Cheeky mention of Muse by Elton

[TheMuseSmurf]

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a290326/elton-john-oasis-blew-it-in-america.html

[Killer Rabbit]

"It's only the cream that rises to the top," he explained. "It's always the ones with the best work ethic and the best material and the best attitude.

 

"You know, it's the boys from the men. Coldplay, Muse, U2, Police, all those bands. They're the men, and all the rest are boys."

 

 

Sir Elton is a closet Muser.

[dontask]

you know something has gone wrong when Muse are mentioned in the same list as Coldplay and U2....cheers for that Elton.

[Enemy]

Coldplay may be MOR, but by hell they are a fantastic live band. So it's ok in my book.

[haze015]

So breaking America is all that matters and it's the only way to judge who the best British bands are?

Despite the intertwined nature of British & American music, what's big in both places can be two very different things.

[CarrieB]

Why was that cheeky? I was expecting something different.

[nohopeinfear]

So breaking America is all that matters and it's the only way to judge who the best British bands are?

Despite the intertwined nature of British & American music, what's big in both places can be two very different things.

 

Meh, I think if you have the ability to get through to Americans then you deserve to be called "big" really... I'm talking strictly about non-US acts here though.

 

There's always been a big issue with Brits breaking America, since before the Beatles, it's just a stigma that's carried along the years and is deemed both a good and bad thing.

[Hopix]

Coldplay and U2 are shite. But tbh Muse could end up the same way at this rate.

[Gareeh]

you know something has gone wrong when Muse are mentioned in the same list as Coldplay and U2....cheers for that Elton.

 

hmmm doubt it. because bono is a twat and chris martin is a fanny doesn't mean the music is bad.

 

remember. u2 has the edge and coldplay has... well i see your point with coldplay but i thought viva la vida was an alright album.

[futurellama]

Coldplay are really good, deal with it.

[haze015]

Meh, I think if you have the ability to get through to Americans then you deserve to be called "big" really... I'm talking strictly about non-US acts here though.

 

There's always been a big issue with Brits breaking America, since before the Beatles, it's just a stigma that's carried along the years and is deemed both a good and bad thing.

 

I'm not talking about "big", I'm on about cracking America as being a way of deciding who the best bands from Britain are. The two are different.

 

You have to remember, the stigma exists both ways, it's only in the last decade or two it's not been so prevalent in Britain.

 

 

First couple of minutes of this will amuse you - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vtPIUDAPhA

 

Sir Elton is a closet Muser.

 

And he'll stay in the closet until it's ok to come out.

[musse]

Sir Elton is a closet Muser.

 

hahaha

That's very nice from him

[Tofu]

Didn't Elton Jon once hit on Matt or something?

 

/relevant

 

I like U2 and Coldplay myself. Not nearly as much as Muse, but they're not shit or anything.

[ibelongtoyou4]

Coldplay are really good, deal with it.

 

+1

[Saracene]

I don't necessarily agree that it's the bands with the best material who make it big, but on the other hand the bands with the best material often don't have either the work ethic or the right attitude.

[haze015]

I don't necessarily agree that it's the bands with the best material who make it big, but on the other hand the bands with the best material often don't have either the work ethic or the right attitude.

 

Some just don't want to become "big", preferring artistic freedom and wanting to avoid the trappings of fame.

I don't think work ethic or attitude has anything to do with it. You wouldn't make it to your first gig if you weren't prepared to work.

[mentlegen.]

Well, at least Police are great... Coldplay and U2, not so much. Lol'd at Eltons view of Oasis though. Oasis are pure shit.

[Green Mamba]

I think the UK and USA are just two very different markets. The UK has centralised charts, centralised stations and we're told what is cool, what isn't.

 

I think the USA have very fragmented, indpendant scenes depending on state/city. At least that's the impression I've allways had.

 

It's all been about word of mouth and Muse made it big from small bar scenes only 3 tours ago from word of mouth. Give it another couple of albums and you will seem them doing a few stadium dates if it's still in them.

[Saracene]

Some just don't want to become "big", preferring artistic freedom and wanting to avoid the trappings of fame.

 

For sure, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying that this attitude is not a recipe for making it big.

[espionage]

I know Coldplay-bashing is a hobby for some people on this forum, but I love Coldplay and am always happy to hear Muse and Coldplay get some kudos from someone of Elton John's stature. And I couldn't agree more with his comment on Oasis... there were a few good tunes but the Gallaghers really are idiots.

[dontask]

Coldplay and U2 aren't that bad, was just for the lulz really. I quite like the Viva La Vida album, for example. U2 are very meaningless to me though. And "The Hardest Part" sucks.

[dagreatone123190]

Meh, I think if you have the ability to get through to Americans then you deserve to be called "big" really... I'm talking strictly about non-US acts here though.

 

There's always been a big issue with Brits breaking America, since before the Beatles, it's just a stigma that's carried along the years and is deemed both a good and bad thing.

 

Agreed. It's hard for most foreign acts to break through here. Biffy Clyro would be the ideal example. Playing arenas in the UK, playing a 600 capacity club in NYC next Feb.

[hikaru_bloom]

Didn't Elton Jon once hit on Matt or something?

 

/relevant

 

I like U2 and Coldplay myself. Not nearly as much as Muse, but they're not shit or anything.

 

+1.

[Trilateral_Symmetry_Com'n.]

Didn't Elton Jon once hit on Matt or something?

 

/relevant

 

I like U2 and Coldplay myself. Not nearly as much as Muse, but they're not shit or anything.

 

That Elton incident sounds familiar; maybe someone who knows more about it (or just better remembers what she read about it) will step forward. IAE it wouldn't surprise me if Matt hit up (not on) Elton to borrow from his world-class collection of funky, fugly vintage sunglasses.

 

 

I think the UK and USA are just two very different markets. The UK has centralised charts, centralised stations and we're told what is cool, what isn't.

 

I think the USA have very fragmented, indpendant scenes depending on state/city. At least that's the impression I've allways had.[snip]

 

True enough, but with a huge caveat. The broadcasting industry in the U.S. was and still probably is considerably more varied and controlled by private commercial interests than that in the U.K. ever since, say, WWII, even without taking into account a handful of freeform radio stations, hundreds of college stations, Mexican pirate AM stations (which found an audience across much of the US in the 50's-60's), and the like. We've never had the extreme UK-model government controls on radio as dramatized in the movie "Pirate Radio," and if you'd tried to restrict Americans to a choice of four radio stations and zero rock music in the 60's, that decade would've seen even more riots in the streets.

 

But thanks to some government loosening of the restrictions pertaining to corporate concentration in the mass media in the 80's [iIRC], we've seen a significant uptick in the concentration of ownership of radio stations and other media outlets in fewer vertically-integrated corporations over the past twenty years or so. This was an ominous development for many reasons, of which playlist variety is but one. But WRT playlists, the hundreds of stations owned by ClearChannel were especially notorious for the dreary uniformity and repetition of their playlists in the 90's (which were largely limited to playing the same list of Top-40 songs over and over, with only an incremental change from week to week, but this rigid corporate formula has been somewhat relaxed in recent years), the multiplication of DJs over many stations through syndication, and rigorous controls limiting the expressiveness and independence of DJs' patter and song selection.