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Post by HIStoric on Oct 16, 2021 13:52:17 GMT
Maybe Russ can explain what he meant then, but I don't think the main issue people have with Adele (those who do) is a few signature moves. It's more the general lack of diversity and progress in her work. At least that's it for me. If we’re going to discuss her work overall rather than one or two specific elements, then yeah I can agree with you on that. Shes the kind of artist who clearly has found the right sound for her and seems content staying in that area. From what I gathered reading comments about her work (I’ve spent more time reading the comments than actually listening to the song hah), some people actually like this consistency in her work. It’s nothing edgy or out there, but it’s her niche and that’s what people are after (I’m taking comments from here). Her vocals seem to be the really big thing here, so many people absolutely love her voice they’re just happy to listen to it at all, so I guess that takes priority. For me personally, I like some of her work - Rolling in the Deep, Rumour Has It, Set Fire to the Rain, Send My Love To Your New Lover to name a few. Her song Skyfall is also my favourite Bond track of them all as well. She’s the kind of artist though where I’m perfectly happy to listen to if someone else puts her on, but I very rarely, if ever, put on for myself. I didn’t care for this new song.
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Post by Cloudbuster on Oct 16, 2021 14:53:48 GMT
Do you really think Adele's diversity in music, style, genres, themes, music videos etc is the same as MJ's? MJ had more diversity on side 2 of Dangerous than Adele's had throughout her entire career. Even side three of Dangerous on vinyl which has only three songs. I like Adele's first two albums so I'll check her new one out but I'm not expecting any surprises.
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Post by Snow White on Oct 16, 2021 22:17:26 GMT
The new ABBA song, Don't Shut Me Down deserves to have more million views than what Adele got in one day. I don't get how people don't get fed up with Adele for doing the same kind of ballads and theme lyrics, people accused Michael of having many songs with femme fatales but even among them, they're different kind of women.
Listening/seeing Adele makes me miss Amy Winehouse so badly. Amy wasn't afraid of taking risks in her songs and wore her heart on her sleeve.
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Post by electriceyes on Oct 17, 2021 6:19:54 GMT
Well, I can't say I wasn't surprised people here would be slagging it off. It's about what I expected.
*shrugs* More for the rest of us. I love her. Have loved her since Chasing Pavements came out. I know what I'm getting with Adele, and that's what I like. I don't always need or want the artists I like to constantly reinvent the wheel with each album.
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Post by MattyJam on Oct 17, 2021 6:37:19 GMT
I think for me, she just feels a little corporate. She once said in an interview that she doesn't really like her own music, and to me, that says everything. She is very carefully and somewhat cynically marketed to a specific demographic and I find it a tad inauthentic that every 5yrs she had a fresh bout of heartbreak to lament about. Maybe I'm just growing cynical with age, but as Snow White said, Amy Winehouse felt far more like a real artist.
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Post by Russg on Oct 17, 2021 8:11:03 GMT
Oh please, you didn't just compare Adele's popularity to MJs. I think when it comes to album sales, she's actually very comparable. She's the biggest selling female musician of the 21st century after all.
21 has sold over 31,000,000 copies worldwide making it absolutely comparable to the likes of Bad and Dangerous. In her home country of the UK, it has even sold more copies than Thriller or any other Michael Jackson album.
25 has sold over 22,000,000 making it comparable to sales of HIStory and Off The Wall. Also important to remember that these numbers were made at a time where where sales in the tens of million were not as common as they used to be.
Now I'm not expecting 30 to reach those numbers simply because albums sell even less now, and it's going straight to streaming (25 had a delayed release of about ~7 months to streaming which helped it's sales numbers), but already she's making waves on Spotify:
I'm not even that much of an Adele fan and I still think MJ is the bigger musician in the context of music history and pop culture of course, but I still think you can discuss and compare them in terms of success and therefore popularity. Her extremely good numbers indicate that she clearly has a pretty massive fanbase, and that it also seeps very, very deeply into the general public.
I saw a clip of the video where she’s sitting on the armchair doing hand movements and it's all very reminiscent of Rolling In The Deep video. She’s become a self parody at this stage Let's not forget that people said the same about Michael Jackson, when his songs became increasingly filled with 'shamones' and 'hee-hees' as time went on. True, but MJ was just better in every respect. I agree with others that Adele just doesn't have the quality to be a true legend. She's not an artist imo, just a talented singer. She's more like a Celine Dion than a Amy Winehouse and even that's an insult to Celine, as Adele has a far more generic voice than Celine and her catalogue isn't half as good.
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Post by HIStoric on Oct 17, 2021 10:06:01 GMT
She once said in an interview that she doesn't really like her own music, and to me, that says everything. I did some googling to read this out of curiosity, and I think you are misremembering it. I couldn't find anything to say she doesn't like her own music, but rather she doesn't listen to it... From NPR...
I don't think that's that uncommon with artists to listen to their own music leisurely, she's not the first musician or artist I've seen say that. Similarly, I've also seen actors say they don't really watch their own films either. Some will even show up to the premiere then leave before the film starts.
Furthermore, just because it's relevant to the point you originally brought up above, and because I came across it googling the original point, her music does still move her emotionally. From the NY Times for when she was doing some rehearsing... “I’m not going to cry,” Adele said. She was practicing with her band at Music Bank rehearsal studios, an unglamorous warehouse space in South London, and had just finished “When We Were Young,” one of the torchiest ballads on her new album, “25.” It’s a song about running into an old flame that confesses, “I still care” and then, tentatively, asks, “Do you still care?”
Adele can get caught up in her own songs, and she wouldn’t want to change that. “In order for me to feel confident with one of my songs it has to really move me,” she said. “That’s how I know that I’ve written a good song for myself — it’s when I start crying. It’s when I just break out in [expletive] tears in the vocal booth or in the studio, and I’ll need a moment to myself.”
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Post by bedroom on Oct 17, 2021 15:39:20 GMT
she really titled the album 30? it was cute for 3 albums but come on now
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Post by HIStoric on Oct 17, 2021 20:18:26 GMT
LOL
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Post by respect77 on Oct 18, 2021 4:11:16 GMT
Funny that we've just talked about this.
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Post by Snow White on Oct 18, 2021 5:24:46 GMT
Funny that we've just talked about this. Because it's her comeback, the debut video was her chance to show her new slimer figure but decided to wrap it all up with a huge coat instead. 😫 She truly is the epitome of repetitiveness and playing safe! 🙄
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TonyR
The Legend Continues
Posts: 8,413
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Post by TonyR on Oct 19, 2021 11:19:25 GMT
I feel about Adele the same way I do about Ed Sheeran. 1. Both massively talented & deserve their success. 2. Whilst not being a massive fan of either, I could quite happily sit and watch any performance they do. 3. Great to see talent (especially UK talent) that write their own material & take the world by storm. So, like I say, while I'm not a massive fan of Adele, I fully get why she's so popular, especially in the demographic she appeals to. Sometimes someone comes along that the 25-50+ age group loves & buys in droves. Think albums by Shania Twain, Dido in the past. It's usually very MOR to be fair. I remember being pretty worried when 25 came out as I could actually see it threatening Thriller in terms of sales such was her following in the US and beyond at the time. Luckily that didn't happen, but it is up there with Dangerous in terms of sales. I have to laugh every time people get defensive every time there's a tiny bit of comparison between an artist & MJ. Of course there's comparisons with Adele & MJ. Adele, Ed Sheeran & Beyoncé are pretty much this generation's equivalent of MJ, Madonna & Prince. Does that mean I think they're better? No. But many will, especially if they're the current generation. Just like we thought MJ was better than the Beatles (he is - so eat that HIStoric !!). Also, I think Adele's music will endure as much of it is timeless & doesn't pander to current trends. Unlike many big acts of the last decade (Miley, Lil Nas X, Bieber etc..) I can honestly see people listening to her albums in ten, twenty, thirty years' time (or should that be 19, 21, 25, 30 years time!). Same with Ed. Yes, I think a lot of it is clever Marketing and yes they play safe. But in no way can you say MJ wasn't into clever marketing & PR stunts. Of course I believe, like someone said above, that side 2 of Dangerous has more versatility that all of Adele's career - very true - and I'd say the same about Madonna's career (of course I would), she could have played safe and stuck to True Blue pop but she branched out into many genres with varying degrees of success - but so what? Adele knows what she likes & what her audience likes, and she gives it to them. Of course, I'd hate to see my favourite artist position of #1 being threatened (just like when Adele beat Madonna's Immaculate Collection to be #1 female album in UK) but I imagine Adele has had her sales peak & that won't happen with MJ.
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Post by bedroom on Oct 24, 2021 12:52:17 GMT
Adele, Ed Sheeran & Beyoncé are pretty much this generation's equivalent of MJ, Madonna & Prince. I agree with the whole post except I would maybe call them this generation's Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones and Tina Turner respectively. Obviously I am biased but MJ, Madonna and Prince have no contemporaries today when you take their whole package and careers in to account IMO.
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Post by Russg on Nov 11, 2021 7:54:58 GMT
I feel about Adele the same way I do about Ed Sheeran. 1. Both massively talented & deserve their success. 2. Whilst not being a massive fan of either, I could quite happily sit and watch any performance they do. 3. Great to see talent (especially UK talent) that write their own material & take the world by storm. So, like I say, while I'm not a massive fan of Adele, I fully get why she's so popular, especially in the demographic she appeals to. Sometimes someone comes along that the 25-50+ age group loves & buys in droves. Think albums by Shania Twain, Dido in the past. It's usually very MOR to be fair. I remember being pretty worried when 25 came out as I could actually see it threatening Thriller in terms of sales such was her following in the US and beyond at the time. Luckily that didn't happen, but it is up there with Dangerous in terms of sales. I have to laugh every time people get defensive every time there's a tiny bit of comparison between an artist & MJ. Of course there's comparisons with Adele & MJ. Adele, Ed Sheeran & Beyoncé are pretty much this generation's equivalent of MJ, Madonna & Prince. Does that mean I think they're better? No. But many will, especially if they're the current generation. Just like we thought MJ was better than the Beatles (he is - so eat that HIStoric !!). Also, I think Adele's music will endure as much of it is timeless & doesn't pander to current trends. Unlike many big acts of the last decade (Miley, Lil Nas X, Bieber etc..) I can honestly see people listening to her albums in ten, twenty, thirty years' time (or should that be 19, 21, 25, 30 years time!). Same with Ed. Yes, I think a lot of it is clever Marketing and yes they play safe. But in no way can you say MJ wasn't into clever marketing & PR stunts. Of course I believe, like someone said above, that side 2 of Dangerous has more versatility that all of Adele's career - very true - and I'd say the same about Madonna's career (of course I would), she could have played safe and stuck to True Blue pop but she branched out into many genres with varying degrees of success - but so what? Adele knows what she likes & what her audience likes, and she gives it to them. Of course, I'd hate to see my favourite artist position of #1 being threatened (just like when Adele beat Madonna's Immaculate Collection to be #1 female album in UK) but I imagine Adele has had her sales peak & that won't happen with MJ. I understand the meaning "If it ain't broke, don't fix it, but really she needs to start working with different producers like Stuart Price, Nile Rodgers, Trevor Horn, Gorgon City, Mark Ronson, try to be similar to Madonna or Kylie, who have reinvented themselves by experimenting different genres on different albums. That's what bothers me most about Ed Sheeran and Adele and these modern popstars. There's not even an attempt at artistic growth, it's just more of the same with each new release.
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Post by elusivemoonwalker on Nov 11, 2021 19:51:15 GMT
I like some of Adeles older material from when she first came on the scene. I worked her concerts at least twice the first was around 2008 when she was pretty new. She spent most of the concert chatting. She would make a great stand up comedian as she was so funny telling all these stories.the second show was when she she had gone big. I dunno maybe 2013 tbh then i was getting bored half way through as so many of the songs started to sound the same after a while and she doesnt change her singing style. She has a great unique voice but im not a fan of the majority of her songs
She defo needs to change her style. Do different songs. Different song writers
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