Adele- 25 album news and information

I suppose it comes down to what you think is 'pop' vs. what you think is 'alternative' and when does pop destroy alternative? Haha...when it gets too popular it ceases to be alternative? Funny stuff, but worth kicking around

 

Chasing Pavements from "19" catapulted her to the mainstream already (was at least Top 10 and huge radiohit). And the other song produced by Mark Ronson "Cold Shoulder" which sounded really awful.

 

This is true, yet her first single Hometown Glory I don't know how anyone could consider mainstream. A neo classical piano figure with an r&b and jazz vocal talking about her hometown and political confrontation? oops, kinda like Cold Shoulder that's about as underground dance club as she's gotten so far.

 

Same with The Beatles...I heard a few songs, one where some guy keeps saying "number nine", I think it was Side 2 of Yellow Submarine and some 15 second song about her majesty. I'm all like, "What's the appeal?"

 

FWIW my ten year old daughter Emily and her friends are TOTALLY into Adele. Emily has the 19 and 21 albums, and already knows all the words to "Hello".

 

Hey, I'd much rather have my kid listening to Adele than a lot of other music.

 

It's a bit like Coldplay, or Snow Patrol. It's difficult to believe they were once routinely described as 'alternative' (and I'm sure Parachutes and Final Straw were always filed in the 'alternative' section of stores). Then Coldplay became well known after "Yellow" had a bit of airplay, Snow Patrol became famous after "Run" became a hit, and both acts were redefined as 'commercial' (at least in my experience). But neither act really made much of a leap in style or sound at that point. It was just they became 'too popular' (however you quantify that) to be called alternative. So yeah, it makes you wonder if alternative is, in certain contexts, a genre or, in fact, a sort of level of popularity.

 

yeah, exactly, and often pop is used to demean what is unique.

 

I don't know about Coldplay but labeling something alternative was a marketing strategy there for awhile. "Alternative" became a real buzz word and a mainstream radio format.

 

I think the term "pop" is often used to demean music in general, unique or otherwise.

I see people here essentially writing off the Beatles early music as "pop". If you ask me, the Beatles were at their best pre-Sgt. Pepper.

 

I think Adele is possibly the first artist of her type (say, a female pop artist with a powerhouse voice, who does theatrical ballads, to put it very loosely) to hit the pop charts regularly since, I don't know, Celine Dion, Toni Braxton or (early) Mariah Carey in the mid 90s? So I think in that context, Adele is 'adventurous' listening to anyone in their teens or preteens, who wasn't even alive when "My Heart Will Go On" topped the charts. To us, she's following a tradition (or traditions, plural), but if you're like 10 or 15, she could be the first artist of her type you've ever encountered.

 

This is true, and it also makes me feel ancient.

 

hahaha...like Adele's ballads

 

I finally downloaded 25 this afternoon coming home from a holiday. 4 songs in, I am still listening....

Its staggering how successful this album has been selling like 4 million copies in a weekend! A major triumph for Adele but also for the beleaguered music industry.

 

Yeah, I know. I always tell people I think Adele is sort of like a modern day Alison Moyet, and invariably people have no idea who that is. And then I think, well, Alison Moyet hasn't had a hit since 1987... which is 28 years ago. It's always shocking to find that your pop culture references, or the songs or artists of your 'youth' are, in fact, really, really old... which therefore makes you really, really old (or older than you think).

 

I don't know who that is. I just looked her up and I've never heard anything by her.

 

That's... sort of a relief. Perhaps it's not my age. It could be that Alison Moyet just isn't very well known.

 

Well, I'm more familiar with rock/pop of that era than any other genre so it's more likely that I just hadn't been listening to anything where I would have heard her. I don't know if she's popular in the U.S or not.

 

She had a lot more hits in the UK (and Australia and NZ). In the US, "Invisible" was a Top 40 hit in 1985 (Motown's Lamot Dozier wrote it). She had a powerhouse voice (slightly more soulful than Adele, I think, but not unlike her). She had a No. 1 hit in NZ (No. 2 in Britain) in 1985 with a remake of Billie Holiday's "That Ole Devil Called Love" which is the sort of song I can see Adele doing. It's possibly just me who thinks the two are alike, I don't know.

 

Alison was in the very popular YAZ (Yazoo) previous to her solo career. I can understand why some hear similarities to Adele's voice for sure. They are both powerful voices.

 

Yazoo was big in the early 80's. Situations was a major hit in the night clubs, new wave. I still have my 12'' mix.

 

Adele's style could be called "Torch singer" - an old term for a singer who sings quieter songs usually conveying emotional longing.
See Frank Sinatra - "One For My Baby".
I don't get why people dismiss her as over-singing in "overloud" mode, because for the most part she doesn't.
Her songs begin quietly and build to the end with the chorus being louder and more emphatic - sometimes with a bit of excess, but, for the most part, her voice and delivery is very warm, controlled and smooth.

Alison Moyet is a good parallel from another time, as is Dusty Springfield.

Who could imagine, that in these days where vapid kiddie dance music cheerleaders singing songs written by committee and brassy lady "rappers" fiercely and intimidatingly strutting the stage and proudly shaking their butts into the camera are the norm, that a low key, warm voiced relatable woman who bucks the trends would be the largest selling artist in Pop music today?
Pretty cool!

 

Not for anything and I don't deny her talent but she really puts me to sleep..

 

Agreed. I'm mostly an indie rock/metal guy but Adele is a mainstream pop artist I can get behind. Her vocal delivery is strong and natural, she writes most of her own songs, and she appears to be genuinely humble and gracious for her success. Like you say, a singer who doesn't rely on shock value and egotism AND is actually successful with the mainstream? I'm shocked! ;-)

 

Reminds me a bit of the Love Story Theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWlNhHGUfDU