McCartney will be the only one I will pay any attention to, but I probably will have my mouth under the beer tap during halftime at the Super Bowl party I'm going to, so I won't get to hear any of them. U2? yuk-a-mundo. Never liked their overblown theatrics. Q: How many "Bonos" does it take to change a lightbulb? A: One. He climbs the ladder, holds onto the lightbulb, and the world turns around him.
Any artist that does the Super Bowl halftime show to begin with, must not have too much integrity. Not saying there's anything wrong with it at all, but if it was purely about "the art", you wouldn't participate in this sideshow to begin with.
Hey now, the Ladies aren't that bad, for what they are. You were joking about their choreographed dance steps, right? They are the opposite of the pop star stereotype, anti-pop stars, if you will. They're just a bunch of frumpy, middle-class, high-school-band-geek, Canucks who play music and have fun. This is not high art. This is let your hair down, pull the stick out of your butt, lighten up and dance, music. Having said that, I don't own any of their music, but I find their approach a refreshing change. RMT: lol! I like U2, but that's funny.
Well, there is some truth to this, however, one of my favorite musicians stories was that I saw Al DiMeola and World Sinofia at Rockefellar's years ago (his acoustic project - he's a famous Latin jazz fusion guitarist for those who don't know) and I spoke with his percussionist after the gig. Being that DiMeola isn't exactly the Backstreet Boys in terms of popularity and that he is playing fairly obscure artistic music, you could argue that he is not in it for the money at all. Anyway, I asked the percussionist who played drums on the last record and he said, "Synclavier," basically meaning they programmed the drums. This was, oh, around 90 when drum machines were what was used on many pop jazz records to make them sound so slick and radio (or weather channel) friendly. I said, "Really?" sounding surprised that a fusion record would do something so un-artistic and he said, "Hey, man, you gotta keep up with the times. Art don't pay the rent." I have NEVER forgotten that statement because it really is true. You can either be an artist and struggle (or even starve) for it or you can give in, even if it is just a little, and support yourself and your family. It is the nature of commercialism in music today.
Money talks and lately it feels like U2 is selling out to it. They sold out every leg of their Elevation tour with seats going for $80 (I know supply and demand, but this isn't N'Sync, its U2 - the people's band). The general admission was a crock to make it sound like they were being generous to loyal fans. Many people knock Bono for talking about debt relief, AIDS research etc. in 3rd world countries (very good causes that more people with his stature should get involved in) while he is asking the average fan to spend a lot of $$$$ just to see him play. I disagreed with the U2 is greedy notion but now I'm rethinking it.
