Shoot your idols - Adele at the Beeb

[Lat-Literal]

Coincidentally, I heard Adele's Hello yesterday on YouTube, while trying to discover what Playlister was actually offering to fans of popular music (compared with classical). The video had passably good acting, the situation depicted has been presented (once or twice!) before ('Sorry for breaking your heart', 'Sorry for everything that I've done'): but at the base of the appeal it seems to be the combination of an attractive woman emoting in a way that many (younger) people will identify with, or want to engage with.

Musically, it doesn't seem to be very original, strings, piano. Strong voice, bit of soul, falsetto … She puts it over very well, but as with a lot of popular music, the performer and the story seem to be the main attractions.

Interesting post.

The arrival of Adele suggested two things - 1. She isn't a lot like Amy Winehouse but she isn't a million miles removed from her and 2. Great - this seems to be the moment when the industry has chosen a new trend. It's back to a more conventional voice after nearly 20 years of Whitney and all the others with their "melisma" that can sound like hysteria.

There were three of them actually. The other one was (Aimee) Duffy although her voice seemed weaker than that of the other two. And there were different nuances. AW was in the direction of jazz; you are spot on with Adele as approximately the "soul" one; and Duffy was more indie pop leaning I guess. Any promise didn't last long. It quickly became apparent that rather than the key reference points being a vocal style of the 1960s/1970s, soul or jazz, what this actually involved was a return to the era of the early to mid 1980s. Then big solid careers were being built on music that wasn't awful but it could be anodyne while it was also ubiquitous. Phil Collins is an example. There are several others.

And at that time, there was a division two if you like of the ones who were "big news" but not quite in "super-space". Among them was Alison Moyet who must surely now be the key reference when it comes to Adele except this time the industry decided that "a Moyet" should become stratospheric. Well, it worked not least because of Winehouse's departure which watered down any accusations of copying and, I think, the emotions around that moment meant that many looked to Adele as their answer. It did help her record sales.

The difference between her and Moyet in my opinion is that Moyet also had something of a jazz voice. Why I think Winehouse stood out in the modern era is that there was among all of her very modern London tones a natural way with what I suppose could be called jazz inflection which she then worked on extensively. She really studied Holiday, Vaughan, Washington etc. Those were absorbed so she could bring bits and pieces of them out when personally "together" in interesting and unexpected ways. There was always the feeling that she was playing with it and indeed learning. It was the positive side of her unpredictability. She never could be packaged and there was a lot of scope for vocal development.

[Flay]

(I'll seek out Someone Like You on Barbi's recommendation, though.)

I just had a look at her live performance of it. The piano accompaniment doesn't go anywhere (Grade 2?). But what concerned me most was the shower of glitter over it. That's no way to treat a Steinway!

[Mary Chambers]

I didn't know who she was (still don't), but I do know I had to use the mute button every time a trailer came on. Luckily I knew HIGNFY wasn't on at its usual time, so I avoided her big appearance entirely.

i have long ago stopped trying to be tolerant where singing is concerned - if I ever did.

[gradus]

Thanks for the link,I'd never heard the song before and hearing her I was struck by the almost country style of the words and melody. I could imagine a gravelly voiced Johnny Cash moving audiences with it.

[ahinton]

I just had a look at her live performance of it. The piano accompaniment doesn't go anywhere (Grade 2?). But what concerned me most was the shower of glitter over it. That's no way to treat a Steinway!

...as Irving Berlin might have put it ("I know a fine way / To treat a Steinway" and all that)...

[Roehre]

Live is simply too short even to contemplate investing time in this

[P. G. Tipps]

This is (I hope) just one of those "passing trends" - after the Adele experience last night, I kept thinking of the contrast with Amy Winehouse; now there was a distinct and genuine talent that surpassed the hype.

Indeed ... poor, poor Amy.

So much genuine talent, and yet a tragic end to a clearly very vulnerable young life ...

[pastoralguy]

Indeed ... poor, poor Amy.

So much genuine talent, and yet a tragic end to a clearly very vulnerable young life ...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I just had a look at her live performance of it. The piano accompaniment doesn't go anywhere (Grade 2?).

No, it doesn't (might be a little difficult for "Grade2" - made me think "Average Year 10 composition/pastiche" - but nor did the song very much in this Live version; there seemed no reason why there were that number of literal repetitions of both words and Music: aside from filling in the requisite five minutes, it could have gone on for another four or forty repetitions, or have had at least one trimmed off with no discernible (to me, at any rate) difference. I presume the single version had variety of instrumentation to enhance the effect?

But what concerned me most was the shower of glitter over it. That's no way to treat a Steinway!

What was all that about? The confetti at the wedding of the "ex" (or at her own future marriage)???

[ahinton]

Indeed ... poor, poor Amy.

So much genuine talent, and yet a tragic end to a clearly very vulnerable young life ...

Indeed so; whilst it would be dishonest of me to try to feign more that the merest interest in what she did, it was so clearly on so much higher a level than the egregious Adele's achievements to date as to make comparison even more odious than cliché would usually have it to be.

[ahinton]

What was all that about? The confetti at the wedding of the "ex" (or at her own future marriage)???

Whatever it was or might have been intended to be, no pianos take kindly to that sort of treatment...

[Barbirollians]

Whatever it was or might have been intended to be, no pianos take kindly to that sort of treatment...

The original video of Someone Like You is easy to find - it is a bit quicker and she sings it in a rather more understated way not having to belt it out to the Brit Awards .

Somehow however I imagine that many of the contributors to this thread are not her target audience !

It remains that she became a big star at a young age on her own material and not looking like a supermodel

[ahinton]

Somehow however I doubt that many of the contributors to this thread are not her target audience !

Somehow, however, I doubt that you intended that double negative!

[Ian Thumwood]

It didn't expect that I would be the only person on this board to be underwhelmed but there is some really good points that I hadn't considered. Several years ago a couple of colleagues where I worked suggest that her second album was some kind of masterpiece and were lauding her vocal skills. One of these individuals was a self-taught guitarist who had played in a number of bands around the Portsmouth area since the 1970s and was clearly switched on by pop groups where he considered there to be a degree of musicianship. One band he loved was The Mumfords who I have never heard but he was equally enthused by Adele.

I think that there is a kind of marketing ploy here insofar that record companies seem to label ugly / over-weight girl singers as being more serious than those who seem to rely on their looks for commercial success. I can see their point as a lot of the current crop of girls singers are clearly easier on the eye than they are on the eye. It is a kind of reverse sexism which applies that although she may look like the Pilsbury dough girl, Adele is a "genuine" artist. This is clearly ridiculous and insulting to both the artist and the listener. But there is a novelty value with artists like Winehouse and Adele insofar they seem individualistic even though what they ae producing is pretty anodyne.

The weird thing with this is that , as a jazz fan, I think that this is some kind of "golden age" for vocalists with a wide range of styles that vary from the classic jazz voice of someone like Dianne Reeves or Cassandra Wilson , the more adventurous Gretchen Parlato or even the more fusion-inclined yet savvy Esperanza Spalding. No one makes a judgement on their music because of their looks. From a technical point of view, Adele may have a good voice but she is not really in the same category as Dianne Reeves or someone like Youn Sun Nah who both make Adele look like an amateur. If you want genuine vocal talent, for me jazz is where it is happening at this point in time.

The other odd thing about this thread was the negative remark made about Witney Houston in one post. Granted that her music was commercial, I have been listening to quite a bit of her output on Youtube of late and am convinced she was a brilliant and talented artist. Adele isn't fit to lick her boots. It is strange that a lot of soul can end up being mundane whereas some someone like Whitney Houston probably marked a high point in recent popular music.

[pastoralguy]

I was waiting for a movie to start and was channel flicking when I encountered Amy Winehouse and her band for the first time. I'd heard the name but knew nothing about her. Well, I forgot the movie and watched her show. I thought she was wonderful. I then bought her album and listened to it many times. A terrific performer and songwriter, imho.

I was genuinely sad when she died. So much talent taken so young. I think she could have developed into something very special. Alas, it was not to be.

I have no feelings about Adele either way except that her album is the first thing I see when I walk into Tesco. It's almost as if you have been told what to listen to by the sharp marketing men. I'm sure if a classical album was promoted like this then it would sell a lot of copies too!