Robbie Williams

[clementine74]

Yeah, he needs to stop hurling himself at America. Never. Gonna. Happen. And this is coming from someone who adores him, but it's like he's beating his head against a wall, putting out albums that keep getting crappier and crappier, in the hopes that each one will strengthen his crossover. But no. I love him because he's ridiculous, and he should just keep being absurd, and his fans will stay fans, and yeah, so he probably won't get any new ones but such is life!

[LurkerNan]

Couldn't agree more! Whether or not you like Robbie (I love him, but anyway), you have to admit that Americans simply don't get satire or sarcasm.

Well, we have Weird Al, and I think everyone can agree he pretty much covers that description.

Being that the 80's were my formulative years, I'm predisposed toward loving all kinds of Europop. But I have never really appreciated Robbie Williams. Some of his songs are OK, but everyone keeps trying to paint him as this sexy devil, and I just don't see it. He's kind of PAB, the UK version.

[Karrit]

I have never been much of a RW fan, but his participation in this Little Britain sketch that he did for Comic Relief might make me change my mind!

[Deleted]

I literally have just left YouTube where I had been cruising through Robbie vids and here is this thread. Fantastic.

Rudebox is getting stuck in my head all the time. I'm wavering between begging my friend in Singapore to buy it for me or ordering from Amazon.uk, or Amazon Canada if they get it in- that's usually where I get his DVDs. I wasn't too impressed with Intensive Care but I've been a fan since the days of free Napster in the late 90s where I got every single there was.

ETA: I don't know much about Take That so I don't hold boybandness against him but he lost several cool points with me after watching the "Freedom" vid.

[Deleted]

I don't like a lot of his videos, but the Freedom video (and song, really) is especially lame.

you have to admit that Americans simply don't get satire or sarcasm.

This still blows my mind.

[indygirl]

Love the Little Ant and Little Dec interview with Robbie.

[Deleted]

But I have never really appreciated Robbie Williams. Some of his songs are OK, but everyone keeps trying to paint him as this sexy devil, and I just don't see it. He's kind of PAB, the UK version.

Yeah, I don't get the hype either. He is like PAB only his face is a lot scarier looking while PAB just has wuss face. If I had to choose though, Robbie's music would win by an infinitesimally narrow margin.

you have to admit that Americans simply don't get satire or sarcasm.

Jesus. This reminds me of when I criticized an American actor a long time ago and his fans all came back with 'Well you just aren't smart enough to get his wit or sarcasm.' But to generalize a whole country because they don't unanimously appreciate Robbiepoo?

Which reminds me, I need to go play in the crazy fandom thread. ;D

[pinkdog]

I don't think it's that Americans don't get him, I think it's that we haven't, as a culture, had him stuffed down our throats enough to have gotten a taste for him. We tend to like our pop culture really poked down our throats...we seem to expect giant media-mogul-birds to stuff little-fish-pospstars down our throats. JLo? Paris Hilton? Hillary Duff? See what I mean? So, I think Robbie's people just haven't been aggressive enough to make him a US star.

It's okay with me that he's not one, but I like to scrutinize my stars a lot (as if they are my own private playthings), and Robbie's not being a real star here makes it harder for me to do that.

[realitybug]

saying that Americans don't get satire or sarcasm? We're all dense and don't get any sort of veiled humor? Come on now. I'm not very patriotic at all, but damn, that burned. I get satire and sarcasm, thank you very much. I get Robbie and I get a kick out of him in person and all that.

I just think his music doesn't appeal to Americans to stick around. He had that one song in 2000 or so. That was good. I like alot of his songs and alot of them are misses for me as well. It does not appeal to mainstream America.

and the American public has its own idiosyncracies of stupidity.

Oh, its just not American public....I find alot of European pop music to be total crap. It's all about taste, you know. Where you come from. Robbie's sound does not appeal to mainstream America. It doesn't. He's going to have to change his sound, or just accept that he's not going to be popular here. Basically, Robbie, what you are doing....don't do that. Try something else.

It's not like he's lacking in popularity. Dude is a god everywhere else. Just not here.

[Deleted]

Going on a completely different tangent for a minute, I'm a huge Robbie fan...well, I don't really like him as a person. But I adore his music and he's a great onstage entertainer. So I was all kinds of excited when Australian TV decided to air his Leeds leg of the Close Encounter tour. When I sat down to watch it, it was so underwhelming. The set list sucked, way too many ballads and he didn't have that usual spark. His Australian leg sold out in about two seconds flat and after seeing the TV special, I know my friends are beginning to regret spending a hundred and sixty Australian dollars on prime seating.

His Live at Knebworth special though? All kinds of awesome.