I used to listen to an FM "The Planet" from San Diego and they had their customized version. I thought it was a bit of fun. But tell me, just what kind of promotion by radio/TV is NOT "shameless"?
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Carly Simon is classic rock?
- Thread starter vchimpanzee
- Start date
How is that not selling out?
Am I the only person who gets “We Built This City”?
It’s Grace and company bemoaning what had happened to the San Francisco music scene in the 19 years since they, the Grateful Dead, Steve Miller and others put it on the map. By this point, about the only relevant SF act was Huey Lewis and the News.
And as for the “corporation games/corporation names” line, Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship had been with RCA that whole time, but:
In 1985, Bertelsmann and RCA Records formed a joint venture called RCA/Ariola International.The following year, RCA Corporation was acquired by General Electric (GE) and it sold its 50% interest in RCA Records to its partner Bertelsmann. The company was renamed BMG Music for Bertelsmann Music Group.
Not that pre-GE, pre-Bertelsmann RCA was terribly artist-focused either (Someone’s always playing corporation games. Who cares? They’re always changing corporation names).
And yeah, I know Bernie Taupin and Martin Page wrote it about the evaporating music club scene in L.A., but it works both ways.
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Since we're talking about a group that kept the same lead singers, I would have to say that it's the same group. If George Harrison and Ringo Starr exited the Beatles and left John Lennon & Paul McCartney to carry on in their absence, with a new guitarist and drummer, it would still be the same group, even if they called it,(Here it comes.)The Plastic Ono Beatles!
Whatever message the band was attempting with that song didn't work. The lyrics were trite. Nobody in the band wrote it anyway. (Page/Taupin). Early Airplane songs like "We Can Be Together", "Volunteers", "Wooden Ships", and other tracks had far more depth of feeling and substance. Those were anthems of that era in the Bay Area. I doubt that very many people got any message out of "City". It was a hit, but it's not well regarded now. Former band members Paul Kantner and Marty Balin (not on than record ) thought it was rubbish...
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I would beg to differ: a song that hit number one in three countries and made the top ten in several others, according to Wikipedia, obviously did work. I understand and respect the fact that you didn't care for the lyrics, but business is business, and a number one hit is good for business. Teens and young adults are generally the ones with the most time on their hands to listen to and purchase music, and if Starship wanted to make money, they had to adapt their sound to appeal to our generation, not our parents'. Not that 80s kids didn't do drugs, but hookah smoking caterpillars and psychedelic trippiness didn't fit with the "Just Say No" theme of that era.
It’s by no means up to the standards of early Airplane, but, then, it wasn’t the same band nor the same era.
The anthem of this era in the Bay Area was Journey’s “Lights”—-which also was actually written about L.A. and is lyrically pretty trite, too.
About the worst thing I can say about “We Built This City” (not counting the video, which is really bad), is that it’s dated. Maybe the most “let’s make a CHR hit”-overproduced 80s thing ever.
If they had been TRYING to create great art, it would be an embarrassment. But they were trying to go top ten. And it worked.
It could just be another forgotten 80s hit, but it still gets airplay in some major markets, meaning it tests well.
It was on the radio damn near daily at the moment In 2003 that Blender magazine decided it needed a hit, too—-and came up with “The 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever”.
Basically, I agree with NPR’s take—-it’s become fashionable to hate it.
Leave 'We Built This City' Alone!
It's largely accepted as truth that Starship's 1985 song "We Built This City" is the worst atrocity in all of music, in all of time. But we can do better — or worse, depending on how you look at it.
www.npr.org
And I’m sure a lot of people have never seen the Blender list, so:
Just say no? 80's kids were doing cocaine. A lot of music in the 80's had the same glossy production. That was the style then. Many things that are really bad become popular. Remember "Macerena"? Hell, Mullet hair cuts are coming back...
Oh yes, I acknowledged in the above post that 80s kids did get high, it just wasn't as fashionable to write songs glorifying it. In fact, I suppose Eric Clapton recorded JJ Cale's anti-drug song "Cocaine" to illustrate dope's negative impact on his own life. (I didn't hear "Cocaine" until the live version was released in 1980.)
Sure, I remember "Macarena," but that novelty song holds up because it's still great for line dancing at wedding receptions and parties!
Basically all silly songs and ballads. Who wrote the list, some goth kid who just wants to be angry all the time?
Okay. Let’s say John and George stay together and Paul and Ringo do too. Which one is the same band then?Since we're talking about a group that kept the same lead singers, I would have to say that it's the same group. If George Harrison and Ringo Starr exited the Beatles and left John Lennon & Paul McCartney to carry on in their absence, with a new guitarist and drummer, it would still be the same group, even if they called it,(Here it comes.)The Plastic Ono Beatles!
It was clickbait three years before the term was invented.
“Bad” is subjective. “Popular” is quantifiable.
Other than Morgan Wallen, who in music is wearing a mullet now? If he's getting country fans to get mullets now, maybe it's time I stopped being a country fan.
If Denny Laine were the new guitarist, wouldn't they be the Plastic Ono Wings?Since we're talking about a group that kept the same lead singers, I would have to say that it's the same group. If George Harrison and Ringo Starr exited the Beatles and left John Lennon & Paul McCartney to carry on in their absence, with a new guitarist and drummer, it would still be the same group, even if they called it,(Here it comes.)The Plastic Ono Beatles!
Keith Moon on drums ... Plastic Ono Who?If Denny Laine were the new guitarist, wouldn't they be the Plastic Ono Wings?
This is getting dangerously close to "If Ella Fitzgerald married Darth Vader..."
A great band.
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