

I was reading a rather interesting article/review on Jay Z the other day about him being one of the highest earning musicians in the world at the moment. So its little surprise that his services as a producer are seriously in demand isn’t it? Seems the big man can’t do nothing wrong of late Now, given that Jay Z is one of the highest (if not the highest) musical earners on the planet, is it his abilities to actually produce records or his status in the world of music that makes so many singers and bands hire him for his skills behind the desk? Many musicians seem to think so. Warmplay (that’s what I like to call Coldplay, in case you were wondering) being one of them as the last amounts of credibility Chris Martin and Co had seems to be slowly dwindling away as a result of their massive amount of arse kissing towards the afore mentioned Mr Z. then again, I think it’s only a matter of time before Warmplay require the services of Jay Z if the sales of their last album are anything to go by Now, there is no other way to describe what’s happening here than calling it ‘Music by Association’ (or: ‘you rub my back, and I’ll give you a reach-a-round’). And it’s plain to see that kudos can go a very long way when you want to sell albums. This is mainly prominent in Rap and Hip Hop Music, but rock/indie/pop seems to have gone down the same road. Maybe it is down to a result of Rap and Hip Hop overtaking the likes of Rock, Indie & Pop in terms of sales and credibility? Who knows? Who cares? The most notable of Indie bands these days that are guilty of hiring a well known producer/musician are Arctic Monkeys. They recently employed the services of Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age to produce their latest album to (as I suggested) ‘beef up’ their sound and give them more of a rock edge. Personally I didn’t think they needed to as they already have a good sound and could well have shot themselves in the foot by changing a concept that simply wasn’t broken in the first place! And, to be very honest here, they have released a rather poor effort from their standards. All this from a band that could do no wrong in the release department just a few months ago. It was once said that the Arctic’s could release a fart and it would sell well – so much for that now eh! Mark Ronson is another musician with twenty dirty little fingers and little toes in every mixing desk under the sun after collaborations with the likes of Lilly Allen & Amy Winehouse. I personally think he sees himself as a modern day version of Phil Spector (minus the guns and the assaults on women of course). Personally I actually like Ronsons’s style as he has basically taken a song, got someone famous to sing/play it and stamped his own ‘trade mark’ on it. What Ronson does is very clever and, unlike normal cover-versions, quite unique. He also wears some decent threads as well. I reckon he would look better with one of Mol’s Sound Shirts on though (if he can ‘Guess the Price’, of course eh Gareth? Haha) So, as this is a Blog about bands or singers employing the services of ‘a name’, how long will it be before bands (who are struggling to re-discover their form or even become famous) employ the likes of well known celebrities such as Kerry Katona to produce their album? Or have Cheryl Cole in their sleeve notes as Executive Producer? Or, to make it even more worse, have Katie Price as Special Executive Dead Dead Good Top Banana Producer At least you could guarantee one thing – you’ll have a new market buying your album. But, can’t see them being turned onto your live shows while their reading their copy of Hello Magazine Can you? By the way (quiz time) can you name the producer in the picture? And for a Mol’s Sound Words bonus point, can you name any albums he produced? Mol