Posts by mark taslov
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Hard News: Friday Music: Some Year, in reply to Russell Brown,
I can see that you might not exactly agree with the comment you quoted Mark
Yeah, I have no clue, that comment was just something I encountered and is obviously (mis)informed by ambiguity in the way Lorde has been marketed – speculation fueled. This emphasis on Ella as child prodigy from a literary family is almost inviting the reaction of that commentator, not in the least helped by, as noted incorrectly, the *4* year period between signing and the unveiling . The music stands up by itself IMHO.
I am likewise enjoying the discussion, Ella, Joel, this work, and the phenomenon it’s created is far more deserving of further analysis than so much pulp we’re served.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Some Year, in reply to mark taslov,
Most cynically expounded on in this comment under the Ann Powers piece:
You’re correct in thinking that Lorde is more like Alanis Morrissette than Kurt Cobain, but unfortunately not for the reason you probably intended. Morrissette was as much a manufactured record industry creation as Lorde is. Alanis was also discovered as a teen, paired up with producers and songwriters from the record company, given songs to sing, and given an “edgy” persona to go with it. Lorde is no different. Her music was all written by her co-writer, a 30 year old named Joel Little, and her lyrics are likely mostly his work as well. So, the same industry that brought you Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, and Lana Del Rey are now bringing you Lorde. The backstory of her being “just a kid” who writes her own songs is completely silly. No “kid” gets signed to a record label at 12 years old, is groomed for 5 years, and creates their own destiny. These things are planned to the very last detail, for the maximum impact and highest sales. It’s working too, just like they always do. Good for Lorde, and the album sounds really good for what it is, but the whole “voice of a generation” thing is nonsense. She’s as much a voice of her generation as Justin Bieber is. Again, another kid discovered young, mentored by the recording industry, and given songs to sing and an image to go with it.
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Elton John/Bernie Taupin partnership
Sorry I was busy – And yes, that shoe does fit a lot more comfortably Ian, it does appear to be Ella’s brand which isn’t a great departure from what I mentioned earlier:
The solo artist via team, filling the charts with commercials for their moniker
A butler Alfred and a Lucius Fox behind every Batman, in contrast to Gotye who broke that mold entirely. Something that was not fully followed up on in the way Lorde was marketed. And so in a sense, creatively at least;
is it a dual entity?
remains the great unanswered question...compared to say Janice Ian.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Some Year, in reply to Danielle,
Read the teenage girls’ tweets
That doesn’t sound like something I’d be too keen on truth be told ;)
“The men don’t know, but the little girls understand.”
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t find cissexual assumption helpful or particularly relevant. perhaps best left in the 1940s – the assumption. The tune is great.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Some Year, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
– Ella does the words and vocals and Joel Little does the music,
Yeah, despite the marketing angle, It's hard to be quite sure how cut and dried that is since this quote that Russell posted:
She works with producer Joel Little whom she credits with turning her "pages and pages of something" into song form. "You know how Raymond Carver had Gordon Lish, the editor who made him what he was? I feel like Joel was that for me.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Some Year, in reply to Russell Brown,
That would be a fair call. But I would strongly contend you’d pick ‘Royals’ out of any lineup too.
Certainly, no question about it.
But pop’s never been about “just the music…She looks different and she sounds different when she opens her mouth. When teenage girls respond to those things, it makes a difference.
I’d always figured Adele might inspire a similar response amongst white teens, as I said;
is absolutely massive, no question about it, both in terms of pop music and western pop culture.
So I’m quite happy with the amendment you made there Russell.
With regards to Nirvana, and particularly this lyrical focus;
“Teen Spirit” revitalized the idea of what rock could be. Sneaking in, “Royals” suggests that pop can have deeper layers. Nirvana lobbed a Molotov into the charts. Lorde released a virus
I’m strongly inclined to agree. Virus is the word. Personally I’m missing something in the detail, in the sense that when Nirvana broke with that track it didn’t sound like remotely like anything else that had climbed that high in the charts, at least for a long long time. There was an audible shift, and it influenced a world of music, Beijing had a massive punk scene when I first arrived there.
That the bulk of Royal’s subversion is specifically lyrical means that to the majority of the world who don’t speak English, especially in developing countries, it doesn’t sound that much different to music already being made and so this subversion will take a lot longer to make its impact. For native English speakers and countries with a long association with the language and culture I guess that’s an easy thing to overlook. It’s Dylanesque. but there’s no moonwalk.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Some Year, in reply to Russell Brown,
Read the teenage girls’ tweets
That doesn’t sound like something I’d be too keen on truth be told ;) But dealing specifically with just music if possible, the big game changer there as I recall was Beck’s Loser in 1993, written and recorded by Beck and producer Carl Stephenson while he was visiting Stephenson’s home, reaching No 1 in U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock and 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Obviously that’s by no means as massive as 2 and 1/2 months holding out all else, but I’m pretty sure you could pick that song out of a line up.
But that was a different era, as you say, almost everything else that ‘Royals’ jostled with at the top of the charts is a product of songwriting factories. The issue though is that it wasn’t jostling with Gotye and New Zealander Kimbra’s sparse hit ‘Somebody that I used to know’ which did the rounds a while before finally settling at number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks in early 2012, also reaching that position in 27 other territories, it won 2 grammys (Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Record of the Year) and was recorded in a barn
If axes do indeed shift, then this was it.And we know someone who’s gonna love that I posted that ;)
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Speaker: Levelling the Playing Field, in reply to Rob Stowell,
there’s a significant audience out there.
Yeah, a couple of companies Youku and QQ launched pay versions (first 10 mins free) this year but we and I imagine most people would simply choose another film and wait a couple of months -when in Rome.
All free?
Some of those multinational advertisers like BMW and Cartier look fairly ambitious given our circumstances.
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Yes, and these are not on shitty websites reserved for most recent US releases . The top hit for Black Sheep is on Baidu player, Baidu being ‘China’s Google’, many of the other links are on either tudou or 56 or PSS, all big players with multinational advertisers.
If something is already in place then it only makes sense to be showing high res versions of these films.
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ETA, I hope I didn’t kill this thread, Back in July Simon Grigg linked to Youku-Tudou Launches ‘Sharing Plan’. I assumed something must be in place, as plenty of New Zealand films are still available for free while US releases are becoming increasingly restricted. Given the FTA I assumed there must be a way that the New Zealand film industry can or are maximizing on the audiences available in this single 1.3b person territory, and that MFAT would be doing their job protecting New Zealand IP and ensuring you get bang for your buck;) Your films alone have well over 1M views Jonathan.