jarvis cocker "pop is dead"

Haven't people been saying this about pre-fab pop, since, well, the Motown girl group era?

Actually,no! Since Frank Sinatra!

Since the birth of recorded music!

Pop music has always been an industrialised process.

I'm glad of Pop-X-factor-stars adacemy, as it makes it plain.

If people want to do it differently, that's what to do it differently from.

xpost exactly.

Many years from now:

"wow, do you remember all those talent shows? They'd sing Abba songs! Grease! Elvis! Beatles! How old fashioned/naff it all seems now!"

i thought jarvis cocker was dead

Jarvis Cocker really should fuck off and do more adverts for multinational banks.

weirdly i think pop is more alive than ever. im more worried about everything else.

As a wealthy tax exile in Paris I would say that Cocker has forfeited the right to comment about anything like this and should shut the fuck up before he makes an even bigger embarrassment of himself than he has done over the last year or so.

well that's something.

people who worry more about pop than about 'everything else' worry me.

xpost

At least Cocker goes after the tough targets. First Razorlight, then The X-Factor. I'm eagerly awaiting a stinging attack on Milli Vanilli by the year end.

(particularly in view of his fondness for up-to-date cutting edge acts like Motorhead and the Jesus and Mary Chain) (self xpost)

JARVIS BLASTS VIDEO CULTURE
"I can't get my Betamax to work."

Downloading: all well and good but you CAAAAN'T HOLD IT IN YOUR HAND EH

ah look.

He's still in that position where someone asks him a question "so what do you think of x factor" or suchlike, and his response is headline news.

These things always remind me of John Lennon's book, where vox-pop interviewer asks people on the street about various things, and they all answer back "but on the other hand, who are we to judge? I mean, who are we?"

I kinda feel like you should go after the Guardian and/or RFH for continuing to hold him up as this enduring pop-intellect Great British Figure, rather than the guy who gets asked questions and offers pat but, really, not very outlandish opinions

guh xpost

He's still in that position where someone asks him a question "so what do you think of x factor" or suchlike, and his response is headline news.

is this actually in the paper (i'm betting it isn't actually a headline) or on one of the guardian's blogs though? they seem to have a lot of space to fill. they do it all for us.

Also I really want to get to the Devo thing

My guess this is from his front page Radio Times interview this week. Can't they go back to putting John Thaw on the cover each week?

I'm going to the Devo thing. Would like to go and see up-to-date cutting edge acts Motorhead and the Jesus and Mary Chain as well, but not at seated venue for £45.

JARVIS COCKER BLASTS MODERN DAY COP SHOWS: "I find that a lot of police dramas on TV nowadays use actors rather than real policeman which detracts from the power of a good cop show. When I was growing up, people like Bodie, Doyle, and Dixon all meant so much more than any Gene Hunt ever could"

JARVIS SAYS "I LOVE POP MUSIC"
"It was terrible that it was kept off the top by Bright Eyes."

Seriously, though, why does the media continue to give any space to this clapped-out one hit wonder? What next - Althia and Donna on the Putin nuclear threat?

ironydetector.jpg

JARVIS BLASTS "THIS NEEDLESS WAR"
"I mean, it's only a few sheep, isn't it? The Argies might have a point, you know."

get used to it chaps, old-timers like bryan ferry and david bowie and john lydon and and and still get column inches, and they still seem to have years left in them. we have, what? 40 more of jarv, potentially.

My definition of hit:

a track that you can play to most anyone and they will say "ah that's ....." and be correct.

Jarv = "Common People", "Disco 2000" and that's two.

babies goddammit

if you sang "you could be my girlfriend, yay yay yay yeah yeah yeah" to yr mum, would she go "bzzz: Pulp!" in a pub quiz?

"most anyone" not "indie kids" Louis

No, she'd section me for attempted incest (xpost).

Ask the man in the street and they'll say:
(a) Michael Jackson, arse
(b) Britpop
(c) Common People
(d) who?

In tomorrow's Guardian: Scatman John's views on the McCann search.

COCKER BLASTS LACK OF RESPECT IN MODERN DAY BRITAIN
"The Aretha version was number eleven this week in 1967 but Dale didn't play it."

that's you, that is!

ok ok, hes taking easy potshots... BUT is he that wrong? whats on mainstream music programmes and on the radio is fucking boring. i know cos i have to listen to radio 1 all day at work. its soul destroying. then again, radio 1 has probably been soul destroying for decades.

COCKER BLASTS RADIO ONE
"Can't they get someone a bit younger than Jimmy Young in the mornings?"

He has a point that reality TV pop shows aren't set up to reward idiosyncratic vocalists. But on the other hand the UK indie sector isn't producing that many memorable new vocalists anyway - Arctic Monkeys fella I suppose counts but then who?

Also the last time there was this much music from the "independent sector" getting into the Top 40 was....Britpop!

COCKER BLASTS BRITPOP
"The Love Affair don't play on their own records!"

Jarvis Cocker, winner of Stars In Your Eyes, having a go at X-Factor lolz

Haven't people been saying this about pre-fab pop, since, well, the Motown girl group era?

JARVIS BLASTS MANUFACTURED POP
"I got a scratch on my Corgi Monkeemobile and the newsagent wouldn't give me my money back waah!"

# of singles by Reality TV winners in current UK Top 40: zero.

# of singles by stars in yr eyes winners in current UK Top 40: zero.

Pop Idols/Fame Academy/American Idol whatevah aren't half as omnipresent on the charts as people seem to think; I can still go through hours of MTV without seeing a talent show contestant. Plus really before they were around you'd have just as many generic blah ballads, these shows have only really succeeded in putting that sort of music into focus enough for people to whine in more concrete terms.

xpost what Groke said

haven't people been using the trite motown example as a counterpunch since, well, the motown-era. oh yes. and it still blows.

I agree. There are decades and decades of post-Motown awesome manufactured pop to hold up as examples instead!

The last appearance by a Stars In Their Eyes winner in the UK top 40 was last December, when "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen vs Miami Project saw a placement for SITE's 2000 winner Freddie Mercury.

(I don't mean that Motown blows, of course, just saying that there have been hundreds of awesome pre-fab teen idols both before and after the Motown heyday.)

COCKER BLASTS STARS IN THEIR EYES
"That Just Jackson record has nothing to do with the programme I was on. I say, bring back Karl Denver!"

hang on.

So, the last hit single that has "Queen" as artist, actually features a freddie mercury impersonator?

in (semi)defence of jarvis, do you think that *english* pop music has lost (some of) its own voice/distinctiveness? and that the music he grew up on had this characteristic of 'englishness', and thats what he is missing?

tough shit innit. times change.

I dunno 696, it seems to me there's quite a lot of self-consciously English music around atm: Lily A, Arctic M, Kaiser C etc etc to name the really obvious ones.

Well, again, if someone asks you "what do you think of reality TV pop shows", what do you say?

1) yeah
2) noh
3) goh awaie

?

I mean, which of the acts in today's single lists fit with that description?

Coldplay and shit like that.

So, Sol Cambell is a highly respected acts with lots of musical skills, writing his own song, having a lot of artistic control over his own output, and receiving a combination of great sales and critical acclaim at the same time? Like Beatles, Bowie and 10cc, I mean?

-- Geir Hongro,

i think you've described him pretty well actually. though i think the other riverboat gamblers deserve credit too, its kind of a collaborative thing, right the way across the back four, i wouldn't say its a one man show by any means

i think its harsh to say he has just the one song though. they have 2 really, the upbeat one, and the slow one, but you can say that about most bands

Sol Campbell is first and foremost a great football player. Period.

working with producer harrington redknapp gaves his career a new lease of life id say.

Coldplay and shit like that.

Coldplay are an albums phenomenon more than a singles one. And while their albums tend to get good reviews (if the reviewer has a positive attitude towards that genre, which he usually does), they do get a lot of shit from other critics who are not at all into the genre.
So, no, Coldplay aren't the Beatles or Bowie of today. Even though they would have deserved to.

in addition to the riverboat gamblers, i would say the band Coldplay fit this bill. Haven't really seen anybody refute this so i think they're a good bet

Last night I had a little altercation
They wobbled menacingly
Beneath the yellow street light
It became a situation
Well, they wanted my brand-new phone
with all the pictures of the kids and the wife
A struggle ensued and then
Fat children took my life

^^^ lyric of the year, Jarvis Cocker, I kiss you.

What year? 1861?

That is a terrible song, made worse by the pro-eugenics rant in the next verse.

He's a rich bastard who lives in Paris and doesn't pay any taxes - what the fuck does he know about Tottenham, or did he just pick that at random out of Damien Hirst's chauffeur's London A-Z?

How unsurprising that when he actually did like pop music and wrote great songs he was still living in Sheffield. These days he probably gets his butler to tuck in him at ten p.m. sharp.

Yknow, you can live in Paris and make great pop songs...

http://members.iinet.net.au/~michaelbolger/mp3/Gainsbourg_presentgun.jpg

"Mr Cocker - you're no Serge Gainsbourg."

man like Carlin has boasted of his salary and put down others for not earning as much in the past - will he engage butler upon merging incomes? shock probe forthcoming on Cocker's blog.

"in the past"

well, quite.

my butler has a signed photo of bob lind. eat that jarvs.

I can barely imagine hating Jarvis Cocker.

Once upon a time, people could barely imagine hating Gary Glitter.

naah, people have always hated GG.

obligatory Hitler mention

Cocker is steering clear of Dumbo on the night, leaving the elephant-inspired tunes to singer Beth Orton. Instead he will perform one of Disney's best-loved sing-a-long numbers, I Wanna Be Like You from The Jungle Book.

the pro-eugenics rant in the next verse

overstatement of the day, i think :)

Carlin's in an over-statement contest with himself on this thread.

http://craigboldman.com/04%20-%20Fear%20of%20Success.gif

Cocker is steering clear of Dumbo on the night, leaving the elephant-inspired tunes to singer Beth Orton. Instead he will perform one of Disney's best-loved sing-a-long numbers, I Wanna Be Like You from The Jungle Book.

-- Mark G, Friday, June 8, 2007 4:05 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Will he? What in.

I can imagine this will probably be quite good.

Oh, his Disney night at the Royal Festival Hall.

Google "Doherty" and "Disney" for more info.

Once upon a time, people could barely imagine hating Gary Glitter.

Other than the critics you mean? After all, they hated him in the 70s already.

cite your references, Geir.

overstatement of the day, i think :)

Oh rly?

"Oh, the parents are the problem
Giving birth to maggots without the sense to become flies"

Yeah, working class solidarity eh Jarvo? Pillock.

It's a joke ya fule.

...plus "working class solidarity" is bullshit.

It's a good job Jarvis didn't call for that in any of his songs oh wait.

Cocker made a career out of banging on about it.

xpost

Fair enough.

But who believed him?

When you see the full Radio Times interview, it's clear he was asked his opinion about a range of topics - and he also says re: TV talent shows:

"I can't say I'm annoyed about it. It's just changed. I'm old. For me to get annoyed would be like a pensioner being annoyed Glenn Miller is no longer in the charts. Things move on"

ilx's take on 'working class solidarity' is always a joy.

It's a joke ya fule.

yeah no shit, it's this surreal little story about how fat children are more than fat, they're actually DANGEROUS. Of course it's a joke. Do you also think the Irish should eat their children?

here is el jarv in today's 'independent on sunday': "Kids nowadays are better off financially, but worse off spiritually. I think if you have to rely on government intervention then that's a sad state of affairs. There are certain times when they have to intervene, but it's up to the parents, really. I blame the parents every time. I know what they're like -- I am one."

so home-schooling and rudimentary medical care all-round.

Also: "I think Britain on the whole is an integrated place - there's just pockets that have people who aren't tolerant". Good to see him pick that up from living in Paris.

south bank show on jarvis tonight.

This thread reminds me of the good old days when Marcello used to accuse John Peel of being an washed-up irrelevance whose comments about his wife were worthy of the Taliban, until the point when he suddenly died and became a hero again.

This documentary shows that JARVIS COCKER has NOT FORGOTTEN HIS ROOTS and has OPINIONS 4 U regarding STUFF.

That was actually a bit painful to watch.

An avuncular Melvyn Bragg smiles indulgently, but half-heartedly, as Jarvis tries to rely on charm to cover up his thin and inarticulate interview responses.

Gary Glitter was until his ill-advised trip to PC World pretty much loved and cherished, particularly by students.

Glenn Miller was in the charts in 1976, the year of punk.

it is unfortunate that jarvis is now thought of in the same way that glitter is, but really, he only has himself to blame in the end

Yeah, what a bastard. I even heard his computer files at home contained criticisms of Simon Cowell, and a 2007 Best-Of list that only contained 3 albums before being abandoned. Twat.

Gary Glitter was until his ill-advised trip to PC World pretty much loved and cherished, particularly by students.

by 'pretty much' you mean...?

When I was a student in the late 80s, Gary Glitter tribute acts were the most popular draw on the University circuit.

I had tickets (won as a prize) for what turned out to be GazGlit's final UK gig.

Didn't go.

When I was a student in the late 80s, Gary Glitter himself was a popular draw on the University circuit. I don't recall any tributes.