I am not as offended by Robbie as I might be. He has made half a dozen very decent singles. He is no more offensive than Rod post Atlantic Crossing.
It's his fans who drive me nuts.
Generally speaking they seem to be the same people who buy five records a year and swear by Quoasis and Coldplay. People for whom Florence, Muse or Massive Attack is a really edgy purchasing choice. It's that idea that something is good because it is huge and doubly so if you can participate in it on a mass Knebworth / Wembley / Hyde Park sing-a-long scale. Safety in stupidly big numbers.
Meanwhile how many records does someone like Rufus Wainwright sell? His most recent album hasn't even got to 20,000 in the US (a 10th of what he used to sell). This isn't just about music industry collapse it's about an intolerance for anything a bit difficult. There really is very little tolerance for music that makes demands and you would be shocked at how few records some of our most cherished sonic warriors actually sell.
Mars Volta (who, love them or hate them, I think we would all agree are pretty outre by contemporary standards) have very quickly gone from doing two nights at Brixton, to a 2/3rds full Somerset House, to one night at the Forum. That is some decline in support for a great live act who are true frontiersmen when you compare them with most Kerrang / NME fodder.
Seems to me that the mainstream hasn't been this dominant for decades and the left field and inovative has never been more marginalised. If you are picking up an electric guitar then edge is quicky becoming commercial death and being an all-round entertainer is the thing.At least in terms of record sales and tickets. There is really clever and unusual music that slips through the cracks and sells huge but it tends to be in dance music / electronica where the sonic explorations we expect from rock are seemingly much more possible without scaring the horses but even electronica has been a-wash with cliche recently. We live in mediocre times and things haven't felt so much like 1975 since er ... 1975. We all know what happened next but I am not holding my breath.
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