who needs talent? Its all about image!

Well I don't disagree but if you think about it you 'watch' music videos, but you 'listen' to music.

I think of it as a different art form. I prefer music to music video so why would I watch it? As for the hot body stuff, well - you don't see many fat ballerinas. So blaming music video for being body focussed is a bit like blaming tennis for being a ball being hit over a net.

And welcome to A2K banksy.

I see what you mean Banksy.If I see another teenage girl with her mid drift on display, Il puke.

Stupidly a naff song does appeal to me a bit more if the video is great,eg Madonna -Nothing Really Matters.

Sadly there are popular fads eg there is a ring tone at number one here called Crazy Frog.It has absolutely no talent to it but its really popular so it gets to number one!Therefore talentFUL Coldplay are at number 2 and a frog is at number one.
Ultravox-Vienna was kept of the number 1 spot because of a song called Shudduppa your face!!

Novelty/popularity/fashion sometimes seem to reign over good sense.

two words...Milli Vanilli

one word: marketing

two: Ashlee Simpson

its a shame that the idea of sex sells has found its way into the music industry. For clothes food cars etc itll do, but why even call some stuff music? its just people looking pretty and parncing around to a bit of a beat. if you wanna do that become a model, dont pretend to sing!

although it has to be said, theres a lot more smaller "real" bands making into the mainstream now in the u.k at least. i think last year was a bit of a turning point where bands like Franz Ferdinand and razorlight etc became far more popular. i think now people are beginning to get some kind of understanding what music should sound like again, not just what it should look like.

Two words: Elvis Presley. Oh, wait, the screaming on Ed Sullivan was because he was such an accomplished musician...

hmmmm.....interesting responses! music has such a hold over pple...it's amazing how it can make or break a mood. Think about the titanic....how untouching it wld be if it didn't have my heart will go on while the ship sinks. music has the power to influence how you feel and it annoys me when pple abuse it to make a quick buck or too. And then young pple are strongly influenced by sex gestures which leads to all kinds of problems....One side of the world is trying to stop this from happenin n the other (part being music industry) is encouraging it.

Actually, re: Titanic, I'm deaf, so Celine's caterwauling was a complete non-issue for me. And I STILL (to my enduring shame) cried like a tiny baby through -- well, pretty much the whole thing.

Just FYI.

Ummm. Evlis had crazy amounts of talent. Remember his voice?

hahaha....im sure you did....was jst an example....of course no matter what, the story of titanic is touching but with that genre of music added, makes it much more intense! ummmm.....don't quite get ya point bout elvis?????

A-yup. 'Tsaright. I've always thought it was vastly overrated, though, and he didn't create diddly squat.

As much as I loved Elvis, silly movies and all, he was a gimmick, more or less. Talented, yes, but a gimmick all the same.

Yeah that's interesting, as far as E's creativity. He definitely capitalized on more than half a century of blues. And I know he didn't write the songs.

But he was the first whitey "bluesman"; is it incorrect to say that's a synonym for rock n' roll musician?

Because then you have the Animals, the Stones, the British invasion, which was like Elvis to the third power. But then again, we can't give him to much credit since all those dudes were listening to Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, not necessarily Elvis.

But I do say that without Elvis, there would have been no Jim Morrison or Iggy Pop. I feel like Elvis was the first rocker to use his body as an instrument.

Elvis did use image in his favour, but cant that also be said for other major icons and great muscians such as jonny rotten from the sex pistols or jimmy page from led zep. for those in the music industry i do agree its good to have a certain image, to add to the musical ability.

Elvis was an influential artist and his image added to his all round greatness, the people we shouldnt be praising are those who base their work on image and just have the music as a sideline.

Yeah...true that!!! I totally agree that image plays a huge part in a musicians career....but its when pple like Holly Vallance n pple like that who don't really have any musical ability only sell CD's cos of their image....n may i add....long time she stayed in the charts too-her music career was very short lived!!

You're right, except for the difference is that Elvis was a manufactured pop star, like Britney Spears or Holyl Valance, and unlike Johnny Rotten or Jimmy Page, who were not manufactured. Yes, Elvis could sing well, and he did have some good songs - but he was a whore, don't forget that. He was in it for the money first, and the music later, just like the 'artists' Banksy was originally complaining about, and completely unlike Led Zeppelin or the Sex Pistols.

Led Zeppelin made **** tons of money. The movie "Song Remains the Same" was made to make up for a huge wad of cash that was stolen from Zeppelin in NYC.

But they did write their own songs (don't forget the Whole Lotta Love and other early songs were ripped off of Howlin Wolf and MuddyWaters), some damn good ones too.

but as you just brought up, they were thieves, at the outset...is that much better than prostitution? people who wrote elvis' tunes at least received royalties.