May 18th – How it works, see, is that as soon as a tried and
trusted formulae clicks with the silver-spending public, say Bourne… or Pirates… or Ice-Age… or
The Beatles or Fifty Shades and Shaggin’…
there then ensues an undignified scramble to replicate it. Unfortunately and
unlike those other replicants in Blade
Runner, we can’t just send them crashing though a plate-glass window with several bullets in their back; we
wish.
One of the tricks of doing anything artistic
is not being afraid to fall. You know
the saying;
‘…all the people…some of the
people…all the people all…’?
Well it applies here. All you can do
is the best you can do; the work you do you do for the work, not for the
perceived success or failure; just for the work. Trouble is there’s not enough
people in the accounts dept. who have the luxury of feeling that way. I think
it was Bob Newhart who, when he was doing a skit on the retirement speech given
by a fictitious accounts clerk for a large conglomerate, included the line;
“…I always thought that if you got
within two or three bucks of it…then all was OK.”
and if you get the chance, listen to
his Infinite number of monkeys skit
or the one he does on Superman trying to get his suit back from the
cleaners…excellent comedy. I digress; bandwagon entertainments. Right.
That’s why there’s so many cover
bands all trying to recall past, better (?) times for the pop public. I mean,
OK, Elvis. I've mentioned him before but only because it’s difficult to write
anything about contemporary music without addressing his contribution. I
preferred Little Richard ‘cos he always sounded more truthful to me, but Elvis
did make a mark (understatement) and his influence should never be disregarded.
That’s what made the poster I saw the other day, about some bloke touring as The European Champion Elvis Presley all
the more sad for Elvis and his worth…no, not sad…erm…pitiful; no...I know, all
the more…empty. Whatever. Anyhow, I've done this before; move on.
So, I sort of did some rummaging
around in what I laughingly call my mind to consider what it was that made the
replication of a successful formula so successful and a complete failure at one
and the same time; the one thing that does ring true is the demographic. Young
people, particularly girls are the prime target, and I know you didn't need a
half-wit like me to tell you that. What is a puzzle though is that this sort of
behaviour hasn’t been sort of weaned out of the species. It’s an undesirable
trait that serves no useful purpose…or does it? Maybe it’s akin to the first
novels that appeared in the early-mid 18th century. Young women were sternly
advised against reading them because they made the pulses race and filled the
head with fanciful notions of love. What they also did (and what was, I
suspect, behind all these dire warnings…given by men, I hasten to add) was to
allow the curtains to be parted just a little and allow in the light of
development of the emotional brain; give women a clearer view, not only of the
world that surrounded them but also of themselves and their place in it.
The modern boy-band or
girl-power-band phenomena is the 20/21st century equivalent of those self-same
novels. Never was much of a one for the Spice
Girls or Take That. Interesting
harmonies aside there’s no way I would have paid money to go see either, but I
can understand the why’s and wherefore’s of both their appeal and the effect
they had on a whole host of youngsters, not all of it good, but… However, I
draw the line at the Bay City Rollers.
What was the point of all that?
Jeezzee…just a cloned Beatles-Monkees frame-alike cross out dog and put in goldfish addition to the pop rip-off…IMHO.
And yet they made millions and had a following that put even the Rolling Stones to shame. For the life of
me I can’t fathom it but, as I've said so many times before in this guff I
write, what do I know? Nothing…except this:
On this day in 1975, apparently, The Bay City Rollers were appearing at
Mallory Park (I used to go there car racing years ago, sports car stuff; Minis
and Fiats and Hillman Imps, very enjoyable) where they were due to do their set
on an island in the middle of a lake. Throngs of fans tried to swim out to them
(!?!), mayhem ensued and The Bay City
Rollers never got to perform…now I would have paid money to see that.
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