Are boy/girl bands "over" when this happens...?

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... A UK anti-smoking features does a pretty accurate parody girl band called Stinx, who keep smoking all the time, and consequently keep running out of puff trying to catch up with some group of boys. (Who are all non-smokers and don't want to mess with the girls anyway)

Then the advert becomes so popular in Scotland, that there's talk of single being released... Now people are seriously talking of the "joke" girl band single not only charting, but going top 10 in Scotland- right up there with Westlife and Hear'Say!!!!!

Old Fart!!!!

― Old Fart!!!!, Tuesday, 13 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't see anything particularly wrong with that - the song in question is much better than Westlife or Hearsay, so what's the problem? Good message for the kids as well.

― Ally C, Tuesday, 13 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually, I don't think there's anything wrong with the Stinx single as such. Matter of fact, thhey seem to have spent some effort on the tune, unlike a certain Irish band we could mention. ;) And it's certainly preferable too the dull-as-dishwater Hear'Say effort. (The most singularly boring single I have heard since Coldplay's "Yellow", and that takes some effort!)

Anyway. The quality of the Stinx song is fine, but that's not what I was really talking about. What I find significant about the situation is that a well-executed parody single is being seriously talked of as a bona-fide competitor to the genre it parodies! It reminds me of the business in the late 80s when Spitting Image virtually killed off Black Lace's chart success after they pre-empted the Lace's annual "summer hit" with their own parody "The Chicken Song", which acheived what Black Lace themselves failed to do- get to number 1. :)

If a parody band can be popular enough to take on the genre it parodies- what does that say about the health of the genre itself?

Old Fart!!!

― Old Fart!!!!, Tuesday, 13 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

how soon we forget last summer when mtv- created boy band parody '2gether' was at the top of TRL. at the time i predicted that the near future would bring an mtv in which all on-air music was just created by the network. but this anti-smoking thing is way weirder.

― ethan padgett, Tuesday, 13 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What this indicates is the ability of the genre to absorb pretty much any comment on it - i.e. 2Gether, Popstars etc - should it want to. Purely hostile comment - along mostly predictable lines - is just ignored: it's the height of hubris for, say, Damon Albarn to imagine that any A1 fan cares what he has to say about the state of the charts.

Aesthetically teenpop is running out of steam fast, I reckon, but the genre won't be "over" until the buyers get bored of it. In the UK charts, recent low placings for A1, the Backstreets and Dream hint that that day might be coming.

― Tom, Tuesday, 13 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The irony is a tad too perfect for my taste, but it's still funny, and I'm sure the anti-smoking council doesn't have as good a sense of humor as I.

― JM, Tuesday, 13 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The problem, of course, with the advert is that the band actually look really cool. Part of this is because they're all slyly smoking throughout the video. If I was a Stinx fan I'd like to smoke to be like them.

― Greg, Tuesday, 13 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

fourteen years pass...

Mix by OLD FART
Engineered OLD FART
Mastered by OLD FART
Cover by OLD FART
OLD FART says:"LISTEN!!! Using your EARS!!!
Except if you don't like NAUGHTY WORDS!!!!
Because a couple of the tracks might
jolly well WIND YOU OFF!!!!!!"

― D-4(y)0 (wins), Saturday, 25 July 2015 23:25 (nine years ago)

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