Zare said:
Eurovision == piece of shit. 3 minute commercial bullshit songs with "i love you, you don't love me, tralalala" lyrics, uninventive cheesy music, stupid stage performance and all about the benjamins.
Music that i listen to, metal music that i like, is completely opposite to all the stuff written above. Therefore, i hate to see some band trying to do "hard rocking" on the ESC. They could be death metal drop-d chopping and growling all over the place, once they hit that stage they become pop music.
Thank you and good night.
I suppose you're entitled to your opinion, but I think it's incredibly closed-minded. (Note that I am referring here to pop music in general, not Eurovision specifically, as I've never seen Eurovision.) There have been many
great pop music songs over the years. Hundreds. It sounds to me like you're dismissing the entire genre, and I think that's a bad idea. Many pop songs have great melodies, and (admitted, less often) interesting chord progressions or song structures. Just because a song is 3 minutes long and aimed at making teenage girls dance doesn't mean it can't be inventive.
As to "all about the Benjamins" - first, Ben Franklin was a great man. Show some respect and capitalize his name.
Second, one way to make money in the music business is to make great music. So the pursuit of commercial success should not be entirely dismissed, as it sometimes yields great songs. Granted, such events are much rarer than when artists play what's in their soul for its own sake, but it does happen. You're more likely to see such things if you give pop music a chance.
Let me provide one specific example. If you've never heard of Lou Pearlman, he was the fat bastard behind the boy band craze of the late 90s. Read
this for more - he really was a slimy bastard, as the article tells, and he's now been sentenced to 30 years in jail for his slimy deeds. If you do read that, you'll see he was all about the money and nothing else. (OK, also molesting the boys in his bands, but certainly he didn't care about the music.)
And yet, one of his bands - the Backstreet Boys - had massive success with a song called "I Want It That Way". I personally think the song is terrible, but I've read many "best pop songs of the 90s" lists which place this song at or near the top. Millions of people love it
as a song - not because of the group who sang it, but because they like the lyrics and melody. I'm
not saying good music should be entirely decided by popular vote, but when millions of people love a song, you have to think the songwriters and singers did
something right.
And how does a metal band suddenly become a pop band because they appear on the same stage as pop bands? That's the kind of ignorant attitude that suggests you'll take any any excuse to call any band a sell-out. It's not selling out when a band seeks wider exposure or greater financial success. Musicians have to make money like anyone else, and they want to make a lot of money if they can. It ONLY becomes selling out when a band abandons their preferred style of music to achieve this goal.
An example of a legitimate sell-out: Def Leppard's 1996 album,
Slang. They tried to sound more like grunge and failed miserably. They recovered from this error by going back to their own sound and style on their next album, but
Slang was a genuine sell-out. A metal band in a pop contest doesn't even compare to something like that.
There's nothing wrong with making money. There's nothing wrong with being rich and famous if you can get it. Money is
not the root of all evil. That's one of the worst misquotes from the Bible that you can hear people repeat. Timothy 6:10, KJV: "The
love of money is the root of all evil". When you sell out your principles for money, that's wrong. Seeking money and fame while holding true to your values is perfectly fine.
