clik4music

Two DVDs perhaps best sum up the state of metal music in the world today. As records of two bands and two approaches to music, they sum up a lot that is great about music today, yet provide glimpses of the problems too. The evidence:

Metallica - Some Kind of Monster
versus
Iron Maiden - Death On The Road

In short, we have style and substance (Metallica/USA) versus formula and shadows (Iron Maiden/UK).

Some Kind of Monster is a solid and refreshing film, charting the extremely troubled time for the band during the development and recording of St Anger. There are no punches pulled and all the participants come out at the end with our respect.

Death On The Road is a reasonable concert, but the special features disc shows the huge gulf between the USA and the UK. It is littered with platitudes and cliches, without anything new or interesting.

Metallica come across as real people, prepared to share the effects of 20 years or so of band life and the pressure cooker stresses that can cause. They are honest and direct, even when it hurts.

Maiden and their fans constantly talk about their special family, yet all we see is play acting and avoidance, from both the band and the crew. Obviously there is respect and friendship, yet there is also a tremendous lack of depth. Going through the motions springs to mind a lot.

The USA crew and management show maturity, the film crew and interviewers having intelligence and understanding to burn. The UK crew pass the time with weak sarcasm and worse jokes, while the interviewers are juvenile beyond belief. It is amazing the management would include such drivel.

If this was football, the score would be 5-0 to the USA.

Alexandra Burke had the record for the fastest-selling download across Europe on its first day of release. Hallelujah sold more than 105,000 which beat the previous fastest download of 82,000 in one day — A Moment Like This by Leona Lewis from 2006. By comparison, Take That sold less than 10,000 downloads of Greatest Day on its first day.

As well as being huge successes for X Factor and a great boost for both Leona and Alex, it shows how powerful women have become in the music industry. Which is great. The more we move away from pretty-boy bands and limp metro-sexual men, the better. Let’s stay with the SINGING and ignore the commercial, copycat marketing hype.

Beyonce has continued to support women in music and, of course, has topped the charts for both sales and concert tickets all around the world. And despite what you think of the music of Cheryl Cole, the past few years have been her best ever.

(Photo: Alexandra Burke, Beyonce, Cheryl Cole at the X Factor final 2008)

Lindsay Lohan released her debut album in 2004, Speak, and one track had rather prescient lyrics - especially as she was just 17 at the time of recording. Lohan co-wrote half the tracks on the album, and has stayed in touch with music with her three albums, and lots of music performances in her films.

Another song, called I Decide on YouTube, has a main tone of the lyrics as strength and independence:
Don’t tell me what to think
It’s my life …
I decide how I live
I decide who I love

The track Rumors from the first album asked “why can’t people just let me live"? There seemed to be a radical change in Lindsay during 2008, as she ignored the gutter press obsession with “party girl". In fact, Lohan started turning up at red carpet events and at catwalk shows with great elegance and poise.

Another song, Confessions of a Broken Heart, from her second album,  with the chorus daughter to father, dealt with the problems in her family and was also co-written by Lohan. Perhaps that creative purging was working at the time.

Work on Lindsay’s new album Spirit In The Dark began following a move to the Universal Motown label. A promotional single Bossy was released in May 2008 written by Ne-Yo and Stargate. The album was initially due for release in late 2008 but Lohan announced in November 2008 that work on the album had stalled. We wonder whether the album will be released and whether it will show even more strength and self-determination.

Way back in 1967 in San Francisco the beautiful people of the time experienced the Summer of Love. Well, 40 years later the expected clash between Simon Cowell and Kara DioGuardia came into full view. The new season of American Idol will be colourful - for the clothes, the self-marketing, the language and the delusions of singing talent.

The new judges may not raise voices as loud as some previous ‘discussions’ between the judges. Not many people could stand up to Simon’s overbearing attitude, but Kara showed she was not on TV to act as a fair judge - her self-promotion and anti-girl bias was just too obvious.

The love from the judges was evident for Raquel Houghton with a great-sounding rock voice, and also for Adam Lambert (top photo), a viewer for 8 years, who saw a Paula Abdul concert when he was 10. Adam managed to get all the judges on his side with a theatrical version of Bohemian Rhapsody. Although Adam is still proving to be a powerful performer and successful recording artist, many of the other top 12 of the contestants of that year have faded away.

Tatiana del Toro (second photo) gave the judges her press kit which including DVD, CD, photoshoots and bio. She presented herself as a full-time singer, musician, songwriter, model, director and just about every Hollywood occupation you can name. Randy Jackson said yes, cos “you are wild, and I like it". Kara liked her vibe (if not the singing), and Paula reckoned Tatiana’s effort was worth rewarding. That worked then but her use of Self-Marketing 101 has not resulted in worldwide fame.

Using everything at his disposal, Jesús Valenzula was 29 years old and had been put forward by his kids. He went for the sympathy vote - and along with his kids in front of the judges the tactic worked. But the past years have not been a success for his music either.

The giggling but still serious Allison Iraheta (third photo), with bright red hair and a wonderful smile, also belted out a great audition to earn a place at Hollywood. The thrill of American Idol is when a new talent is discovered and also when that talent has so much more than a safe, manufactured and commercial-only appeal.

Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta proved that the combination of the judges and the voting public can bring great singers into the public eye. While record sales and concert success have been huge for Adam and Allison, most of the 2009 finalists have been ignored by the paying public. That is the acid test. No matter what the judges say, and no matter who the voters on American Idol support, the talent and the passion have to be captured in the recording studio in the real world.

Queens Of British Pop was a two-part BBC series which presented 12 female singers and icons who have influenced British music from the Sixties to the present day. It is one of few music programs on the BBC in recent years to have much merit.

The first programme explored the lives and careers of Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw, Marianne Faithfull, Suzi Quatro (photo 1), Kate Bush and Siouxsie Sioux (photo 2). They are all female artists who pioneered some of Britain’s defining musical movements, from the Swinging Sixties through to glam rock and punk.

As well as the music, there were new interviews with iconic stars including Sandie Shaw, Suzi Quatro, Siouxsie Sioux, Annie Lennox and Leona Lewis. There were contributions from friends and fans, including Sir Tom Jones, Lulu, Burt Bacharach, Nancy Sinatra and Peter Gabriel.

After looking at how the first 6 defied and defined contemporary opinion and changing notions of pop femininity over the years, the show suggests how they helped shape and influence the next generation of female pop stars.

The second show takes viewers from the early Eighties to the present day, completing the odyssey by looking at the impact made by Annie Lennox, Alison Moyet, Kylie Minogue, Geri Halliwell, Amy Winehouse and Leona Lewis.

The 2-part series is a shining example of what music TV could be like.

Once again we have terrible and very low-grade marketing by the UK music industry. Lily Allen has a new song on release so what do we get? Yes, you guessed it - gutter slime marketing.

First, of course, is the topless photo. You may remember the last Allen single had her sending a topless photo “by mistake” to the lead singer of a very popular group. Then there was the topless photo is in a magazine and the “exclusive” marketing snippet that Allen fancies the lead singer of Snow Patrol.

The amazing thing is the transparency of these desperate UK attempts at “marketing” and the nasty cynicism of wannabes like Allen. So the *big news* this year - to coincide with another *music* release by Allen is the *shock* of her choosing a *stupid* name for a baby.

The UK music scene has been a laughing stock worldwide for the past 20 years. The big-business labels and the low talent they promote are a laugh. But the last laugh is on those “experts” and their in-the-pocket UK critics.

The best singing talent in the UK in the past 20 years has come from talent shows. People like Paul Potts and Leona Lewis. People that the big labels ignored and overlooked.