I could say the same for Shakatak. They weren't the greatest of bands
but before they made the pop charts in the UK their music was of a much
higher quuality. When they achieved commercial success it all went
downhill.
I am not an L42 hater. I never was but I wish they didn't sell their
identity.
C-Ya
Winston..
----------
From: elson trinidad
To: Balfourth, Winston; 'Acid Jazz Messages'; Davies, Dave [HSC]
Subject: RE: In Defense of Level 42
Date: Wednesday, 14 May, 1997 11:29
At 12.01 PM 5/14/1997 +0100, Balfourth, Winston wrote:
>Yes they had one or two okay tracks on these albums and you could argue
>that they were maturing as a band, but I certainly don't think that
they
>matured. In fact I believe that they took a backward step. How can we
>achieve pop success, simple let's write bland music and we'll make a
lot
>of money and live happily ever after.
Obviously, since you're from the UK, where L42 actually got a lot of
airplay and toured constantly, you have a different point of view. I'm
an
American, have only heard three of their songs on US radio, have
*never*
seen
them live and had to buy their last album as an import, since it was
never
released in the US.
So we're talking about two distinct viewpoints here; you may dismiss L42
as
'pop pap' but in America, even the most commercial-sounding tunes were
way
too 'complex' for the average American audience, and L42 never had a
'marketable image' here. It seems, though, that UK pop music is made to
a
somewhat higher quality standard than American pop music; even the Spice
Girls sound like quality material when compared to American top40/MTV
crap.
Elson
-30-
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Elson Trinidad
Los Angeles, CA, USA
elson@westworld.com * http://www.westworld.com/~elson
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