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And Finally
Robbie Williams doesn’t agree with Brett Anderson about pop
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 22 March 2013
In a CAPS-heavy post on his blog, Robbie Williams has hit out at Suede’s Brett Anderson for taking a swipe at modern pop music.
He was irked by a comment in The Sun, in which Anderson said: “There has always been crap pop music. I remember when we had all the crap boybands in the 90s – stuff like that has always been around. The lack of money in the music industry created a crisis. Record companies don’t have the resources to take a gamble, so these pop stars are created by committee. They are just a series of bland ticks on a check list, which creates a generic style of artist. I prefer artists with something slightly wrong about them”.
Needless to say, Williams wasn’t impressed with Anderson’s swipes at either the 1990s or current pop scenes, Take That being part of both. On the Suede man’s remarks re 90s pop, he noted: “Now this was at the height of what was Britpop and mainstream indie. Record companies don’t/didn’t have the resources to gamble? I think not… Any quarter-decent three chord knobheads could and did get a deal in the 90s”.
These are valid points. The Britpop era was a pretty miserable time to be into indie music – especially towards the end, when the barrier to entry did seem especially low. And some of the “quarter-decent three chord knobheads” Williams goes on to list were decidedly mediocre, despite major label backing. Though he does include Curve in that list, which isn’t on. You can’t put Curve next to Shed Seven, come on! And also, in the late 90s, having fallen off the Take That bandwagon, wasn’t Robbie’s shtick hanging out with “quarter-decent three chord knobheads”?
Anyway, he continued: “There were a few special indie bands then just as there are in every generation. And just as some pop bands are useless, some are magnificent in every generation I feel sorry for the people who are too bigoted to appreciate the latter. The world’s a lot more exciting with a One Direction in it. And more hearts will genuinely race at a new 1D album than they ever have or will at any Suede album in any time period”.
Once again, all valid points. But Curve were brilliant. Can we just remember that?
Finishing his rant, Robbie addressed Anderson directly: “Please say hello to your drummer. He was consistently lovely with me”. See, told you his schtick in the 90s was hanging out with “quarter-decent three chord knobheads”.
