I hate hype, particularly when it comes to music. You see it all the time, a band or singer released a song that is really, really good and you wonder how their new album will sound. Well, so does everyone else but most people take it to the extreme and create a whole bunch of hype, based on that one song. Every piece of street press you read, all the music sites and music channels you frequent are all over that shit like it’s the next big thing, for real this time. Well guess what? It’s not. The hype is rarely ever justified. In most cases, the next song is either the same as the first one, not as good as the first one or just plain awful. Some people can look past that and will wait for the album, buy it as soon as it hits the shelves and listen to it eagerly. Most of these people say they liked the album, but I never hear rave reviews about these over-hyped musicians and their less-than-ordinary music. It’s always “Yeah it’s a good album, but not as good as I was expecting”. DUH! No one can live up to excessive hype, so you ruined it for yourself! How about next time you wait til the album is out before you wig out about how great that band is, instead of setting yourself up for bitter disappointment.
One of my favourite examples in MGMT. Man Electric Feel was a great song, so the hype started and these boys could do no wrong. Their other singles (ie. Kids) were enjoyable but not really quite as good. Then their album came out and surprise surprise, it wasn’t very good. At all. In fact I listened to it once and haven’t touched it again. Electric Feel was so good, and the rest was this psychadelic electro rubbish that eventually sounded like a lot of LSD-induced noise by the end of it. And yet their gig in Brisbane sold out in minutes last year. It seems to me that all these people who get caught up in the hype are too proud to admit they got carried away and keep up the pretense of thinking this is the best band/album ever until the next big thing comes out to distract everyone, so they can save face when they finally admit they were over-rated.
Right now I am sick to death of the hype surrounding Empire of the Sun (pictured). Seeing pictures like this is already enough reason for me to hate them on principle, but the hype surrounding them only makes them even more annoying. I really liked their first song Walking on a Dream and though I thought the film clip was a bit odd but it caught my attention none the less. I happen to really like Pnau so I was intrigued by Nick Littlemore’s side project, though somewhat repulesed that it had to include Luke Steele from The Sleepy Jackson (he is a douchebag). So their next single came out and wow, it sounds exactly the same and features them being wearing the same silly outfits, doing the same silly actions but in the jungle instead of the city this time. Well isn’t that just wonderful. A band with some potential turns out to be another crock of over-hyped bullshit. Now everyone’s flipping out about their “epic” stage show when they play at Parklife this year. I wonder how many people actually care about them or their excessive, arty and self-indulgent stage show that is designed to go along with their excessive, arty and self-indulgent music.
I am all about supporting musicians who are very good at what they do, who break boundries and make excellent music. If a band or a musician starts off good and gets better and better as they make more music, release more albums and put on excellent shows as they go on tour then fine. They deserve some hype and relentless adoration because they are consistently excellent beyond their first single with it’s arty-farty music video.
I almost wish I was able to go to Parklife this year (I will be in Japan at the time) so I can go and see if ANY of the hype surrounding Empire of the Sun is actually justified. And if I was not blown away from the get-go then they would have been taunted and booed until my throat was sore!
will be taunted and booed
until my throat is sore
