Adele

[kathy1977]

I am really glad to see Adele getting so much attention. She is doing extremely well both critically and commercially.

Hopefully this means the tide is finally starting to turn in music. I know fun, mindless, over produced dance music sung by pretty, scantily dressed, non singing pop tarts will always be popular. But Adele is giving me hope that young people will start wanting to listen to something with a bit more substance.

[twodollars]

I think you may be on to something, kathy1977. Her album is doing incredibly well. It sold over 1mm copies in the US alone and she outsold Britney's 2nd week.

[prada]

I love her! She is so gorgeous too and not a stick figure which I respect.

[canuckcutie]

I think she's stunning. I am so jealous of her complexion and her coloring. I love that red hair/fair skin combination.

[Deleted]

Plus her album returned to the top spot on the Billboard chart bumping Short Bus to second place.

I wish she would add more dates to her tour. Her NYC show sold out in two minutes.

[canuckcutie]

They moved her show in Toronto to a much bigger venue to accomodate all the interest, 20,000 seats vs 2,500 seats and the tickets were literally gone within seconds. So disappointed.

[MrsCatHead]

I'm glad she's on the cover but I wish they'd shown her full body. I was watching some of her videos cuz, I admit, I've not even heard of her until I saw this thread (that's how non-current my music interests are). In the videos that I saw, she's not dancing or moving around. Hell, in one, she sits the entire time.

[Strawberry]

Wow.

Just watched the video for "Rolling in the Deep" for the first time and just...wow.

It's nice to see someone become famous for actual talent and passion rather than for all their stupid gimmicks *cough*gaga*cough*.

You know what else? [commence rant] It really pisses me off that gaga is validating unhealthy body images by saying she purposefully showed off her body and sexuality to get noticed when we can see plain as fucking day in Adele that a normal sized woman can have an impact on society and on people without being a size 0 and flashing her cootchie. Suck it, caca.

[Coffeecakes]

Apr 17, 2011 1:49:07 GMT -4 Strawberry said:

Wow.

Just watched the video for "Rolling in the Deep" for the first time and just...wow.

It's nice to see someone become famous for actual talent and passion rather than for all their stupid gimmicks *cough*gaga*cough*.

You know what else? [commence rant] It really pisses me off that gaga is validating unhealthy body images by saying she purposefully showed off her body and sexuality to get noticed when we can see plain as fucking day in Adele that a normal sized woman can have an impact on society and on people without being a size 0 and flashing her cootchie. Suck it, caca.

Amen to this. I really loved what she said in her Rolling Stone interview. She stated that she made her music for the ears, not for the eyes. Her music for the ears is beyond awesome.

[Karen]

It's great when something non-trendy is a hit because it shows that it's possible for the industry to be at least a little more diverse musically and it means people whose looks or style aren't the norm have a better chance of being heard. There will be more to choose from, then. But in many places, it feels like Adele's success is a way to bash artists who are talented in different ways.

Music for the ears, great, but I also want music for the feet, music that makes me want to move and have fun. And if music for the feet is presented with a spectacle for the eyes, that's great too. If the only way to be talented was to sing your own songs about breakups while standing in one spot, I'd riot. That's too narrow for me, and so dismissive of the idea that pop can be good. Why does an artist "deserve" the cover (something that comes up in Rolling Stone's comments and elsewhere) only if she is interested in vocals alone? I guess Madonna was a loser for putting effort into her music videos and trying to be culturally relevant even though she didn't have a stellar voice.

Adele herself mentions Lady Gaga and Katy Perry in those RS quotes without trashing them, and I like her approach: doing one kind of music doesn't mean that there's no worth in others. Lady Gaga is a particularly bad choice of artist to use when praising Adele in order to criticise the current music industry. She's not an empty vessel like Britney. She writes her songs, she devotes time and effort to her constantly changing gimmicks, and she works hard. People may feel that she and her songs are insufferable and question her actual level of talent, but I don't see how her passion and hard work can be denied (similarly, I can't stand how Christina Aguilera uses her voice and would much rather listen to several weaker singers, but I'm not going to claim she doesn't have a voice because I don't like her). The argument would be stronger if the artist used as Adele's counterexample was currrent Britney (zero passion) or one of the interchangeable Pussycat Dolls type singers (dull gimmicks). But you can't become a global star without a lot of passion (Lady Gaga, Madonna), an exceptionally good gimmick that stands out from the rest (early Britney) or hugely memorable songs that for better or worse defined the moment in pop (all three).

So, I think Someone Like You is a great song and captures that feeling of heartbreak and regret, but I'm absolutely against the idea that it's the only way for a song to have substance or the only way for real talent to be expressed. Great pop also requires talent, whether from the people responsible for the lyrics and melody or the dance/spectacle-focused performer giving it her all before the audience.