One of the nice things about getting old is that you don’t have to deal with garbage like the Jonas Brothers until some scumbag at Fox decides it is what you need to see during the halftime show of a football game. In my case, I had never even heard of them until five minutes ago. I wish that were still the case.
I am not sure who is responsible for what I just endured, but Gitmo is too good for them. At least my turkey, despite what Yglesias thinks, was pretty damned good.
amorphous
Not sure who’s in charge of picking the halftime acts, but they obviously don’t know their own audience. Case in point: Ashley Simpson performing at Oklahoma – Southern Cal.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
I am not sure who is responsible for what I just endured, but Gitmo is too good for them.
Ultimately, that would be The Mouse, John. You didn’t just threaten The Mouse, did you?
amorphous
@amorphous: BOO!
TenguPhule
What is seen can’t be unseen.
Billy K
Agreed 100%.
IanY77
Amen. I had heard of them, but that was my first exposure.
Please God, let my 1st kid be a straight boy. I can’t put up with 14 years of that crap.
Comrade Kevin
There was something hideous on the half time show of the early broadcast, too. Fortunately, I had the sound muted at the time and was able to change the channel without subjecting my ears to it.
Bobzim
You are. Why didn’t you change the channel for awhile?
When I hear the first sounds of something like that I hit the last channel button immediately, i.e. that fucking denture adhesive commercial that has the off-key old people singing to "Bye, Bye, Love". Whoever put that together needs to be dropped in the middle of downtown Peshawar!
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Never heard of them, don’t know who they are.
Read this thread, still don’t know who they are.
I’m glad.
:)
Laura W
One of the suckiest things about getting old is that your STMemory goes to hell. (My 94-yr-old Grama and I were just discussing this earlier today WHEN I PICKED UP THE PHONE AND CALLED. shudder.)
John…did you watch the Democratic Convention?
Malia and Sasha await your apology.
ThymeZone
ANAICT Jonas Brothers is a boy band marketed at 9 year old girls.
Since we know that 9 year old girls are the core of the NFL tv demographic, the whole thing makes perfect sense to me.
passerby
MUTE button. Glad I saved myself the suffering.
MattF
Yeah, the first time I heard of them was a couple of months ago when they turned up in a New York Times crossword. Still haven’t seen or heard them, thankfully.
passerby
LOL@ Bobzim
FTW
Punchy
They put the "ass" in "Jonas"
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
It was a "family time" trade-off for the kids and wife taking dad to the ball game today instead of suffering through Aunt Edna.
NR
If you watch the "behind the scenes at the DNC" video on Youtube, you’ll find out that Obama’s older daughter likes them.
Bobzim
@passerby:
Danke schoen.
myiq2xu
Or the Mark Foley demographic, which is a major part of the FOX audience.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Just because I like Obama as president doesn’t mean I have to induldge in the same puppy love tastes as his prepubescent daughter.
Sparkletts Water Show
@CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII: I know this is none of my business, really, but since you seem to make it all of our businesses, night after night after night after night after night…
Do you two ever get together IRL? Like, even for holidays? Or is your entire relationship conducted on this site?
Have you ever met in person?
TR
That ad will be replayed on an endless loop in hell. The screechy offkey voice of the woman who curls up and says "think I’m gonna cry/die" makes me want to jab knitting needles into my ears.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I live 1/2 mile away, you figure that out.
Actually we just spent five hours together and shared a thanksgiving meal, a hamburger (I ate most of it, he ate one bite).
NR
@myiq2xu:
Shouldn’t you be off somewhere with the rest of the PUMAs, writing about how Sarah Palin was the best VP choice ever and a tremendous asset to the Republican ticket?
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Really, have I? I suppose that’s why you had to ask if I ever met him IRL? What kind of terms of endearment do I use? Do I send him hearts and kisses? Nope, I don’t. I joke around with him, and I don’t throw deeply personal info about our connection in this blog except on the rare occasion when he’s pissed me off.
Do you have any clue what we do? What our relationship is? You didn’t even know if we’d ever actually met, so, how can you state I throw it around night after night after night after night after night? What exactly am I throwing around?
The Grand Panjandrum
What ever happened to all those great bands like the Partiidge Family? Jesus! Nothing like the good old days when bands marketed for kids really sucked.
@myiq2xu: I’m glad to see you back!
A Different Matt
Comments 21-25 confuse me.
South of I-10
I’m avoiding this crap while I still can. It is marketed so heavily, I am not sure you can avoid it if you have a kid. I heard a couple of bars and my ears started to bleed.
Ben
I went to the Lions game today. I predicted a 35 point loss, so I felt pretty satisfied with the result. Go team.
The halftime show there was dreadfully cheesy, too.
Svensker
My son went to the same school as the Jonas’s. He said none of the kids at school could stand them, but the school administration was always getting the family to do fund raisers, and everyone had to go. And apparently Daddy Jonas is quite the sleazeball (besides being aggressively Christian). Actually, sounds like just the sort of act Fox would like.
Krista
myiq made a funny! Nicely done!
(And I mean that, sincerely.)
ThymeZone
Whatever. Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I have things to do.
srv
I await an implosion of the today’s music genres that surpasses the Wall Street meltdown. Hopefully, we are reaching the end of an era and will move onto something remotely tolerable.
If not, perhaps Jonas Brothers, Fall Out Boy and Ashley will perform together somewhere and I can dig out the suicide vest I made for a Yanni/John Tesch concert long ago.
ThymeZone
Yanni and Tesch together? All they needed was Kenny G and they could have put an end to all music forever, everywhere. In fact, after that concert, the prior existence of music would no longer be known to mankind at all.
South of I-10
@SRV: Please make sure Hannah Montana is there too.
JWeidner
From John’s previous post:
I think we now know the answer to THAT question.
calipygian
They wear purity rings.
Purity rings.
If you knew their back story (I watch way too much TMZ), you’d beg for Gitmo for yourself.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Sometimes those things are just used for show.
I bet it’s difficult for them backstage if they wear them for real.
Zam
Rule #1 do not EVER listen to a band made famous not by their music, but from a huge marketing campaign from Disney.
Genine
@calipygian:
Yeah, I know all about that.
I don’t care, if that’s what they really want to do. But the way they go about talking and… showcasing it….
One day my eyes will roll and get stuck in the back of my head.
Genine
* *nods* * Very sage advice. You should start of ashram.
smiley
Actually, short-term memory isn’t what you all think it is. The theorists say that there are three types of memory: sensory memory (which is broken down into iconic and echoic memory and lasts only a few seconds), short-term memory, and long-term memory. Short-term memory lasts, according to the research, from 12 to 30 seconds. One of the only ways we remember things from short-term memory, according to the data, is by rehearsal, and a lot of things can interfere with retention. Long-term memory is every thing else after about 30 seconds. Sorry, but our brains are changing more as we age than losing "short-term memory. It sucks and I don’t remember why.
garyb50
I took the opportunity to put some more food in one of my worm bins, so I missed them. Time well spent, I think.
ThymeZone
I forgot what I was going to say.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Fitting.
Ha! ;)
Laura W
@smiley:I’m sorry, WHAT?
Laura W
@smiley: OK, so my whole point was that John’s LTM (have it your way, Dr. Smiley) sucks since he HAD heard of the Jonas Bros prior to tonight’s debacle because I know he watched Michelle at the convention with the girls coming on stage when Daddy came up on the screen and what nitwit who reads anything (no offense, John) did not know the girls love the J. Bros and were expecting him instead of Daddy?!!?
Moving on…my 94-yr-old grama forgot what she was going to say today on the phone and we had a huge laugh about having to stick post-its on our foreheads to remember shit and then she said I could blame the stress of the economy and I said since I no longer can blame Hillary (yet…again), or the elections, I might as well blame the economy.
All this ‘splainin’ is too hard tonight. I have to be up at 6am. Can’t I just talk about wine and be a drunkard’s dream again?
smiley
@Laura W: I said; IT SUCKS AND I DON’T REMEMBER WHY!
Loud enough?
If you have elderly parents/grandparents and want to help them adjust to their lot in life, encourage to them to rehearse what they need to remember. They’ll resist, maybe even while pissed off, but it works.
ThymeZone
I might just have a fit.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I think you will, and I predict you will turn purple. ;)
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Only if you change your name to Bessie.
::grins::
smiley
@Laura W:
My 80 year old mother too. She’s awesome and not anywhere near done — but she forgets. Not sure how I’ll be when she checks out.
.
If you’re up on Cripple Creek, then you have to.
Peace.
Comrade Glocksman
Will you bet on horse races for me?
Canadian women are this drunkard’s dream. :)
All kidding aside, I felt old when my goddaughter asked me just what you were referring to in that quote.
kommrade reproductive vigor
I assume every channel that broadcasts football is now obliged to reassure the FCC that there is absolutely no chance RealAmerica will be subjected to a .0005 second glimpse of a titty.
I intended to live my entire life without hearing a peep out of The FocusGroupTested Brothers only to have my ears violated during a damn football game.
Nothing is safe or sacred.
Zam
I don’t doubt that soon we will be subjected to a Hannah Montana Superbowl
kommrade reproductive vigor
Or these guys.
burnspbesq
Just one of many reasons why college basketball is superior to the NFL. I am on my fifth game of the day, and haven’t come close to having the Sucky Brothers inflicted on me.
OoozzzyPaste
I have dentures – and yes, they suck more than you’ll ever know – but I will never ever ever ever use that crap being sold by that heinous commercial.
Bye, bye, Seabond.
smiley
Ok, but … Damn…
Zifnab
But.. but.. the Jesus Brothers are all about family values and strong morale character and hard work and Disney – just like Britney Spears circa 1999. What’s not to love?
Zifnab
Also, for those of you who have chosen not to tune in to the greatest college rivalry of all time, GO HORNS!
smiley
Ok, but … Damn… maybe this
http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/2008/11/la-first-lady.html
dand
I just had my first son graduate from college (Purdue ME with minor in Japanese). I went bar crawling with him and all I heard was music from my era. It was kind of weird. I had the same feeling when I dropped him off to start 5 years ago (1 year in Japan). He apparently hates the Jonas bros too.
I am confused. Shouldn’t they have their own music? Should it not suck? I do not care if it sucks for me but shouldn’t they like it? Maybe they should get into classical or jazz or something else that they like. Oddly, he has taken to swing dancing – for a classic wall flower-engineer that is something. But I am still confused. Where is the good new music? Where is the next stones, clapton, who….?
Brian J
You might indeed be too old for her show, but "Chelsea Lately," Chelsea Handler’s show on the E! network, has a round table segment for about the first half of the show that rips apart any celebrity who is making a fool of him or herself. You wouldn’t necessarily see, say, George Clooney as part of the segment, but you might see them making comments about his waitress girlfriend and what she does. Sometimes, the comments border on the cruel, but those are usually directed at the most odious of targets, like Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt from the MTV show "The Hills."
I fell out of touch with it because of the election coverage, but it’s usually pretty timely, even without a clear (at least to me) schedule of new episodes. I’m trying to get back into it. She’s absolutely hysterical, like she is in her book Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, and I think she’s hot. So even if you have no reason to watch the show to both catch up on popular culture and laugh at its more ridiculous faces, she’s nice to look at it.
gopher2b
It’s called a remote.
I turned the channel, got distracted, and never went back to the game. So, Fox lost me for the whole second half and their halftime show was the sole reason.
Ned R.
Lemme tell ya, John, this photo is the real proof of those brothers’ strange nature:
Ned R.
Dang, I thought I had that working:
http://idolator.com/assets/resources/2008/03/AP08032407745.jpg
TrishB
My family skipped half time. Actually, my sixty-six year old father paused the tv just after he said "what the fuck is this shit?" He usually doesn’t swear in front of the family, but this was a good exception. We then listened to my nephew’s roommate from Oberlin play Chopin for over 30 minutes, followed by some of his own stuff. Damn the kid can play! And write!
Bob In Pacifica
If you like the Jonas Brothers then you’ll love Varsity Fanclub. Saw them during the Macy’s Parade, right before Al Roker interviewed Michael Flatley. I think Flatley was pimping a new reality dance show.
ninerdave
Which is why Tivo (or MythTV in my case) is the greatest invention since, well, ever.
I teed up the games before people got here, gave the remote to my Dad, he skipped all the commercials, all the blowhards and all the half time "entertainment". Like I do every Sunday.
SGEW
I know that everyone complains about modern ‘tween music (Menudo, anyone?), but this kind of thing has been around for a while, annoying most adults[1] and all boys since some marketing genius first invented the notion[2].
And as far as
goes, do you really want to put up with years of listening to Minor Threat instead? That’s what my parents (poor folk) had to put up with.
Face it: your kids’ music is specifically designed to irritate you.
[1]Obama called the Jonas Brothers "wholesome enough." Pfwah!
[2]That person is now in Hell, if there’s any Justice[3].
[3]Which there is not.
[edited for formatting. Preview lies like Nixon.]
Jennifer
Heh. My mother’s husband wears these special wireless earphones for watching TV, so he alone was subjected to the Jonas brothers. Though for the sin of making the rest of us see them, I made everyone watch Idiocracy after the game. My mother said, "that’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen," so I reminded her of the time several years ago when she sat up late with me on Christmas Eve and watched Jackass: The Movie of her own free will – and laughed at several parts of it.
Besides, I don’t think Idiocracy is a bad movie, so I don’t get the criticism. Yeah, it’s stupid, but what do you expect from a movie that’s about stupid people?
ninerdave
The problem is now-a-days they don’t even have to know how to play instruments or sing. Really all you need is a good looking package and leave the rest up to technology. Previous to this the bands actually had to have some modicum of talent.
See AutoTune and Elastic Time
Cassidy
What’s wrong with Minor Threat?
rachel
And the RIAA wonders why their member corporations are losing sales. If the only new music I could buy was the Jonas Brothers and their ilk, I’d spend my money on a blackboard to scratch my fingernails on because at least that is useful for other things too.
Hyperion
I bullied my family into watching Idiocracy a year ago with the same result.
*sigh*
Each time I see it I notice some new detail.
GSD
Janet Jackson flashes an uncovered tit for a split second and the FCC has a shit fit.
Today we saw 3 dicks on stage for 10 minutes and not a peep from the FCC.
Go figger.
-GSD
Brian J
Perhaps it’s a matter of certain parts being better than the whole. I might take a lot of crap for saying this, but I find a lot of songs from Justin Timberlake to be very catchy. I don’t know if they will be studied years from now as examples of anything particularly great, but they are part of what I would call good music in that genre. He’s actually gotten a lot better as time has gone on, and when I hear songs he’s worked on with others, I can see he’s got even more talent than I originally realized.
But where are his former ‘N’ Sync members? If you can say anything about any of them besides Lance Bass, that’s impressive.
Of course, it’s possible to say that some of these people are more performers than musicians, but I think the point still stands: the less talented people will fade away.
burnspbesq
@Zifnab:
What on earth are you talking about? The Union – RPI game was three weeks ago.
DrDave
@ThymeZone:
My daughters, 15 and 10, were thrilled. My nephews, 18 and 20, got to puzzle over how loosely fame can be associated with actually having talent. The interchange was amusing enough to distract from the nonsense on TV.
What did occur to me was this: Too bad they didn’t schedule Dallas to play Tennessee and Detroit to play Seattle. There would have been at least one good game there.
ParsonH
…otherwise known as gay people. God forbid we should ever find young adults of our preferred gender physically attractive, since we all know straight guys never enjoy looking at young, attractive female pop stars.
Comrade Nikolita
@Brian J:
I like a bunch of JT’s songs from his Future/Sex/Love/Song or whatever album he most recently released. A lot of that stuff with Timberlake and the techno sounds and whatnot is really neat, and I give him more credit as an artist than I used to.
I remember seeing a clip of Ashlee Simpson at the halftime a few years ago, and they actually boo’ed her. She reminds me of Avril Lavigne, in that both can’t sing live very well (although Avril has gotten better more recently).
Tom Petty did last year’s halftime, did he not? I missed it on TV because I had to work that night I think, but I found it later on YouTube. I’d love to see him live one day. :)
I grew up in the 90’s, but had my dad’s CD collection as a heavy influence, so I grew up on a lot of 80’s rock (which is still my favourite genre to this day). I have heard of the Jonas Brothers, but haven’t had to listen to their music yet, and I don’t think I have to in order to say that they suck. Anything mass marketed by Disney like that is usually pretty sucky.
As for the former members of NSync, aside from Justin and then Lance being gay, I think that one guy (JC?) was a judge on a couple of reality TV shows, and another guy was on a reality TV show for former boy band members…? I don’t remember names very well.
Chuck Butcher
This discussion makes it easy for me to stay in my rut of the blues or rock-n-roll pre-80s w/o any market genius bands. (that would be when FM play meant something)
It isn’t that all new music sucks, it is just more trouble than I’m willing to endure to sort out what doesn’t. Sometimes in the SSR near an actual city I’ll flip through several contemporary stations – until I can’t stand it anymore…
I say the SSR because it has a good Bose system and controls on the wheel.
ninerdave
No highs, no lows, must be Bose!!
Audio engineer humor from the 80s when I was engineering full time.
eyeball
Good giref, Cole. What kind of sap watches the half-time show?
AlanDownunder
Jonas Schmonas. Remember that Superbowl where Kid Rock was way more painful even than Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction?
Jamey the plumber -- an American hero
Little known fact: Photos of the Jonas Brothers are accepted as legal tender currency in most U.S. prisons.
Michael D.
In Thanksgiving Tradition, Bush Pardons Scooter Libby In Giant Turkey Costume
kommrade reproductive vigor
@GSD: Win.
Some evil genius needs to design a device that frags DAT machines from a distance. No talentless collection of cutesyness would last past its first live performance.
Fixed.
It doesn’t help that most radio stations are now owned by a few corporations run by people who hate music and people who like music. That’s why D.C. proudly boasts a negative correlation between the diversity of its population and the diversity of its radio stations. Or at least it did the last time I could be arsed to listen to the radio.
FY ClearChannel.
smiley
@ninerdave:
Heh. I had a friend in college who had a pair of 901’s. They were, um, loud. I remember thinking, "How can all those little drivers make base?" One of the frats had a pair of the huge Klipsh-horn speakers. Those damn things were so loud you could barely distinguish what was coming out of them. I had a pair of the small Advent’s, so what did I know.
bago
That’s because they didn’t have enough MENERGY.
pharniel
@calipygian:
I just assumed those things are there so they can whip them out as cockrings to service the huge line of crazy fangrrls.
though it occurs to me that they prolly keep getting called ‘edward’ alot right now.
btw, what’s wrong with falloutboy? not nearly as aggrivating as jonas bros.
Bob In Pacifica
"Cheer up sleepy Jean! Oh, what can it mean to a daydream believer and a homecoming queen?"
Or:
"How much is that doggie in the window?"
canuckistani
I had to work yesterday instead of lolling in a turkey-induced stupor in front of a football game. No turkey, no pie, no root veggies, no gravy, no stuffing, no football, but I did get Elvis Costello on my iPod instead of the Jonas Bros., so i think I came out ahead.
Comrade Ed Drone
There! I fixed it for you.
Ed
Brian
At least they didn’t invite a Korean boy band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-Is7vc5vnk
pharniel
in short – boy bands have existed since mass media was invented, they’re evil, and some can manage to grow into something that doesn’t suck (at least for most people. see – beatles, the)
it’s the fact that disney especially is catering to spoiled tweeners that’s disturbing, because we all know that 11-18 year old girls are batshit.
(boys arn’t batshit, they’re just stupid, single-minded and violent. much easier to control)
for extra brain hurty the star of twilight was also the star of ‘thirteen’
canuckistani
pharniel-
Beg to disagree, the Beatles were a) a greasy and leatherclad rock and roll band before they got cleaned up by the marketing people and b) outstanding musicians who wrote and performed their own music. They do not meet any of the "boy band" criteria.
Joshua
The Beatles were able to craft some remarkably catchy mainstream-friendly songs, and were successfully marketed to teen girls and such, it must be said they could write and perform brilliantly (I was just listening to Please Please Me this morning – their first, but a brilliant record in all respects, even the covers are excellent), both through innate talent on the part of all members and the time they spent grinding out performances (especially in Hamburg).
It’s amazing to me, but it shouldn’t be, that everyone Disney from on high chooses to become a star becomes one. It was not more than 6 months ago, when watching some shitty Disney show (forced by my lovely girlfriend), I laughed at these Jonas Brothers playing a bit part as musicians. Now they are huge.
What a great racket Disney has there! In fact, it gets worse you know. I was watching the Seattle-Dallas game and didn’t know who it was singing the national anthem. It turned out she was from Camp Rock, another piece of dreck from the Disney fount. So, at least 2 out of the 6 musical performances in the NFL games yesterday came from Disney. Impressive!
Chuck Butcher
@ninerdave:
Considering the lack of subs the SSR’s Bose 6CD system isn’t too bad for a "factory" unit. This does involve a small cab but since my primary home system consists of B&K 440 amp & Sonata pre-amp w/Technics SL120 w/Grace arm turntable and Epicure Towers I have an idea of what it could sound like. Oddly enough on a top end system CDs seem overproduced versus good LPs. I used to spend a lot of money on music.
Mike G
Rule #1 do not EVER listen to a band made famous not by their music, but from a huge marketing campaign from Disney.
All Disney performers are so overhyped they should come with FDA labels like fruit juices:
"Contains less than 2% talent".
Brachiator
@pharniel:
It is a universal truth best expounded by Willie Dixon that "The men dont know But the little girls understand." When Der Bingle (Bing Crosby for you squares) crooned, the little girls swooned, and the cranky little boys didn’t get it. When Frankie made the Bobbie Soxers weak at the knees, frightened little boys scowled and wondered how anyone could like such a scrawney mildly talented singer like Sinatra. And Elvis? Don’t get me started. All the young dudes with their crew cuts laughed at those four Brits with their funny haircuts while teen girls’ shrieks practically brought the house down when the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.
The Jonas Brothers may not be the most talented group ever, but so what? The kids are all right. All you old farts and fartettes really need to pipe down because pop culture always has and always will belong to the young.
As for the malign influence of Disney. Raise your hands if you are an old fart and Annette Funicello ever fueled your adolescent fantasies. Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Jamey the plumber -- an American hero
Ninerdave: Speaker cables affect sonic quality. Discuss.
Nicole
Actually, she’s one of the supporting characters. The star was in Into the Wild and was Jodie Foster’s daughter in Panic Room.
(puts head down on desk. Why, oh why, do I know this? I can haz life, pleez?)
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Bob In Pacifica: Eat hot death you bloody bastard.
Eric U.
If my 12 y.o. son has control of the remote, we’re watching Disney, so I now know more than I want to know about the Jonas Bros. A couple of them can play instruments, which is more than the members of n’sync can say.
Speaking of Justin Timberlake, it’s my impression that he has been forced on the American public more than any other artist. Although my daughter tells me he has had some hits. I always figured he was related to somebody very powerful.
Smgumby
The problem is not that the Jonas brothers are so bad, but they are intended for an audience of 10 years old and younger.
My 4 and 6 year old’s love ’em. My 10 year old is less taken by them by the day.
Think of these guys as Teletubbies… …without the suits.
Big E
Jonas Bros. suck Alaskan moose… big time..!
with all the musicians and bands available, it is
tragic that that’s what is chosen for any TV show except Disney…
LAME LAME LAME
Big E
@Brachiator: 102
re: ‘pop culture always has and always will belong to the young.’
well, I understand your point BUT
there was a point when some of the music of the ‘pop culture’ ‘young yutes’ of America was Hendrix, Beatles, Stones, Cream, Zeppelin etc.
at one time in the late 30’s and 40’s, Ellington, Basie, Sinatra, Goodman, Shaw, Ella Fitzgerald was ‘pop’ music….
hell, even folks like Chet Baker, Stan Getz and Dave Brubeck, Tony Bennett, acheived some ‘pop-iness’……
there is a big difference between the Jonas Bros. manufactured ‘boy band’ merchandising and the other folks I mentioned…
and yes…… I’m a musician…..
Blue Raven
Justin Timberlake post-breakup with La Brit wrote one of the best breakup songs ever, "Cry Me a River." Its true genius is only visible in a cover version by Glen Hansard, but that’s because Hansard’s guitar line means you can hear the damn song instead of being forced to tolerate Timbaland’s idea of a backbeat. I love a good dance number, but Timba buries the vocals way too often. Of course, this comes from a woman who only started really liking Britney’s "…Baby One More Time" after hearing Travis cover it with acoustic guitars. Again, I could hear the damn lyrics.
Comrade Nikolita
@pharniel:
Too emo. Well for me, anyways. All their videos look the same to me, and all their songs sound the same to me.
TenguPhule
That cake is a lie.
2th&Nayle
You can argue the ‘talent vs hype’ paradigm all you want, but the truth is, without proper management, all the talent in the world won’t, in and of itself, guarantee success in the music business. I suspect that without the ‘genius’ of the, Col. Parker, Brian Epstein, and Barry Gordy, types, nobody would have ever heard of Elvis, the Beatles, or the Jackson Five, not, at least, on the national and international level. As regards the Jonas Brothers, I further suspect, that these boys are about seven and a half minutes into their allotted fifteen, and the clock…. she is a ticking. Anybody know what ever happened to the Backstreet Boys??
Galen West
whoa, hold on there Cole. The Jonas Brothers are the bomb, yo! As a high school teacher, I have to tell you, the Jonas Brothers are all the rage with the girlies. I am a Boston/Asia/Journey man myself, but the JB aren’t too bad. And my two boys (8 and 10) like them, and they hate all music, so that must say something about the JB.
Galen West
@2th&Nayle: You’re kidding, right? they are back and better than ever. There is only four of them now, but they have released two albums lately. And the latest one is the best they have done.
2th&nayle
@Galen West: Actually Galen, I wasn’t kidding. I was just being a smartass. Have to admit I’ve never been a big ‘boy band’ fan; unless you count ‘The Beatles’ (which I don’t). Glad to hear the ‘BB’s-1’, are alive and doing well. Really!