There was a time,
believe it or not, when the surest means of capturing the
enduring spirit of music from any calendar year would be by looking back over
the Top 40 Singles charts of that particular 12 months. Sadly, that time has
passed.
In 2002, all that you'll find are damning indictments of an industry gripped
by a contagious dose of arrogance, washed down with a chronic inability to
recognise and champion originality and variety. For the business end of the
pop music charts during 2002 have been characterised by overwhelming
blandness and cynicism, as well as a woeful lack of adventure. Having reduced
the charts themselves to a worthless marketing tool, the UK music industry
needed to find fresh impetus to maintain their corporate clout. With the
willing aid of an equally neutered and self-deluded media and radio network,
pop's profile within society as a whole - let alone youth culture - has risen
to saturation levels, bloated by its own hyperbole and aggressive promotion.
In broad terms, the year will be remembered for its TV-driven phenomena; Pop
Idol, Popstars:The Rivals and (to a lesser extent) Fame Academy. Pop has
somehow become indistinguishable from Showbusiness, its artistic and creative
currency reduced to karaoke wannabes made overnight "stars" by controlling
self-styled svengalis. As genuine individualism is muted across the
entertainment spectrum, and the bottom-dollar maxim exerts its hold, the
result is a great mass of generic ordinariness... and worse, a complete drop
in standards. Such is the desperate desire to gain the widest/biggest/most
lucrative audience; pop music (like television, magazines and radio) has
actively sought to aim for the lowest common denominator. Sex.
Hold on a moment, hasn't sex always been part of pop since rock'n'roll
exploded into life in the mid-1950s? Well, yes, but typically of current
trends, the boundaries have been pushed to the point where it's impossible to
tell where pop culture ends and pornography begins. By nature, pop is a
medium always searching for new thrills, and opportunities to shock.
Yet, infamous exploits from the past pale in comparison to the 2002 model of pop
music, both in its unabashed targeting of an ever-younger demographic and,
dispiritingly, its absolute absence of intellectual or social dynamic other
than to brazenly declare - through words and/or actions - "look at me", "I'm
feeling so horny", "I want to sleep with you" or "hey, we're having a party".
Previous generations of pop either addressed serious taboos or
discriminations, challenged political climates, or revelled in a sense of
wilful experimentation and endless possibilities. Today's incarnation can
claim none of these attributes.
Talent must surely be the most used and abused term in discussions and
appraisals of modern pop music. In a bizarre development, the Blues and
Liberty Xs of this world have been hailed as "true talents". To wit: they
can hold a tune (in an over-emoting, Mariah/Whitey way); hence they have
"real talent". They aspire to contribute a few platitudes of their own to the
committee-written, vacuous paeans to lurve or partying; hence they are a
"real talent".
If they can do both, and jig about in rigidly choreographed,
synchronised fashion in front of grinning, gurning goons... all the better;
they possess "star quality". As well as "real talent", of course. It would be
hilarious if such perceptions were not so earnestly applied as the gospel,
cleverly instilling in impressionable children and teenagers the idea that
being famous is now a desirable ambition in itself, and being competent in
the above disciplines will help you achieve this shallow goal.
Exploitation within the music industry has been rife throughout its
existence, from the old bluesmen of the 1930s and 40s onwards through
Beatlemania, Punk and Britpop, but at some point the exploited young
apprentices shifted the balance of power through creative achievements which
brought radical changes in attitude. One wonders where the next challenge to
the industry's current position of seemingly absolute power can come from.
The long-anticipated technological revolution, which they so feared, has
actually worked in their favour, merely presenting them with an immediate
worldwide audience only too eager to indulge in the shallow lifestyle
pursuits that the media serves up every minute of the day.
At its worst, the in-your-face bump'n'grind of Christina Aguilera's Dirrty,
Kiss Kiss and Down Boy by Holly Valance, Justin Timberlake's Like I Like You
signalled a brave new dawn for pop; a joyless, tune-free expression of lust
and incitement to "freak", as it's continually known these days. The
accompanying videos merely hammered home the clinical, airbrushed approach
and explicit posturing. Prince and Madonna, to name but two, made careers
from pushing sex to the forefront of their music and image, but they both had
proper songs and a powerful vision to carry it off. Lemmings to a man, the
entire industry succumbed to unnecessarily sexualisation of their entire
output, and the charts became a graveyard for any act unwilling or unable to
compete on these terms.
Casualties included the heavily-advertised Bellefire (Ireland's answer to
Wilson Philips) for whom two #18 entries with appealing soft pop-rock led to
being dropped by their label, as well as the old-fashioned BBMak (moderate
success in America proving no guarantee of similar achievements this side of
the Atlantic) and the formerly popular boy band A1. Attempting a more mature
sound, grounded in the classic songwriting traditions, they released a pair
of promising singles that sounded rather like BBMak and split before poor
sales left them without a record deal.
Sony Music's great white hope Steve Balsamo, the photogenic stage performer
from Wales ("are you sure it wasn't Michael J Fox with a beard? :)" - DVDfever Dom), also failed with the
glorious Sugar For The Soul and its less memorable follow-up All I Am Is You.
It no longer mattered how much money the major labels threw at launching
untried pop acts; the message from the public (or at least the charts, for
what they are worth) was and emphatic "no thanks". 2002's real successes only
deal in extremes; base instincts, undemanding concepts, dizzying artifice.
Good old pop songs aren't enough anymore, folks.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
