Shaw's Shack Redemption - The Off-Topic Chat Thread

Well you are on the right subject. It's a whole arm tattoo sleeve of D Day memorial. A red poppy at the top of my arm and the rest is black and shading of British troops etc storming the beach.

 

Ah fair enough. I'm a bit of a sexist in that all of my favourite players are the ones I fancy most, but hey, what can you do? I did like Genie Bouchard but it turns out her and Laura have had a bit of a falling out, so like the teenage girl I am, I have to pick sides and hope Genie fails at everything.

I'm the same on tattoos and the like too - fair play to Beefy though!

 

I'm not a fan of tattoos, but that's a nice tribute.

 

Taken 10hrs!

 

Blimey. I thought you just wet the back and peeled the paper off...

 

Yeah, very nice Beefy
Is it true that Tattoos got their name because when they used to do them originally, that's what it sounded like when they hammered the stick thing that they used to use? Like a tat tat noise? Not sure if it's true or not but I think I heard that somewhere!

 

I didn't know that but I don't like it. They should be friends, they would make a great doubles team Being similar ages they must have encountered each other a fair bit, and something must have happened, oh to be a fly on the wall!

 

I wish.

 

Facebook is still annoyingly an integral part of my job. You HAVE to have a certain amount of likes, a certain amount of YouTube views etc etc before the labels start to budge. They call it 'online traction'.........and it's a necessary evil sadly.

 

There was something I read a few weeks back, a feature to do with how Radio 1 choose what music gets played. It is, like you say, purely based on YouTube views as opposed to actual talent, hence why we have so much inane crap being played these days.

Now that I think about it, it may have been posted on here, probably by you

 

Yep - don't start me off on playlist meetings, although in fairness there was nothing in that article that surprised me. In truth, R1 are on a relatively new drive not to just play what is cool, but to discover the 'new cool' too - there are ways to break that cycle. But the over-reliance on views/likes/followers is something the likes of the much celebrated John Peel would have baulked at.

 

To be fair to them though, they are in something of a tough situation - you have to retain popularity and hunt down what's perceived as such, and the easiest way to do it is by views etc. However we're very led by what we're fed, and like the rest of the industry there's a lot of it being driven by fear at the moment - in essence, because the money around it has decreased so far, people now can't afford to fail. Ergo, people won't take the risks they once did - hence labels will sign those that they know will create an instant return (X Factor acts, for instance) but will be less inclined to sign something genuinely interesting without the aforementioned "online traction" as a backup. It's very sad, and the likes, for instance, of Bowie or Hendrix, would have a horrendous time trying to break through these days and would probably be dropped after one album even were they signed.

It's a worrying prospect, but I'm sure we'll find our way around it somehow. Fable is a case in point - there's interest in her from the labels, because she's different, challenging and a great 'package' as a whole. Whether they take the risk to break her into the mainstream or not.......well, we shall see!

The frustrating thing of course is that views/likes etc can actually be bought, so it's a false economy at the moment...

 

This is why 6 Music is pretty much the only music station I listen to these days. I know they still have playlists but they do seem to play an awful lot of stuff that's unreleased as well as classics from the last 50 years or so.

 

I was going to say, surely it's possible to get some kind of software to boost views on YouTube. you can certainly buy Twitter followers so no reason you can't with Facebook likes I imagine. Amazing people would make decisions based on those.

 

Yep there is. A few people got done for it tho.

 

Yes you can. There are ways. I wouldn't do it, no matter how desperate, how frustrating, how unjust it all is though - it's just utterly wrong to do that. If the music ain't good enough, well........then certainly I won't stoop to that.

 

Agreed, a lot of time for 6 and it's ethos.

 

I just stick to my 60 hour Spotify playlist for music, and I may slowly ween myself onto another station such as Radio 2 or something along those lines soon. Along that tangent, suggestions for good radio stations are welcome

 

6

2 is okay.

I'm now going to keep my mouth shut.

 

Not a Spotify guy..?