I’m not really into her style of music and I’m not her target audience, but I think she’s got a strong voice and some great songs. Having never heard her speak, I can’t say much about her personality. But, from based on remote-empathy - she’s very honest with her music - and that’s infinitely more interesting to me than the commercial approach.
I loathe this obsession with individuals that no one partaking in the discussion has ever met, though, but that’s a topic for another discussion.
Not a good singing voice. Imagine that song done by someone who can sing…
In that case, I foresee a guest spot on Herbie Hancock’s inevitable Simon & Garfunkel tribute album in her future.
If you truly don’t think that’s a good singing voice, I think it can safely be said you are out of your fucking mind.
I can see people not liking her voice. My 16-year-old granddaughter, who likes that kind of music in general, doesn’t like Adele’s voice. But she recognizes it’s a good voice, it’s just not her cup of tea. That is a matter of personal preference. To say it’s not a good voice is insanity.
I’m in the who the hell is Adele column. I also don’t have a lot of respect for the Grammys, which has had a penchant for bland and innocuous pop stars (I fully understood the Stones laughing and giggling disrespectfully while being presented with their first decades belatedly). Which is not to say that’s the case now, because I simply don’t pay much attention to them.
But respect for the Grammys is on the artistic integrity axis, not the “who is or isn’t a notable/famous” person axis.
You can dislike Grammy winners or be contemptuous of Grammy winners or find Grammy winners uninteresting musically, but in terms of “Who the hell is so and so”, it’s hard to call Grammy-winning type artists obscure. I feel like, at this point, if you really don’t know who Adele is, you’re going out of your way not to pay attention to the world around you.
This just gets back to my general irritation with people who seem proud of being ignorant of popular culture, which is not the same as being uncritical of popular culture or being required to love popular culture.
“I don’t like Justin Bieber” is a perfectly reasonable stance. “I don’t know who Justin Beiber is” just makes people come off like jaded hipster assholes. As I said before, the whole “I don’t even own a TV.” type.
I think this especially annoying in the case of Adele, since one of the main knocks against mainstream pop is that the people are chosen for looks or dancing ability over any actual ability to sing, and then run around in weird costumes or laser light shows or CGI videos or whatever and a ton of autotune. Whereas Adele is a chubby woman who doesn’t dance around, doesn’t use autotune, doesn’t wear art projects for clothing, and doesn’t go nuts with melisma. She just stands there and sings, well. She’s everything people claim they want/miss in good quality pop music, and any mainstream success she gets should be seen as a good sign.
I haven’t heard much of hers, basically just her hits, but I get the impression she has a good voice for the material she’s currently doing. I don’t see a lot of potential there for her to branch out, therefore I think long term her prospects are for a small-ish core fanbase but that the mainstream will get bored of her and move on. Norah Jones comes to mind in this regard, Come Away with Me was pretty much all anyone needs from her.
edit: Just read the thread, the Norah Jones comparison has already been made, d’oh!
Couldn’t agree more. Whether one loves or hates someone in popular culture, those who are willfully un-curious–and proud of that fact to the point of trumpeting it–strike me as being dullards.
My personal embarrassing story is that I really like Adele’s stuff, but I only listen to pop music while my daughter is in the car. Why is that embarrassing? Well, the only thing I knew about Adele was that she was British, and I assumed she was the same person who did the song “American Boy” with Kayne West a few years back (that’s actually “Estelle,” another UK singer with only one name). So I was at a party the other month and we were having a conversation about female black vocalists with powerful voices and… well, my fondness for the banjo already put me in the lower tiers of musical “street cred” so I really had little to lose, I guess. The shame still burns, though.
Aw, early on when I’d first heard of Adele, I totally thought people were talking about Estelle. Feel no shame!
That’s a little uncharitable, innit? I’ve just learned over my years that the compromises one usually has to make in art to become mass-marketable also often makes that art less thoughtful and interesting to consume. It’s not always true, and I can think of several counter-examples just sitting here quietly for a second, but it’s true often enough that you can safely avoid most of it. The good stuff usually penetrates anyway.
If that makes me a dullard, so be it.
I only knew who Adele was from the music videos my gym insists on playing on the big screen TV’s near the machines. I don’t listen to radio stations that play her music and if i saw her name in the paper or on a magazine cover I would have just ignored it like any other name.
Does asking whose Karl Lagerfeld put me into hipster territory? Because I never heard of him before.
I first heard of Adele when driving and flipping through the radio stations. Heard Rolling in the Deep and thought it was pretty catchy.
I’m not very musically aware.
The way my brain is, if I see a name several times in the course of a month or week or year, or on the covers of enough magazines or newspapers, I investigate. Even if that’s just 3 minutes of looking at wikipedia or whatever. Because I just don’t want to be that guy who keeps going “Who?” about people who are very famous/talented/notorious, whatever. That doesn’t mean I have to like them or be a fan or an expert, I just hate the idea of being clueless. If I’m asked a question about something in the mainstream of the society I live in, I want to be able to say something intelligent about them, even if it’s just “They’re a talentless hack.”
He’s a fashion designer. He’s been creative director at Chanel, at Fendi, and he has his own Lagerfeld label. Fashions, perfumes, etc. He’s a contemporary of Yves Saint Laurent.
He also was the DJ/Announcer for the K109 Disco channel in GTA 4
He’s a known eccentric who semi-regularly says or does controversial or politically incorrect things. He typically dresses like a member of a vampire high council.
There, now you’re basically up to speed on Karl Lagerfeld.
I only knew of Adele because a co-worker likes to listen to her music. Otherwise, I’d probably only recognize a song or two from passive exposure at a casino or grocery store and have no idea who was singing it. I think nowadays there’s so many things vying for one’s leisure attention, it can be easier to miss out on a big name in entertainment than before. There’s more TV channels, more movies, fragmented music genres, bigger video games, and the internet, which allows you more control over filtering all this stuff than TV or radio ever did. If you’re not into Top 40 or AC music, you can avoid most of it pretty easily.
I know who Justin Beiber is, but most of that knowledge comes from internet-based ridicule. I know he’s a teenage pop singer and what he looks like, but I couldn’t name a single song of his. It seems like I only ever learn of most of these folks when they get involved in controversy. I never heard of MIA until the superbowl incident, I never heard of Taylor Swift until the Kanye west incident, and I never heard of Kanye West until the Katrina incident.
So I should be investigating the Kardashians and all the other nobodies whose faces grace AOL and magazines everywhere. I don’t have the time or desire to be that “in the know”. Pop culture isn’t that important to me. I have enough trouble with the stuff I actually deal with in real life.
You don’t have to be an expert. You just have to be aware of the society you live in. Like I said “I’m sick of hearing about the Kardashians” is fine. “Kim Kardashian is a shameless famewhore” is fine. “Are the Kardashians famous for anything besides being famous?” is fine. "“At least she has a nice ass” is fine.
“Who?” just makes you seem clueless and out of touch. And then one day you’re going to be that sad old guy who can’t make heads or tails of what an iPad is or whatever.
I am already that sad old guy. :)
I find there are very few recent musical groups/individuals or actors that I have any idea who they are, or why I should have heard of them. Name an athlete in (MLB-NFL-NBA-PGA) a major sport and I can tell you anything.
And while there are reasons (maybe) for owning an IPAD I fail to see why most people would want one. :)
Hey–old and “technologically impaired” do not always go together…I’ll admit to more years than I’d like to (68), but I like to think of myself as in the technological loop. And I even own an iPad 2. :)