Arctic Monkeys - great or greatly overrated?

No matter your opinion on them, I can almost guarantee that you have at least one friend who adores Arctic Monkeys. Equally, you probably also have at least one friend who despises Alex Turner and thinks NME need to get their heads out of his perk behind. Maybe you know someone whose opinion is a bit of both, like mine.

I don't think there can be any denying that the Monkeys' debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, is one of the greatest albums of the 21st century. Raw and subtly poetic, the Sheffield boys stuck to their roots and sang about things that affect us all - the bands in the shabby clubs that think they're from America when in reality they're from humble Yorkshire in Fake Tales Of San Fransico, for example. 

Second album Favourite Worst Nightmare is riper; more refined, and although has some flashes of brilliance on it, such as the beautiful 505, it will never quite edge their debut for me. 

After that came Humbug, an album which I consider as their worst overall effort, but which gave us, in my opinion, some of their best singles. Pretty Visitors, for example, is dark and dreamy and has the line "What came first? The chicken or the dickhead?" which is great fun to shout (more than sing) along to. 

Fourth album Suck It And See is the one that they seem to have put the least amount of effort into. It's not actually a bad album, but the music itself is almost as bland as the artwork, which they clearly put no effort into at all. It's a bit of a "mostly-filler-some-killer" album, like Humbug, only better.

Despite the ups and downs of their career during these first albums, the only real controversy started with the release of latest record AM. They've gone all LA on us with their leather jackets and quiffs and sunglasses indoors, and despite Turner's famously egotistical speech at the BRIT awards, their music has become less rock n roll, more hip-hop. And now he's been accused of tax dodging. In light of all this, people who have been fans for a while are all of a sudden not fans anymore. This hasn't phased the Monkeys though, because after the recent huge success of single Do I Wanna Know (which, by the way, I adore), the number of new fans has increased massively. I'm sure they'll still be selling out stadium tours for many years to come. So tell that friend that you have, the one who's a massive fan, that they needn't worry... though I doubt they were anyway.

Written by Molly McGrath. All opinions are mine, not FIBLAR's as a collective. 

Why arrogance in the music industry is a good thing

Kanye West

Today's world is one in which arrogance is all around us and can be seen in all walks of life, but none more so than in music. Eminem has proved this lately with a song called 'Rap God' in which he claims he, or at least his music, is immortal, and Kanye has gone one step further by claiming 'I Am A God' and demanding his croissants are brought to him quickly. 
It's not only in hip-hop that arrogance is present though; it's a well known fact that the Gallagher brothers love themselves like they love nobody else in the world ("I'm the fucking bollocks" says Noel), and even though they argue against being called arrogant ("We’re not arrogant, we just believe we’re the best band in the world."), they obviously are. 

The Gallaghers

There are, of course, many more examples of people with this particular personality trait that dominate the music industry, but is that really a bad thing?
I saw a quote the other day that struck a chord with me: 'It is more socially acceptable to hate yourself than to love yourself.' and why should it be? Shouldn't people who love themselves be inspirational to all those who hate themselves? I think so. And since most young people look up to one musician or another as inspiration, then more of them should love themselves. I know that you probably have friends who hate the way they look, or their personality, and you can clearly see that they're pretty or a wonderful person, and you keep on telling them this, but they just won't listen. You'd obviously prefer it if they just accepted that they're great, wouldn't you? With this in mind, those who love themselves in the music industry should probably get a little less hate. They're brilliant, and they know it. I don't see much of a problem with that, and neither should you. Written by Molly McGrath

Ferreira and Drugs

Ferriera and Cole Smith's official mugshots

Sky Ferreira is beautiful in almost every way. Her bleached hair, her model body, her boyfriend (the lovely Zachary Cole Smith from the band Diiv, see Calum's post on them here), her dance pop eighties-esque music. She's almost a reincarnation of Avril Lavigne, but grown up; indier and more daring. I am, undoubtably, a huge fan of her and sometimes it feels as though she has a song for every one of my moods - from the dance orientated 'Everything is Embarrassing' to the swirly Taylor Swift vocals of 'Sad Dream', from the dark explosive tones of 'Lost in my Bedroom' to the uncomfortableness of the video for 'Red Lips' and the rolling vocals of 'Night time, my time'. She is friends with Petra Collins and Miley Cyrus and her Instagram is a multicoloured celebration of plastic pop and sharing cereal with her rockstar boyfriend. However, I often find that when I tell people that I'm a fan of her, they are quick to point out the drug arrest that took place early this year. This was in October, when her and Cole Smith were arrested and charged under possession of heroin and ecstasy, when their car was pulled over after reports of reckless driving. In my opinion, it's Cole Smith and Ferreira's choices to take those drugs, and that everybody should just let them be - it's their life.

My general attitude towards a lot of things in life is that it's cool if you do, and it's cool if you don't. The drugs, drink, skirt length, sexuality, what you call your boyfriend, hairstyles, whatever, don't generally affect your personality or who you actually are. They're your personal choices and it's your choice whether to keep them private or make a point of them. It's unfair that her personal choices should get in the way of whether people listen to or respect her and her music. Sure, she's skinny because of the drugs. Sure her music is probably influenced by them. Sure they aren't good for her. But I believe you should decide whether you like her music on the actual sound, not on the amount of heroin she has injected in the past few weeks. Taking drugs doesn't make her a bad person - in my opinion anyway. They don't make her a good person either. They don't change who she is and they shouldn't change what you think of her music. 

(This post very much intertwines with two other posts, written by Connor (read his here) and Charl (read her's here) )

- written by avalon x x

How important are lyrics?

I'll be honest with you, I was quite stuck for an idea for this week's post. However, inspiration comes from the strangest of places, and this week it happened to come from my A-level French lesson; we had just moved onto the music topic (yay!) and I had to translate a sentence which read, "To me, lyrics are very important." and this got me thinking - how important are lyrics in a song? Does the quality (or lack) of the lyrics affect the quality of the song?

This is debatable. Of course, a song with profound, provocative lyrics is one which I will listen to over and over again simply to attempt to decipher what the artist was trying to say when he/she wrote it - but if the actual song wasn't of a high quality, I wouldn't be very likely to listen to it just for the pleasure of listening, for example whilst dancing about in my bedroom.

On the other hand, if the lyrics in a song don't mean anything ("The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed" being a prime example), it just feels like the artist doesn't care. Music is an art form, and art should always have a meaning. I find I feel more connected to an artist who channels their emotions, their feelings and their experiences, into the music they create.

I can think of one exception: I Am The Walrus by The Beatles. The lyrics make little or no sense; words thrown together for the sake of it. I heard somewhere that it was a backlash at the hundreds of music 'experts' trying to decode the lyrics in The Beatles' songs and making up nonsense that the band had never intended them to mean. In retaliation they decided to create lyrics that no-one could decipher because they didn't mean anything. 

As far as I'm concerned, the importance of the quality of the lyrics in a song is secondary to the importance of the quality of the melody, the riffs, the dance-ability. It does annoy me when artists get massive success from something which they haven't put any feelings into, yet not all of my favourite bands have outstanding lyricists, and I continue to listen to them because I thoroughly enjoy their music. Sometimes I'll sing along loudly to an album without even thinking about what the words mean anyway - basically, if the music is good, then good lyrics are just a bonus. Written by Molly McGrath.

Why the music industry will never die.

Why the music industry will never die.

There has been a lot of talk of the music industry dying after the decline in sales of music and far more internet being placed upon movies and video games. More and more people legally or illegally, download their music. Many may argue that this kills the music industry and to some extent I agree however as long as people are actively searching and enjoying music it will never die.

Music creates emotion and brings back memories that are of another time and these associated feelings will never dwindle or die.

Most of you will remember your first gig or first record or first single and the memories and feelings related to it. My first album was pink // funhouse (I know embarrassing right?) but in that same day I bought songs for the deaf by QOTSA and I remember how excited I was to get home and play it and just appreciate it. And if everyone can inspire the next generation to enjoy music, buy music, share music and buy music the music indicate will be preserved forever. Listen on, Jacob

Does hating the artist mean you have to hate the music?

I was suddenly struck with inspiration for this post earlier. It's a short one, I'm sorry.

Does hating the artist mean you have to hate the music?

When listening to music, I try and focus on the actual music, rather than the artist. This might seem like the obvious thing to do, but I know it isn't always the case. 
Music is often first judged by who created it. Say, The 1975 or Bastille made a pretty good song, most people I follow on twitter would dismiss it and say it's 'terrible' because of the fact The !975/Bastille made it, yet if Arctic Monkeys or The Smiths made an awful song, people are likely not to criticise it because of who made it.
Personally, I can't understand why people do this. By doing this, you're missing out on listening to music you could really enjoy and pretending you like stuff you don't, just to fit in. What's the point? If I dislike a song, I tell people I dislike it. If I like a song, I tell people I like it, regardless of the artist.
Take the band Hole for example. I know a lot of people hate Courtney Love and stuff, which yeah, is their own opinion. However, hating her does not mean you have to hate Hole. They're one of my favourite bands, and one of my friends favourite bands (she hates Courtney). There is no reason to hate music because of who made it. It's silly to miss out on music because you hold too much of a grudge against a member of a band.
Another aspect to this is a debatable subject - should somebody's criminal record affect what you think about their music? Even I am iffy about this. I think that if you like a song, you should continue to like it, even if the lead singer turns out to have murdered someone. I guess you could link this to drugs as well. If they do something you do not like, you should not refuse to listen to the music they produce (especially if it's only one member of a band). Music is music, the artist's life choices are their life choices. 

So in conclusion, give somebody's music a chance, even if you dislike them. You might just find a new favourite song from somewhere you never thought you would.

- Charlotte x

CDs and vinyl vs downloads and streaming

Ah, the eternal debate. You've got into a new band, or someone you love has brought a new album out, and you NEED to buy it. Pronto. But in what format should you make this purchase? The humble CD, the fill-up-your-cool-points vinyl, or the ever popular download? Of course, there is the option of streaming it; a method berated by many yet one which music lovers globally are using at a growing rate. The choice is yours.
I think it's quite clear after the recent closure of many a local HMV that the CD has passed its heyday. I can kind of understand why; thanks to the internet, downloading music, whether legally or otherwise, has become easier than ever. It's quick - just a few clicks and it's on your iPod - and you don't even need to leave your house to get all the music that you love in one single place, rather than stacked up in cracked cases or left in your mum's car after a long drive. What's more, with downloads there's no chance of the CD getting scratched and the voices of your most cherished singers becoming distorted or stuttered. You can even insure your listening devices in case of theft or breakage, preparing you for any eventuality of your music being lost.

Radiohead's Thom Yorke hit out at streaming, saying it rips
off the artists.

If it hasn't yet already, streaming is looking likely to overtake downloads in the near future. You can join Thom Yorke and argue against the morality of it and the artists' rates all you want (they're said to be low compared to what they get for downloads or physical sales), but you cannot deny that applications like Spotify are damn useful. The vast majority of music you would ever want to listen to, all for free (if you're not a premium user). The adverts are less frequent than on YouTube, there is much more music than on Soundcloud, and you can listen to whole albums. What could be better?

London's Rough Trade East

In spite of all this, there is nothing quite like the feeling of holding a CD, or even a vinyl. Something the band you love has slaved over, perfected and released for you, the fans, and you're holding it. There's an astounding sense of connection between the artist and the listener. I myself could spend whole afternoons flicking through the booklets and reading the lyrics, the thank-yous, or the notes from the band. As for downloads allowing you to stay at home, who would want that when you could be in a music shop browsing the display for things you recognise and things you don't? Trawling through vinyls, row by row, creates in me a feeling of contentment. 
And when you come across a rarity, or just something you've been looking for for a while, the happiness brews inside you and you have to tell people about your discovery - whether that's face to face or online (#vinyl and #retro being some of the more popular tags for this kind of thing on Instagram). Vinyl sales this past year were the highest in the decade; strange since music is now more accessible online than ever, yet this gives me hope. While the CD is losing its place in the nation's hearts now, there will come a time in the future when it comes back, and the world, iPod in hand, will realise what it's been missing. Written by Molly McGrath

Women in the Music Industry

If you follow me on twitter or know me in real life, you should know that I have an opinion on practically everything and I'm not really afraid to express my opinions. Which means, when I have a chance to write about something I feel strongly about - I will. So here it goes.

Women in the Music Industry

With the growing number of female musicians who are having success in bands where they play instruments, you'd think that females in the music industry would be finally recognised to be equal to men. However, that's not the case. For some reason it's still a shock that a woman can play an instrument well. Men can just be a bassist or a drummer or a guitarist - a musician, but as soon as the guitarist is a woman, she's a 'female guitarist'. Why can she not just be a guitarist? Because subconsciously, most people will judge her ability on the fact that she is not male, and that's 'weird'. For example, the phrase "she's good for a woman" might be used. 
Although male musicians may attract fan-girls, most of the time comments made about them are for their music, with the occasional "he's so hot". With females it's different. Take Ellie Rowsell from Wolf Alice for example, her name constantly pops up on my twitter timeline, but it's rare that I see a comment about her ability as an artist. The tweets are mainly about how attractive she is (I do agree) but not how talented she is, which I'm sure must be annoying for her as a musician. 
Another example is a band that I am not particularly fond of: Haim. Now, I don't like Haim purely because I don't like the music they produce, but people always try and argue back to try and make me like them. One of the first arguments that a Haim fan will use is 'But they're so pretty'. And believe it or not, I've once had a friend of mine tell me he didn't think that musically Haim were great, yet their attractiveness was one of the main reasons he liked them.
Now, you can argue back if you like, but most people don't try and support the fact that a male musician is good by the way he looks? It doesn't make sense - so why does that happen for female musicians? 
This brings me on to my next point: the sexualisation of women.
Many female pop artists look to being 'sexy' as a way to gain following, which it does. This though, means that they may not be taken as seriously and again the main subject of a conversation is not the vocal ability she has, but how 'hot' she is in her latest video. Even male musicians look to the use of an overly sexualised woman in their music video. Even bands that I really love are guilty of it, including Peace. Recently, the biggest outrage has been over Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines', a song perpetrating rape culture, and that uses women in a completely degrading and sexualising way, but I won't talk too much about that, because that could go onto something completely else.
Now as the last major point of this post, I want you to ask yourself a question. If you saw a teenage boy walking down the street in a band shirt and a teenage girl in a band shirt, who are you most likely to say actually likes the band? The boy, right? Because most people have built up this idea that girls only like bands for an image or to impress people. Why? Because girls actually liking something other than the sexualised pop music that is played so often is 'strange'.
I'm going to finish with a quote by one of my favourite musicians of all time.

"The media says that equality for women has arrived, but if you look around, you still don't see girls playing guitars and having success with it." 

- Joan Jett.

-Charlotte x