Nasty monotone chav singers

[Chris71]

WHAT IS GOING ON?

First we had the streets,

"I talk in this winey mockney voice all day long
it makes me seem well down to earth and human
makes people think I hang round at MacDonalds drive ins
holiday in spanish time shares and aspire to own a nova"

(you get the idea - the bloke speaks, not sings, not even raps - just waffles on over a boring bassline and rambles about crap much like I do on here, but the difference is people pay him vast ammounts to do so)

Next came Lilly Allen. Now, I was quite dissapointed to notice on Never Mind The Buzzcocks recently she's actually intelligent and funny in real life, but her music seems to be the same as Mr Skinner out of the streets. A little bit more melodic and she does atleast sing (a bit) - but still!

And now we have Kate Nash, with (erm) delightful lines like "I'd rather be wid your friends mate, cos they are much fitter" She's another stage school kid going for mockney chav overload. This isn't a personal thing - I'm sure she's great in real life, but her songs are obviously intended to appeal to the chav market and it has that crucial monotone, droning sound of someone who just can't be arsed to sing talking over a record.

And I say that as someone who likes hip hop too - I'm not against rapping and I certainly don't object to people singing, I just don't get these monologues that fall somewhere in between. They sound like the chav kids of north London failing miserably to rap over tunes blaring out from their mobiles. In fact I think I may have just realised what inspired chavtronica....

[Chris71]

Yep, got it in one.

Have to be honest, I'm not sure who I find more annoying.

Mike Skinner is incredibly droning and whiny - just put on his accent and talk about random crap in a slight down trodden way and you'll sound just like the streets without any big record company backing required. But I suppose there is always something to be said for being (one of?) the first to something. Lilly Allen and Kate Nash sound like thye should be fed head first into a mincing machine for the good of mankind.

I see what the other guys are getting at, but I love Faithless and I like some full on rap too, I'm not against spoken lyrics. I just don't think people these girls bring anything to music (new or otherwise) and they strike me as a marketing excercise. Get a couple of clever, media savvy people and make them talk like adolescent chavs, and hoards or adolescent chavs will buy their CDs. It's genius.

[Chris71]

Frik said:

I have some time for Lily Allen, but the lazy diction is difficult to swallow coming from someone who has had such a privileged life up to now. That and the fact that it's just plain irritating, innit?

Very true. I don't think a privelidged background stops you making good music (some media types seem to hold this view.....) but I do think when you've been to several high profile public schools like Lilly Allen did adopting a mockney tone and pretending you're down with the streets (no pun intended) isn't really convincing. It's like NWA reforming to do Straight Outta Islington. Like wise, I think I'm right in saying Kate Nash is a firmly middle class fame seeker who had a go at being an actress before unleashing her mind numbing brand of sub-pop.

I think the key to the sucess of these people is they are exactly the same as most of the people writing and more to the point, reviewing in the media - well off, well educated, upper middle class trendies who like to believe they're working class bohemians able to sneer at those more openly priviledged. I mentioned in another thread recently how "the top 100 most embarassing rock and roll moments" featured a load of gossip columnists with double baralled names slagging off various bands and musicians for being 'soooo middle class'. This inverted snobbery seems to be absolutely rife in the media and thinking about it, I genuinely believe this might be the reason for the sucess of the bands who market this, because I don't actually know any real people who like them.