Robbie Williams

[eveschmeve]

Love him- I've said that before in this thread.

I've seen him live only once... I would love to see a full-blown concert of his, but sadly, I've only seen him do a 5 song set in NYC for the Tribeca Film Festival. There were some pretty big names there- Sean Paul, Jewel, The Roots, and Norah Jones- but Robbie stole the show. In fact, I saw many people just get up and leave after Robbie's set was over. Many people traveled from pretty far away (including me) to see him, but it was worth it!

[kayti2212]

I'm not a huge fan of his music, but I am a huge fan of him. He's fun, charismatic and everything a pop star should be. I always watch his live concerts whenever they're on; he's a very engaging performer and he sounds quite good live, too.

[Deleted]

I love Robbie. Even though I may not like every album or song I still love him and I'll always be a fan. I almost grew up with Take That and Robbie and hearing old songs in the radio there are always memories coming up...
Oh, and I don't think it's that Americans don't get irony or sarcasm or whatever. I think that Robbie's music just doesn't really appeal to the American market as it is. On the other hand (and please don't get this wrong, it's more about the publicity machine) it does seem as if it's the more bland British acts that make it big in the US, like Coldplay, Dido, Joss Stone or now James Blunt. All very harmless and vanilla but those acts are successful in Europe too so I wouldn't say that Americans only like bland stuff.

[Deleted]

I think it's a shame he never really made it big here in the US, I really like him. I agree he does seem like fun and he doesn't take himself too seriously.

[girlnamedcarl]

I think Robbie's something of a challenge, and the American audience, for whatever reason, doesn't respond to that very well. He's something of an unapologetic bastard in both his lyrics and his persona, but his songs are also loaded with self-loathing, which makes it more complicated. And the British slang probably doesn't help.

Usually I love his videos, but the ones I've seen for songs off of Intensive Care have got me scratching my head.

[Deleted]

Oooooh yes, his videos!! I love them even if some (ok, a lot) of them tend to be gross. But you can tell that he puts an effort into his videos and isn't afraid to do something different. I still love the Rock DJ video, that one was fun and I remember watching it for the first time, thinking: what the fuck is this man doing again?

[pinkdog]

Rock DJ still makes me want to throw up. I literally cannot watch it when he starts...you know what he does (in the unlikely event that someone in the thread has not seen the video I don't want to ruin it for them).

I'm totally fascinated by Rudebox and squeed when I first heard the line, "Well, you can ride with me if you can get me to the border; the sheriff's after me for what I did to his daughter." My friend was all, "What's so cool about that line? It's just sort of out of place" and I almost choked on my gum. Then I remembered that I'm about ten years older than my friend...stupid kids, not getting references...grumble...

She also didn't get the 808 State reference. Sigh. I guess I am old.

[Deleted]

kayti2212 said:

I'm not a huge fan of his music, but I am a huge fan of him. He's fun, charismatic and everything a pop star should be. I always watch his live concerts whenever they're on; he's a very engaging performer and he sounds quite good live, too.

He owns the stage, doesn't he? I like some of his songs, not all of them, but his shows are great. Here in South America, he's huge, he's coming on tour next month and all concerts are sold out.
And I agree that Jessica Simpson butchered Angels.
On the other hand, James Blunt? Also big here, but I. Hate. Him.

Edited because those two look the same to me, and are equally awful singers IMO.

[Deleted]

Yes, Pink Dog! I gasped when I heard that part, too! "No way..." then wondering where he was gonna stop. The video is for sale on iTunes which I thought was strange since I thought I had read that he had given up and wasn't planning on releasing the new CD over here.

I went to YouTube to look for the videos for Supreme and She's the One. Those are my favorites, but there are plenty I haven't seen if they weren't on any DVDs.

[SluttyMary]

solly79 said:

All very harmless and vanilla but those acts are successful in Europe too so I wouldn't say that Americans only like bland stuff.

But I think his music is very bland and boring. The only song of his I like is Supreme.

I saw him perform at some Danish awards show and he was awful...didn't even try.

I do think it's funny to watch old Take That videos...he was a skinny thing back then but cute enough. Now he does nothing for me.