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Er, Harry Styles


henry bear
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Plenty of artists started off doing some shite before they got good. I used to think Charli XCX was absolutely nothing to write home about and now she’s one of my favourite pop girls going.

Harry started out on X Factor but you can tell he really wants to distance himself from it. James Arthur on the other hand hasn’t done anything of note to distance himself at all. Also - he’s a massive cock.

Harry has two decent albums under his belt and has established a career independent of his origins. Yes they helped him get there but you can’t say he hasn’t grown as an artist and has something interesting to add to the pop industry.

I get your arguments @mattiloybut the glasto you think exists is a bit of a fiction. You seem to be longing for Glasto to return to an entity it never was!

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53 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

 

I get your arguments @mattiloybut the glasto you think exists is a bit of a fiction. You seem to be longing for Glasto to return to an entity it never was!

Not so. I think it does a good job of championing many acts that people might not have heard of already. Sticking the likes of songhoy blues on the pyramid a few years ago, great, but I’d love it to go further.

I think of somebody like Anna Calvi who is so good live and has this great big back catalogue and is very well known amongst 6music types and turns out a decent number of fans on tours but in discussions on this forum people are reluctant to have her as subbing a big stage or say headlining JP because she wouldnt be ’big enough’.

When an act is that good, and i defy anybody to go and see her and not conclude that she’s something else live, then just book her a big slot. A load of people will go just because they’re near or watch it on the tv and will subsequently say ’fuck yeah this Anna calvi is class, lets buy all her albums’.

Anna calvi is obviously just an example here folks, as one of many artists who, in my opinion, get smaller slots than they deserve.

Also when bookers do take a gamble, sometimes they seem to be happier to take a gamble on the flavour of the month - see Rex Orange County @ park 2019. Which gives us those moments 10 years later When you flick back over old lineups and you’re like ’wut? who is this guy?’

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2 hours ago, mattiloy said:

 

Glastonbury is an independent festival, it doesn’t need to be craven to the record industry. Its at its best when it wields its power to give a legup to something quality and/or a little different rather than helping manufactured, algorithm friendly popstars 

I mean you could argue that Harry Styles has done something to this affect himself making him a perfect fit. He could have continued down the manufactured pop route to please the label & his existing 1D fan base, having hit after hit written for him & cashed the cheques without a care in the world. Instead he pushed himself out of that box, started writing and co-writing his own music based on his own influences, worked with different producers, released two successful albums that didn't rely on his past sucess and for all intents and purposes has remoulded himself as a singer songwriter pop star. 

You won't agree because you're a 'hur hur he was on da X-Factor so he must suck' type of person. But imagine if people had judged the Beatles forever more on their early packaged pop days. 

Nobody is saying you have to like him or watch him, just accept you're wrong and move on. 

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2 minutes ago, Frankly Mr Shankly said:

I mean you could argue that Harry Styles has done something to this affect himself making him a perfect fit. He could have continued down the manufactured pop route to please the label & his existing 1D fan base, having hit after hit written for him & cashed the cheques without a care in the world. Instead he pushed himself out of that box, started writing and co-writing his own music based on his own influences, worked with different producers, released two successful albums that didn't rely on his past sucess and for all intents and purposes has remoulded himself as a singer songwriter pop star. 

You won't agree because you're a 'hur hur he was on da X-Factor so he must suck' type of person. But imagine if people had judged the Beatles forever more on their early packaged pop days. 

Nobody is saying you have to like him or watch him, just accept you're wrong and move on. 

Idk, I don't think the guy sucks and I'm not judging him off his X-Factor days, but I do think his solo records have been solidly average fare and really wouldn't command such a high slot on the bill if they were released by some other artist who didn't have the TV fame to start with. There are singer-songwriter type blokes who occupy midday JPT slots who have put out far better material. If there are people who judge him negatively based on X-Factor, I think there are equally those who overrate him based off that as well.

If you were booking him based on the merit of his solo material, he wouldn't be anywhere near the top end of the Pyramid. But obviously there's more to take in to account when booking acts.

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1 minute ago, jparx said:

Idk, I don't think the guy sucks and I'm not judging him off his X-Factor days, but I do think his solo records have been solidly average fare and really wouldn't command such a high slot on the bill if they were released by some other artist who didn't have the TV fame to start with. There are singer-songwriter type blokes who occupy midday JPT slots who have put out far better material. If there are people who judge him negatively based on X-Factor, I think there are equally those who overrate him based off that as well.

If you were booking him based on the merit of his solo material, he wouldn't be anywhere near the top end of the Pyramid. But obviously there's more to take in to account when booking acts.

I'm not saying his solo stuff is ground breaking or in my view even particularly interesting, it is what it is but I don't see any reason not to book him. 

You could argue the same for Adele & the fame she got from the Brit awards performance or any number of solo front men from other bands that have played higher slots etc. etc. As you say the festival isn't booked on subjective merit alone. 

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46 minutes ago, mattiloy said:

Not so. I think it does a good job of championing many acts that people might not have heard of already. Sticking the likes of songhoy blues on the pyramid a few years ago, great, but I’d love it to go further.

I think of somebody like Anna Calvi who is so good live and has this great big back catalogue and is very well known amongst 6music types and turns out a decent number of fans on tours but in discussions on this forum people are reluctant to have her as subbing a big stage or say headlining JP because she wouldnt be ’big enough’.

When an act is that good, and i defy anybody to go and see her and not conclude that she’s something else live, then just book her a big slot. A load of people will go just because they’re near or watch it on the tv and will subsequently say ’fuck yeah this Anna calvi is class, lets buy all her albums’.

Anna calvi is obviously just an example here folks, as one of many artists who, in my opinion, get smaller slots than they deserve.

Also when bookers do take a gamble, sometimes they seem to be happier to take a gamble on the flavour of the month - see Rex Orange County @ park 2019. Which gives us those moments 10 years later When you flick back over old lineups and you’re like ’wut? who is this guy?’

But there is a part to this you’re missing. Glasto has hit a point where big acts are clamouring for slots and desperately want to play.

When we say an act isn’t big enough we aren’t saying they are shit - we are saying that they will probably be out bidded for someone with a bigger following and needs a slot which can accommodate their size.

Also a big factor of playing a festival like Glastonbury is you need to be valid competition for acts playing on other stages. It’s all well and good sticking someone like Anna Calvi on a massive stage, but if she’s playing at the same time as some big gun artists she may struggle to get a crowd.

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Just now, Matt42 said:

Also a big factor of playing a festival like Glastonbury is you need to be valid competition for acts playing on other stages. It’s all well and good sticking someone like Anna Calvi on a massive stage, but if she’s playing at the same time as some big gun artists she may struggle to get a crowd.

Plenty of acts booked into slots above their pay grades struggle to get big crowds regardless of what's happening on the other big stages 

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The festival is like 9 or 10 festivals in one fat blunt. You’ve got like V as the Pyramid, R+L Other, Park Green Man, I would say Latitude JP and West Holts is I guess a combination of Lovebox and Womad, the a few of the non-main stages have identities also. Beauty of the whole thing, you can walk between em all.

Everyone has a place, even the actual barrel-bottom Take That, nowadays. But as long as the division in stages remains sacrosanct and Harry Styles is assigned to daytime Pyramid then we good.

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There's a musical diversity on most of the stages at Glasto and that includes what you'd call manufactured pop. I've seen it on the Pyramid, Other, John Peel, Park and so on. Have never once thought it was out of place anywhere or ruining the festival. I don't listen to heavy stuff but I don't whine when it turns up somewhere on the line up. There's literally a place for everything, everywhere. When people start policing who should and shouldn't play and where they are and aren't welcome it becomes a bit, grim. Just because something is manufactured doesn't make it inherently bad or evil either. Plenty of people enjoyed Kylie last year. Lighten up.

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