Beefy's corner- the place for off topic stuff

They were attacking the other way in the first half!

Was interesting to see how Staplewood has changed. I also bumped into Nigel in deep conversation with Nicola. Someone else can make up the rumour on my behalf. The game was good also.

 

I mentioned this in another thread, but really annoyed Lucy Spraggan's left the X-Factor due to illness. She's by far the most talented one of the group, a great vocalist and fantastic lyricist. She would have been a good addition to the world of music but I don't think anyone who's ever not been in the final has gone on to have a music career. Which is a shame, she's like Amy Macdonald but without the strong Scottish accent. Can't be bothered to watch it anymore. While some of the others are alright, none of them is anywhere near as talented, and it seems unfair that someone so talented should leave it while Rylan, who can't sing for toffee, remains on it. But none of the others are that brilliant, for example you have One Direction, oh, I mean Union J, don't know how I could have got those two mixed up....

 

My mind doesn't comprehend those two things when uttered in the same breath.

 

Also, interesting article on Freddy Adu, "former Southampton target" (thanks Rocket, wherever you are)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20184398

 

There's always a good chance that a world-class prospect at 16 isn't going to make it. He needed to grow up, get his **** together and make smart career moves. Clearly he didn't do any of that. I was convinced he'd end up the best player in the world, but he didn't have the attitude for it in the end.

 

Watching him in the MLS is so frustrating. He doesn't put himself about at all, and even then he doesn't ever play a full 90 minutes. All the more reason to suspect he's probably about 10 years older than he actually is.

 

While it's considered cool to make digs at the X-Factor, occasionally you do get some talent singers on it and some good musical performers out of it (JLS, Olly Murs, etc) and no-one who's seen her on it can say Lucy Spraggan doesn't have talent. Of course, you get a lot of rubbish too.

 

Isn't it actually considered cool to like the X Factor? I mean so many people do. I think people who make digs at it genuinely dislike it, they're not just trying to be cool. I, for one, despise the show and everything it stands for. The music industry has suffered as a result.

 

In some ways the X-Factor is the logical outcome of where the music industry has been heading for the last 50 years. Imagine if record companies back in the 60's and 70's hadn't had to send A&R scouts out on the road to real live performances to find up-and-coming talent, but instead could just stick random people on TV and let the public vote for who they wanted to be successful. You would never have seen most of the acts that have stood the test of time over that period. Instead popular music would have become what some people have always seen it as, an ephemeral thing, where nothing worth remembering ever happens, and everything is instantly disposable.

The hidden joke with the X-Factor is, of course, that even the acts the public choose aren't the actual winners. Simon Cowell is nowadays the sole arbiter of what we should be listening to, and it's his choices that become the medium, never long-term, winners.

 

X Factor's all a fix anyway. It's all about finding a franchise, rather than a talented musician. It's why we've ended up with Cher Lloyd and Jedward.

 

Exactly!

 

As well as being a terrible hovel for terrible musicians, it's also just not good entertainment. There's much more entertainment to be had in listening to music of actual quality, than there is watching sub-par performances with ****y judges giving unimportant opinions (as the only actual opinion that matters is Cowell's) and seeing who wins the rigged vote. Wooo.

 

As someone who's spent what seems like most of my life either playing in pubs and folk clubs or watching other people do the same, I can honestly say that there is nothing that beats live music, whatever the genre. Every so often you stumble unexpectedly upon someone whose talent takes your breath away. I've never seen anything on a TV talent show that comes close to the St. Ives Jazz Club, the Mendip Packet Folk Club, or Christmas Eve at the Redan Inn.

 

Too true Chilco ! Or The Joiners Arms, etc. Far sooner watch/listen to live musicians than most of this cultivated junk on tv.

 

I'm not a particularly strong music enthusiast, I listen to a lot of stuff but most of it is very basic mainstream stuff, Rolling Stones, Queen, The Who, The Clash etc. etc., not doing any digging to find some lesser-known talent, and it's mostly not the talent on XFactor that annoys me, it's the whole process and show that riles me I think for reasons that have been mentioned a thousand times over. The music itself is purely just based on whatever (Simon Cowell believes) will ingrain itself into the mostly female 10-17 demographic (One Direction etc.), and that music is almost inevitably going to clash with the ears of 90% of the people that aren't in that demographic. That is understandable, it's a money-making process not a talent-finding process, and that process itself is usually intolerable to most people, so it's no surprise some people, like myself, have a hatred of it. But personally, I hate all reality and talent TV shows, but XFactor is probably the worst offender. And it's definitely not the best way to find musical talent.

 

Of course the X-Factor's a fix and it's not brilliant entertainment and it's all finding the most marketable act but for all that, like I said, you do get the occasional genuinely talented performer, Lucy Spraggan certainly been one of them.

 

Too true...Simon Cowell should face charges for bastardizing popular music...it is not about talent anymore, image is king and catering to the lowest common denominator.

 

You've convinced me Lapras, and I'm sure that she will make her mark somehow if she's really that good. I'll watch out for her anyway.

 

Jermaine's the best IMO. But yeah, the show's **** and staged-crappy TV makes money.

 

Why was gomarchingin banned? Yes he was depressing and put his views across like a cock, but should he be banned for having a different opinion? Unless I've missed something?