Celebrity Culture - Is it killing Britain like it has America?

It is common that in the morning I look at Twitter, at the moment to see if my favourite football team has signed anybody to make me excited for next season and other pieces of news regarding current affairs, the issues around the world, the next political joke of a policy or finding out a few days late that Plymouth have sacked their manager (well he resigned, but he clearly walked before he was pushed if we're honest).

Usually though on Twitter at least one one of the following is trending:

• Justin Bieber
• One Direction
• Kim Kardashian

But what I ask is why does someone who drives under the influence, an artificial band or someone who as far as I know is only famous for their arse whilst ironically having the face of a slapped arse (and I guess married to an extremely average rapper who promotes the "n word" in his music) this consistently talked about?

Well I guess these people are a bit like religions. This said, religion is partly there to give hope to people that there is something after death, I don't know what hope these celebrities are giving other than the tweet announcing their 100% retirement from the "entertainment" industry. Also religions pass on morales, some of them incredibly outdated, I am aware, but they form a fundamental background to the laws countries around the world initially made that still form the backbone of society today. 

One of the three I mentioned, Kim Kardashian is also a terrible role model to youn girls, making them think they should get plastic surgery to look "perfect". Honestly though, is there an ounce of beauty to Kim Kardashian? She looks like a badly gone wrong Madam Tussauds waxwork that's so bad it's hidden in the basement of it's Blackpool museum! Children shouldn't think this is the way to look. What we should be celebrating is people who accept themselves, who aren't spoilt brattish adults deciding they  want their nose this way, nor should we be celebrating artists who formed their band in an easy manufactured way like they're gods gift, or a "pop star" who simply is just a monumental f*ck up.

I know what some of you are thinking "But James, people including your good self, worship football clubs amongst other things". Maybe so. But a football club isn't an individual, if a player leaves Liverpool, in my case, I won't support the club where they are at because they played for Liverpool (for instance, I'm having a hard time picking who I want to win the Champions League, the underdog or a team that includes Suarez amongst others, not just picking Barcelona on players). Sport is also competitive, last time I checked being plastic or a distinctly average singer/group of singers wasn't competitive, it wasn't something that gave you a real satisfaction of winning. Football does this. As do many sports (particularly team sports domestically and internationally, individual sports just don't give you that, plus eventually they retire etc that is unless they're representing their nation). Therefore I don't buy the idea of that at all. Plus sportsmen usually have talent, some can even be humble, very few but there are one or two. They also can be a role model to someone as well to have a fit and healthy life.

Two of the three people/groups I mentioned don't do this. You can't live like a Kardashian and have a fit and healthy life, you'll always be in having balloons put into your gluteus maximus. You could be drink driving if you wanted to be like Justin Bieber with tattoos that can only be poorly based on Martin Skrtel. And unlike Justin Bieber, you won't afford bail and won't afford the best lawyer in the state and will have some time in a prison, whether in the UK or the USA.

So on the day where the Kardashians try to press some of the most insignificant news I have heard (news that makes me see Royal Babies as major) let's not worship them, lets try to get some real talent on TV, some real talent on TV and most importantly, some women on TV that won't make girls think they need surgery to look good! Let's create an accepting culture where nobody feels down because of their natural looks or personality. 

"That Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die"

On Wednesday as I'm sure many of you will be aware the annual Brit Awards took place. Apparently celebrating British music the ceremony included a speech from Arctic Monkeys lead singer Alex Turner in which he declared that Rock and Roll will never die. I have included the full speech below.

Now I'm not going to write a rant about his speech or the timing of his speech, mainly because I agree with the context of what he has said, however nor am I going to tell you how the Arctic Monkeys are the greatest band at the moment etc because although I like and I listen to the Arctic Monkeys a fair bit, I believe there are many great bands from many different genres of rock and roll that deserve to be mentioned in amongst this whole claim that rock and roll will never die. Regarding the Arctic Monkeys however, I would not say they are the sole protectors of the future of rock music. Not in Britain and not in the world. 

However there are many different styles of rock bands in the world under many different terms (punk, indie, emo, glam, folk and more) and we as people grow up with different styles that our parents introduce us to, that our friends show us, that the internet gives us, that our opinions lyrically agree with. I have friends who will swear down by different rock bands and rock types. Many like myself enjoy a variation of these different styles. However a lot of these bands do get very little publicity in comparison to some of the stuff that is in our charts nowadays. 

Unfortunately for music we live in an era where talent shows produce artists generically formed so that please people when it comes to sight but really in comparison to many other artists, these people lack talent. A lot of them seem to give a perception that they lack respect regarding rock music. Whether that be their lifestyle or the image they are trying to perceive. A lot try to make rock look glamorous and the most desired profession despite the fact that they are not a rock act. Rock is not a totally glamorous profession. A lot of the rock bands we see today have not had the privillaged upbringings that many popstars have today. Popstars like Lilly Allen who grew up knowing showbiz thanks to her dad. Many didn't have a musician school like the Brit school, albeit some of the newer ones have had this. Many have started off on the underground scenes and have had to work their way up from there, some to the disappointment to many of their fans (for instance, the punk scene was not too happy when Green Day signed onto a main stream label).

Now it may seem unfair but rock is actually the purest form of chart music you can really find. Especially when they were the people who chose to pick up the guitar and learn it, wrote the words and got a few friends and made a band. It's refreshing. They also appreciate it more as they have had to rise up from playing gigs as supporting acts in halls, to playing at arenas and stadiums. They influence many people. Often a rock star has issues however and the business of rock is therefore less attractive than it seems. A lot of songs in rock are wrote about ghosts of the band members lives, they have more of a meaning than most genres and often the bands we find ourselves listening to are ones we emotionally, lyrically and musically in one form or another relate to. I find with many this happens in teenage years, as you are growing up, going through those puberty changes and the other gender comes far more important to your life. I evidence this by pointing you in the way of +Ryan Steppel who grew up loving the arctic monkeys with these factors in place, just as I did with Green Day. Sure other bands come along but the first band you connect to in that way is almost certainly a band you will listen to a fair bit from then on. Not as your only band, maybe not as your favourite, but if I'm honest I couldn't imagine having an iPod with no Green Day on it (amongst others now) and I am sure others feel the same. 

Going back to a lot of songs being wrote in the ghosts of the band members, we can be talking death, love and often at some point in a rock bands career drugs. And sometimes these are very, very dark people, yet their darkness creates incredible music. The most notable rock star who did this was Kurt Cobain, such a dark person he ended up killing himself (unless you read and believe the conspiracies), then there's the artists that have had issues that have led to rehab, the band splitting and more. Pete Doherty, Billie Joe, Chris Wolstenholme. I also regard Amy Winehouse in this section as close to the rock genre. It isn't all glam.

These people, their antics and their fashions are now highly mimicked by artists who don't have the right to relate themselves to rock music. That said, they do sell the music. By this I am on about acts I would say are generic. I am talking One Direction and the X Factor generation. This music is not as pure as rock. It also will never be as longstanding as rock. Look at rock bands we still hear of today, who made a career for 50 years, from the Rolling Stones to the surviving members of the Beatles and Queen. One Direction may be huge now but they won't leave much legacy. Then there are artists like Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. Until recently, two innocent young adults who got lucky, one with YouTube and one with Disney. Now both are more famous for filling our papers with their wannabe controversy, some of it beyond low (I've said it before, Miley Cyrus, regardless of her music and whether you like it, is now one truly disgusting being if you look at pictures of her live shows the last 6 months. It's wrong. Drink/drug driving in Biebers case is also low). Maybe they are doing this for attention or to be "rock stars", maybe they're doing it because the fame they have managed to get has led to them cracking as people or them wanting to push boundaries that shouldn't be pushed. Many rock stars from the past show some boundaries don't need this push. 

One thing is for certain. In 50 years when bands are reflected on. It's by far the most likely that of all the award winners last week, it'll be the Arctic Monkey's, their music and the boundaries they pushed in indie rock and rock as an overall genre that'll be remembered. The rest most likely will just be other acts. 

Ultimate Blog Challenge - The 31 things I find most annoying - Number 31 - TV "Talent" Contests!

Hey guys!

So first of all this is my first Ultimate Blogging Challenge post, and it shall be the main concentration of my blog over the next month. Now for this month I decided that I would write about the 31 things that I find most annoying. I have done my best to put in some kind of order but I have found this quite hard as all these 31 things annoy me. Some of them you may like, many you will disagree with, some you may think it is typical of me given the things I like. But I can assure you the number 3 to the number 1 you will find very very hard to disagree with and you too may well think they are mould on our society of today.

So Number 31 is these Televison "Talent" Contests that seem to have come a must have in every weekends scheduling. Now the ones I shall focus on mainly involve the normal "wannabes" but these do include those celebrity shows...however later this month they will appear again in a different category. Now although these shows have been around for years they have become more serious, I mean we used to have Stars In Their Eyes which was a great watch, but now we have the X Factor which is hideously annoying and really a sign of meaningless tv. I have two issues with shows like The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, one is the judges, the others are the contestants and the aftermath of their experience.

So lets start with the judges and the X Factor. Now I'm aware that the X Factor has changed judges over the years but let's go through a few of them and suggest what gives them the right over the common person to judge the mediocrity that enters the show. The first judge that comes to mind when you think of a talent contest is the one and only Simon Cowell. Now it's not hard to see where I am going but I am going to judge Simon's credentials, as he judges other. Now judging is something I have never done, just as singing to a decent standard, or showing any form of talent (other than dressing up as a dog) is something Simon has never done.

Simon Cowell's Got Talent?

This is the man who is the face of Saturday nights on both sides of the Atlantic ocean and honestly it's a shame he has. You can also judge his ability to judge by looking at some of the awful acts he has managed to give us lucky people. These acts have led to a decline of bands that write, create and record music. Especially the genre of rock music. Because rock music is not as smooth as Cowell wants and his hold on the music industry we now see many groups from the X Factor and bands that sound like this is where they have come from and have them forced into our ears wherever we may go. I am a fan of music that is wrote and produced by a band and this is what any of these acts lack, they can sing to a standard that is really below par with those at the top who made it the hard way, they haven't wrote their own songs, spend 10 weeks singing covers and get a contract. Forgive me if it's harsh but whoever they are whether they be One Direction, Shane Ward or Alexandra Burke they have had a very easy way to the top. It's not right. Then theres flops like Joe McEldrey, suddenly he gets on every celebrity show but lacks the ability to maintain a place near the top of the chart after this easy route he never really deserved. The real way to get to the top is to get noticed by playing live or with your unsigned albums or albums with a small label and to move up going round, staying round a fans house, maybe the only fan in that area, or sleeping in your cars playing gigs and getting just enough to live and get by but to get noticed. Bands have done this and succeeded and they've also had longevity, something all acts from the X Factor and other shows lack.

Another judge that has judged the X Factor is Tulisa, more famous for a sex tape than for her horrendous deafening "music". Honestly, I may go and say Simon has never sung, but I wish to God that Tulisa had never sung! And then you place her on TV and say she has the right, the nerve, to judge people who are better than her. Unfortunately for Tulisa, Simon finally found some good judgement and has kicked her out, where the police have picked her up to question her on helping supply people with drugs, something she's clearly guilty of looking at the evidence but something that reality friends say would be incredibly harsh to find her guilty of. Reality friends like Celebrity Big Brother (and apparently X Factor) contestant, as well as friends with the undesirable, unlikeable, many-times-a-wife, bully Katie Price. Now I'm sorry but if reality TV and talent contests bring prats like this to the forefront of our culture and society they should be made illegal. 

How the world feels when this person is a "popular" within society.

In contrast The Voice picked singers as judges, however one was incredibly unknown, despite being in the script, another had had success for barely a year and therefore didn't really warrant being a judge. The other two Will.I.Am and Tom Jones in fairness have kept coming back and selling well. Although I am not a fan of Will.I.Am's solo music, the man has sold his music and his bands music for many years successfully, reinventing himself at times, although some acts he's signed are useless to be honest. Tom Jones has every right to be a judge. The issue with this show is it's quite frankly boring. It lacks drama once they've stopped turning their chairs round nobody watches it. And it's main issue is what happens to the contestants afterwards with the winner of the show not even having her album in the top 100. Mind you the X Factor had Steve Brookstein who now seems to just abuse people who don't like him via his twitter, such a career he won!

So yeah, I could go on forever  but I don't want to bore you. Hopefully my second post will come earlier tomorrow, but for now enjoy. Agree or disagree please leave a comment, and discuss this. alternatively tweet me and use the hashtag #31annoyingthings and I shall get back to you!

If You Have The Time To Listen To Me Whine

Hey guys! Me again! First of all sorry for no James' Today on Saturday! I was pretty occupied, I mean Laura Robson took two hours to win! Then I had a couple of pints so yes. I have a few things today that I want to rant about and I am going to put them all in one post.

So the first thing I wish to rant about and it is a thing, is Katie Price. You do need the time to listen to me whine here really! Well today I read an article about Ms Price saying her husband will get "fuck all". Now I can understand trust must come a big deal when you are as utterly detestable as the thing that seems to be in a state of permanent jealousy of Kelly Brook, so much so you send a picture of her bare breast thinking the whole of Britain will be in shock and say "she's not all that". But no, this backfires as Katie is the only person who thinks plastic is a good look.

This is a thing that works for The Scum newspaper about issues that deeply effect us like "Where will we get our make up if Bangladesh gets flooded?" along with many a story about Peter Andre and how he's a horrible person. I'm afraid to the woman who claims she can count the amount of men she has slept with using her fingers (yes I know, she must be severely dyslexic), having so many husbands and relationships that end in tatters, I can spot one similarity...Katie Price is involved. I am fed up with having papers and news websites telling me what bullshit she's up to now. I don't care if she wants to be in Eurovision, she can't sing and we'll come last because Europe hates her. So why do people follow her, or want to be like her? Why have Sky been rumoured to commission a show looking for the next Katie Price? Is this country really this stupid? We want intelligent, funny, confident women, not women who have to try to look as much like Barbie as possible. Katie Price is just a signal for men to continue to be sexist, that's all she's good for, sorry to be blunt but it's the truth. It's just a shame The Scum newspaper would rather publicise this than tell us about these smart, funny and confident women we would rather hear about.

To be honest, the fact that Katie Price is so popular within society shows me society is dumbing down which leads me onto my next point. Text language needs to stop. I'm fine with the odd use of "lol" and "tbh" in a text conversation but today I found out thanks to +Danièlle Owen that "NVM" means Nevermind. Now what the hell is that for text language, stop using it and write the word. That word was the name of one of the greatest albums of it's time, by a band called Nirvana, I'm sure Kurt Cobain would have been thrilled to call his album "NVM"...and then there is "IMO" which means "In my opinion", why? This makes no sense whatsoever! Stop using slang and text speak and speak in normal English. It's what we all learnt in school. I mean we use this rubbish and then complain that foreign people don't know English, well right now some of us look to also be struggling with the mother tongue! I would prefer this generation not to be the generation of TOWIE, Geordie Shore, Justin Bieber and One Direction, not just because all of these are generally unintelligent television and music with little meaning, but because none of those things has an ounce of real personality within it. Now I can respect people listening to One Direction the odd time, it appears in the club as much as I personally loathe it, but I can only stand that if it's a light sprinkling on top of what I would call far better more intelligent bands. Bieber is also a far worse role model than One Direction, although both fan bases are some of the most scary things you will ever get to cross. Personally I would advise not liking either. But to my point, we need to have an intelligence around, personality, TOWIE and stuff like this just make people sit back and do nothing other than be stupid all day! It's a pathetic excuse for a television show. Mind you I could go on about how the BBC have dumbed down the shows I watched when I was a child, such as Blue Peter now, which went from a reasonably intelligent show to a show that's stupidity is beyond itself, on once a week, mainly so shows about red dogs etc can be shown.

Finally I watched the Rolling Stones tonight, to be blunt it was pretty diabolical considering their reputation, in fact it was an embarrassment to their reputation. Jagger looked like he was a walking skeleton. The dancing was abysmal, all I can say is you expect better, especially from a band that charge £190 for an arena gig. But then some fools must pay that much and then wonder why it was worth it. All I can say is thank goodness a band like the Ramones or the Beatles couldn't embarrass themselves in this way. If you want to see an older artist I would recommend Bruce Springsteen, his Glastonbury set looked incredible, plus everyone I know who has seen him has commented on how good he is and his music is most certainly on the same level (personally I would say far higher) than the Rolling Stones. This is not to say I hate the music the Stones produced, some was reasonably good, but honestly guys, you should have split up decades ago, fans who pay huge sums of money to see that rubbish are being victimised by your greed to make a few more quid. And regarding comments about not finding your careers mentally stimulating and making it sound like such a bad life, look at yourselves and your bank accounts and shut up. If you want to be mentally stimulated and a musician think more about the lyrics, there are many bands I like with lyrics people can relate too. Not just think "this is a good tune and I can know the chorus".

The concludes my rant, which could go on forever to be honest.

No offence was meant regarding the dyslexic comment.