sextonseven said:

It's true

These days music is more about visually stimulating your audience anyway!
With videos being hyper-sexed, and big name artists being splashed across the tabloids on a daily basis, ppl obviously don't give a damn about musicianship or creativity.

I mean, what got more press...Janet's last album or Janet's big weight loss?

You guys have to realize that a lot of this is a move by a desperate industry trying to sell any records to anyone in any way possible. They just want to sell records, they don't care how crappy the records are, and they know that if they put a chick with a hot ass on the cover and in the video, chances are SOME idiot will buy it.

And quite honestly, I haven't heard that many female singers lately, beautiful or otherwise, that I would qualify as genuinely talented. KT Tunstall is about the only one I can really think of that has come out more recently, and even she's been recording for a long time.
[Edited 5/25/07 23:12pm]

Milli Vanilli warn us all that IT'S The IMAGE, IMAGE IS EVERYTHING. But no one was listening! And now, look at the big mess the music industry has become. It's nothing but lip-synching eye-candies with a microphone.

thekidsgirl said:

ANSWER: Janet's T & A with a smile of course.

I really don't think it's THAT bad. How would Macy Gray have made it if looks were everything? Love her or hate her, she offers something different.

Even Britney - she shone and went further than Mandy Moore and Jessica Simpson. Once again, like it or not, her voice, however limited, is different and identifiable compared to them.

People bang on about American Idol and how Melinda should have won, but apart from carrying a decent tune, her voice isn't special.

thekidsgirl said:

Sad but true. We've become a "reality based" nation. People care more about other peoples' drama than their talent. I blame tv; specifically Mtv, since they started it.

I just thought of another example: Gabrielle the British singer. The woman's only got one eye now and before she lost it we never saw it cos she had eyepatches. She's never been considered sexy, the father of her child even beheaded a man with a sword which happened after her fame... why did she make it so big in the 90s? Because she had an interesting voice!!
[Edited 5/27/07 2:22am]

Ellie said:

It has already been acknowledged that there are exceptions. It's just no longer the rule. The mere fact that it takes you days to think of a few un-sexy artist that make it, speaks volume.

I still think it's only the allegedly "unattractive" singers with mundane boring voices that you can't really decipher from another that never make it. Walk in on any karaoke night and you'll find a big fat ugly woman belting her lungs out perfectly well - might be about 5-10 years too old for the American Idol cut-off age, but they're out there in abundance. They're just incredibly ordinary in voice and presence.

Ellie said:

Perhaps you should expose yourself to more than karaoke night.

BlaqueKnight said:

I blame the people, for giving this WHOLE bullshit a pass.

PurpleCharm said:

Well perhaps people thinking that Melinda not winning AI is a great injustice should listen to how bland her voice is first too.

thekidsgirl said:

Are you saying this body can't win any beauty contests???

Ellie said:

I know the article is primarily about Melinda, AI and the music industry, but really, I already told you that I have being saying this for YEARSSSSS. This article was not a revelation for me.

sextonseven said:

her hair looks like it weighs more than her

Fucking pathetic.

What an icredible double standard. Even in this age of looks before anything else, a woman has to be a smokin' hottie to get anywhere while men can still get away with being goofy looking or even downright ugly. (Are you listening, Chad Kroeger and Fiddy?)

If pop culture is truly a reflection of our society, then how can anyone, male or female, truly believe we've gained real sexual equality when female performers are valued more for their tits than their voices?

And as for this, With dwindling profits and budgets, record labels try to maximize artist exposure with clothing deals, cosmetic contracts, movie roles and modeling gigs. The answer is simple: YOUR PROFITS ARE DWINDLING BECAUSE YOUR PRODUCT FUCKING SUCKS, ASSWIPE! Stop blaming illegal downloading, and put the focus back on producing quality sound, and away from who's got shinier hair and a curvier ass. Your problems will sort themselves out.

Fuck....to think these people rake in the millions while my minimum wage ass just solved their business problems with a no-brainer.

guitarslinger44 said:

But if the records didn't suck they'd be selling! The sales are lagging so badly IMO not because people don't care about good music, but because they watch MTV to jack off to the latest Ciara or Beyonce, then go download something else when they're done that won't make their ears bleed.

Anyone seen the latest issue of NME?

Ellie said:

That's the singer from the band The Gossip? Wow.

Harlepolis said:

Yeah right, like ViaCON ever takes our negative criticisms seriously. We tell them they need to have MTV & VH-1 back to playing music videos 24/7 and this evil media empire is still showing freaking reality shows. And yet, they wanna cry foul and try to sue YouTube (for the second time & counting) because people are showing their favorite video classicss to the masses.

With that said, f*** ViaCON & the RIAA.