Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night Live

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

I'm the first to confess, even proudly, that I'm completely ignorant about pop culture. But with other vapid pop stars, I can at least understand some appeal. Like Britney Spears at least has a great body to look at; Jessica Simpson is hot (if even the vapid maniquin kind of hot); and musically dull "R&B" stars like Ashanti are generally quite attractive. Beyonce is physically a goddess and her music is less awful than most (I don't mind it as a club).

But what possible appeal can this one have to anyone at all? It obviously has zero musical merit. But she's not even pretty in the least. Please, someone, help my understand this.

By the way, this is the same Saturday Night Live that had Elvis Costello, the Rolling Stones, and Pearl Jam. Why does everything that has any merit culturally or artistically become vapid commercial crap and then keeps on going? Ugh.

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

But what possible appeal can this one have to anyone at all? It obviously has zero musical merit. But she's not even pretty in the least. Please, someone, help my understand this.

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Nepotism and brand synergy. If you like one Simpson, you're bound to like another.

Well, that explains how her "music" got produced. Why anyone listens is beyond me.

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

But what possible appeal can this one have to anyone at all? It obviously has zero musical merit. But she's not even pretty in the least. Please, someone, help my understand this.

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Hey, GKarsEye.
If you want to find the best musicians in the world, take a look at the melodicrock.com (if you don't know yet).
Go to the reviews pages e try some samples that they have before you buy it.
There lies the best music in the world.
Man, does that sound like I've been paid for making a PR, but I swear that I'm not

Oh, and by the way, Beyonce IS a goddess!!!
(fisically, of course)

Almir

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

[Oh, and by the way, Beyonce IS a goddess!!!
(fisically, of course)

Almir

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Just out of curiosity, do you mean fiscally or physically here?

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

[Oh, and by the way, Beyonce IS a goddess!!!
(fisically, of course)

Almir

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Just out of curiosity, do you mean fiscally or physically here?

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Sorry about that
I really meant physically.
Fiscally, I assume that she's ok too, making soo much money.

Almir

Same thing apparently happened to Eminem on SNL as well.

Do they do this in all of their concerts, or just the televised ones?

Many years ago a friend of mine who had the largest collection of music I'd ever seen before used to complain that it was hard to find a good group for performing on stage, live. So much of what you hear when they make tunes for the radio and their CDs has been "touched up" electronically, these poor suckers get on the road to tour and you soon find out that they don't actually sound that good.

I don't know, man...
The musicians of my generation used to come from Classic Music Schools. Guys like David Gillmore, Eric Clapton, Freddy Mercury, Bryam May and hundreds of others could (and some still can) play live music of any kind, anytime for a live audience in Wembley Stadium or in a small pub.
Today, all you need is a nice face or body as long as the MTV aprove it and let the computers do the rest.
In rock music is worse, cause you give a guitar to one of those assholes and teach them one single tune and call the guys with the cameras quicky, before they forget the lyrics and everything else.
In the end, all you get is situation like the ones mentioned in erlier posts.
Sad.

Almir

The "classical music school" guys were the exception, not the rule. Quite a few British rock musicians came from "art" schools, but most didn't study music. And even if they did, so what? Rock 'n' roll is the one style of music where formal training and pure technical ability is not required. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Clash, Who, CCR, Ramones, Zeppelin, et al didn't need no formal training. And a lot of the cats that have all this formal training end up being ridiculous and boring.

And as for not having just a pretty face and no talent in the "good ol' days," I submit: The Monkees, the Partridge Family, ABBA, and scores of other now-forgotten teeny-bop denizens of musical drek.

Didn't several of the Beatles play the piano? I'm curious: did they teach themselves?

That would be quite a task. Not that it hasn't been done before, but it would be quite a task to learn the piano with no lessons whatsoever.

Didn't several of the Beatles play the piano? I'm curious: did they teach themselves?

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A lot of people in Britain are taught to play the piano so the Beatles may have known how.

As one musician pointed out about a tv celebration of ABBA music, the only singers to hit all the notes were the original ABBA girls.

Learning to play the piano is common amongst musicians who also compose. Dizzy Gillespie pushed Miles Davis to learn piano for that reason, and Charles Mingus taught himself to play piano to help him work out his complex compositional ideas (a bass player who started on cello). Mingus actually ended up playing piano on a couple of his albums.

In a sense, keyboard instruments are the most simple, because all the notes are laid out sequentially. So anybody that knows the basics of music can play any note, any chord- you just "push the button." Unlike, say, a trumpet, where I may know what a middle-C sounds like, but I have no idea how to form my mouth and which valve(s) to push to produce the sound. This makes the piano ideal for composition.

The piano parts in the Beatles' music were very simple. Anybody who can play any piano can bang away "Hey, Jude." Contrast that to, say, some of McCartney's bass parts, which were quite inventive for the time.

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

I too will take exception to claims of ABBA being without talent. Both the guys and girls produced high quality tracks that still have a contemporary feel now. As normal I agree with the rest of what you said.

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

Yeah, yeah, and a lot of people defend the Monkees, too.

The world of music would not have missed much without either of them.

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

The Monkees... aka The Pre-fab Four. Actually, Michael Nesmith has some talent, and did some good things later, on his own. He was the only one who was a musician when they were recruited. But, ABBA, IMHO, is just one more bland and pointless pop group.

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

At least they knew how to sing.

I liked ABBA many years ago.

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

At least they knew how to sing.

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Yes, and so did that guy in the band at my cousin's wedding last week. But hardly a consequential musician, he.

It's just silly that when talking about multi-million dollar earning international superstar performers "at least know how to sing." Meanwhile real musicians are hussling and will die poor and alone.

The other night my mom and sis were watching the American Music Awards while my dad and I found shelter in another room with a football game. My goodness, the noise, the soul-less caterwalling that emenated from that room- how do people stand it?

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

Yeah, yeah, and a lot of people defend the Monkees, too.

The world of music would not have missed much without either of them.

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Sorry dude, love em or hate em, they are generally credited with being one of the driving forces in the creation of the modern music industry, here's a few points just off of the top of my head:

They were the first major act to use videos to promote their material at home and across the world. They are largely attributed with the growth of the music video. No Abba, no MTV, its as simple as that.

Song-writing talents lead to international no 1. hits around the world for 10+ years. No small achivement. They have been recogonised by a great many diverse writers (such as Kurt Cobaine) as creating songs with real and intircate melodic structure. That don't happen much these days. They are a massive influence on all modern pop, despise it as much as you like, you can't ignore it.

The girls had exceptional voices. They are still one of the most covered acts around today, but as said, no-one quite gets it right like they did.

Plus, everyone can dance to them at a wedding. They also invented music drama by marrying, divorcing and having affairs in every combination possible for the quartet, (and I do mean every possible combination)

I personally, actually don't like them that much, but historically they are very important in modern music. They should be recognised as such, and not dismissed in an idle post. Lyrically they have dated, although songs such as Waterloo do have a certain edge to them, should someone care to listen...

For what it's worth they all rake in millions on an annual basis, still one of the biggest selling artists in the world.

More info at:

http://homepages.gs.net/~kgros/abba.html
http://www.zip.com.au/~callisto/abba.html

I shall now done my glitter and catsuit and return to work.

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

When I started reading your post, I thought you were talking about The Monkees, not ABBA! The Monkees, who were a top act, long before ABBA existed, were the pioneers in using video for their music. Later, Nesmith was producing videos for other musicians before MTV existed.

Re: Ashlee Simpson lipsynching on Saturday Night L

The Monkees were never as huge outside the states as they were inside, although they were pretty ok. First people to do a 'tv tie in'. Joy.

Abba were, and still are an international pheomenon. I expect many comments about the lowest common denominator to follow that statement...