whackjester
Acrobat
Here's an excerpt from an MSN article:
On the music he listens to today, musical roots and the "American Idol" factor:
My taste has always been very narrow in that if I go into a record store, I will always try and single out one thing to listen to because of the overwhelming amount of choice. Of all the things that have come out in the last five years, the only one that has really interested me to any great extent has been David Gray. It's quite easy to home in on. It fits my criteria. I am not particularly a fan of groups. I don't particularly understand the group ethic. I was never really mad on the Beatles or the Stones anyway when I was a kid.
My only experience of being in a group was Cream and the Yardbirds. But then, when I really wanted to play, it had to be me. If you went through my record collection, you would find records by individuals more than anything else.
I can't tell, from just listening, the difference between Coldplay and U2. They sound the same. What worries about what's going on right now is that people don't really know where it's all come from, and I don't suppose they're that interested. I heard that guy from Coldplay saying that Richard Ashcroft was the greatest singer that had ever lived singing the greatest song that had ever been written, and I think, well ... I think he probably meant it. But I think what it shows is how incredibly detached all the current stuff is from its roots. It's all become very disconnected. Then again, you've got the marketplace of it, which is, you know, Simon Cowell [judge on TV's "American Idol"]. That's the face of popular music today. That's where the power of music is right now. It sits with Simon Cowell and Coldplay and U2, who are really people who attend awards shows. That's what they do. I don't have anything against them; I just wouldn't want to listen to them.
http://music.msn.com/crossroads/interview
On the music he listens to today, musical roots and the "American Idol" factor:
My taste has always been very narrow in that if I go into a record store, I will always try and single out one thing to listen to because of the overwhelming amount of choice. Of all the things that have come out in the last five years, the only one that has really interested me to any great extent has been David Gray. It's quite easy to home in on. It fits my criteria. I am not particularly a fan of groups. I don't particularly understand the group ethic. I was never really mad on the Beatles or the Stones anyway when I was a kid.
My only experience of being in a group was Cream and the Yardbirds. But then, when I really wanted to play, it had to be me. If you went through my record collection, you would find records by individuals more than anything else.
I can't tell, from just listening, the difference between Coldplay and U2. They sound the same. What worries about what's going on right now is that people don't really know where it's all come from, and I don't suppose they're that interested. I heard that guy from Coldplay saying that Richard Ashcroft was the greatest singer that had ever lived singing the greatest song that had ever been written, and I think, well ... I think he probably meant it. But I think what it shows is how incredibly detached all the current stuff is from its roots. It's all become very disconnected. Then again, you've got the marketplace of it, which is, you know, Simon Cowell [judge on TV's "American Idol"]. That's the face of popular music today. That's where the power of music is right now. It sits with Simon Cowell and Coldplay and U2, who are really people who attend awards shows. That's what they do. I don't have anything against them; I just wouldn't want to listen to them.
http://music.msn.com/crossroads/interview
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