That’s one of my very favorite episodes. I don’t remember having ever laughed that hard. Hehehehe.
Anyone care to explain?
Can anyone post the lyrics of their song?
I wish I could remember Cartman’s solo.
“No son of mine will ever be in a boy band”
It’s probably on http://www.comcentral.com
ohhhhhh. Never mind.
I was joking about the Partridge Family . . . however, the Monkees were definitely a music group, if not a band. That they had a television show doesn’t exclude them from that “glory.”
Punha, you are an idiot.
The Monkees: A show about a group of singers, starring four ACTORS, one who happened to be a musician (Mike Nesmith). Their “music” was created by a bunch of studio musicians at first, wrote by Neil Diamond. Eventually, good ole Mike got sick of it, and decided they all needed to learn their instruments, and make their own music. The show came first, later they capitalized on the “band”. And if you didn’t notice, Davey still only plays the tamborine, why? Because he is an ACTOR, not a musician. As a matter of fact, the show really started to suck after they decided to focus on “their music”, which was really only Mike’s music anyway, and he quit the “band” to go and make better music.
Just curious, Are the Temptations a band?
The problem isn’t that N’sync is or is not a “band,” its that they SUCK!!!
The thing about N’SYNC using their “voices” as their instraments, digitaly enhanced as they are, is that the back up singers do more of the singing then the headliners do, teir there for show to bring in prepubecent girls. The same is true with Britany Spears, very little of the music is real or composed by the singers, very little of the singing is done by the singers, if my friends and I are singing along with the radio, we’re not a band.
Besides, assuming that most of the people here have a half a brain, Why is anybody defending N’SYNC at all??
I agree that someone should stop this problem at the root before it speards any farther, sink the groups and their evil manager who brought them here to the bottom of the ocean.
Now if you’ll excuse me, and any typo’s and spelling errors I’ve made, it’s late and I’m going to bed.
Mssr. Pickle:
Well, someone’s got to do it. After all, they’re SO popular. And I simply cannot believe that many people can be so clueless and wrong about something.
Oh, wait. Yes I can.
Well, I’m certainly too old to get excited about them, but as far as defending them, I think that I would be dishonest to my teenybopper Duran Duran roots if I didn’t say that their music isn’t all that bad. Band? Depends on your definition, but definitely a musical group.
I think that my only real objection is the cold way in which they were handpicked and planned to bring in lots of money. I think that feelings might be more tolerant if they were high school buddies, all working hard to bring their dream of singing together alive, instead of being produced on some kind of boy band assembly line. It’s pretty calculated, and it paid off.
Lola, I think you have captured the essence of the crux of the heart of the matter. I would have more respect for them if that was true, and I do reel against blatant capitalism being paraded around and disguised as actually creativity.
But they’d still suck.
You mean like those paragons of punk purity and anti-establishment Anarchist icons The Sex Pistols?
To me the difference is the music: I liked (and still oike" The Sex Pistols. I find all of the boy bands to be drivel.
Isn’t that what should be the only thing that matters? The music? Not how the members got together and why?
Yer pal,
Satan
I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Three months, two weeks, five days, 14 hours, 12 minutes and 33 seconds.
4423 cigarettes not smoked, saving $552.96.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes.
Well, we are getting too involved in the symantic definition of what makes “a band” I will agree with the OP insofar as saying that N’SYNC (and all the rest) have no rights to popular music fame and money because they don’t do ANY of the following:
- Write songs
- Play musical instruments
- Particpate in “the creative process,”
- Understand, either through outside instruction or being self-taught, how to create and perform music.
- Introduce something new, unique, or different
- Not dance
Popular musical acts should be able to do AT LEAST some of the above. Boy bands do NONE of the above. They are the 12 year old girl’s equivalent of porn, and nothing more.
BTW, The Temptations qualify under points 1, 3, 4, and 5. You don’t need all, but you should have some, to qualify for exposure. Duran Duran qualified under 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Believe me, I have a wife who is as big a Monkees fan as I am a Beatles fan, so I know the canon. Peter Tork was in fact a musician, part of first the NY and later the SF folkie scene. He was good pals at the time with Stephen Stills and Harry Nillson, who he also encouraged to audition, thinking it might be a good break.
Davy Jones had been a child star and was an experienced stage singer, who had performed in such productions as “Oliver!” He had recordings out prior to ever hearing the word “Monkees.” He is and was as much a singer as anyone else with a musical theater background.
Michael Nesmith was a working musician. Mickey Dolenz was an actor.
Nope. Much of their early music was written by outside musicians, under the direction of Don Kirshner. Not just Neil Diamond, but Boyce & Hart, Goffin & King, and several other big time writers. (Aside–Frank Sinatra and Elvis didn’t write their own songs, either.)
However, all four were doing the singing from the get-go (except for the first single), and playing several of the instruments from the second album. And right there on the first album is “Papa Jean’s Blue” (a great song), written by Nesmith and containing guitar work by Tork. Anyway, nobody can deny that the songs were catchy and well-performed, and part of that was the vocals. “Last Train to Clarksville” is a good recording, no matter what.
Nope. They were already touring, playing their own instruments, throughout 1966-67, when the show began airing. After the second album, they decided they wanted the next single to be all their work, as they were actually doing fairly well as a band. Long story short, Kirshner got ditched, and the band got to play as well as sing on their own albums. The resulting album “Headquarters,” while not as consistent as the first two, is not too shabby.
I’ve seen them perform live, with my wife. Jones can play the guitar and piano as well, and does. See above for his musical theater credentials.
Oh, it was not either, and it shows you simply don’t know what you’re talking about in regards to this particular topic. To begin with, albums from “Headquarters” on contain songs credited to all of the Monkees individually, many of them quite good. Second, Nesmith’s post-Monkees musical output has sucked, big-time.
I’ve seen the Monkees themselves perform twice, and Tork perform on his own and with a sometime collaborator, James Lee Stanley. Love or hate the Monkees, Tork is a superlative musician, able to play guitar, bass, banjo and piano with the best of him. His output isn’t my thing, but there’s no denying he’s a terrific musician.
Which is why The Sex Pistols lasted all of a year and a half. In fact, most of the founding members* went on to moderately successful careers as session musicians, and John Lydon founded the much more successful, though less popular, neo-punk outfit Public Image Limited. Malcolm McLaren’s experiment in creating the “Boy Band for the Punk Classes” was an short-term failure because it lacked any internal cohesion, but most of the members went on to other musical things. The problem is that the Sex Pistols ultimately broke up BECAUSE of the manufactured nature of the band and because the individual members (Sid Viscious aside) had some sense of musical integrity. N’SYNC and 98 Degrees and Five and all of them lack this, which is why they go on forever despite their manufactured nature.
*Sid Viscious was not a founding member, and his introduction to the band by McLaren for purely image related purposes was perhaps the primary cause of the downfall of the group. The original bass player, Glen Matlock, was a session musician hired to play on the initial recordings until a permanent touring bass player could be found. Visious never bothered to learn his instrument, even passably, and sounded simply awful. This is quite an accomplishment since becoming a passable bass player requires the least techincal skill of any rock and roll instrument. (before any bass players jump down my throat for this one, I KNOW that being a “great” bass player requires as much skill as any instrument, but being a “passable” one requires much less).
[Monkees-related hijack]
Just as an addendum…
My favorite Monkee…Peter Tork was schooled at a very (VERY) young age in all manner of musical instruments. I don’t have my books here, but I believe he began playing piano sometime between the ages of 4 and 6. He is proficient at nearly all instruments but concentrates on strings and keyboards. SIDEBAR: His brother, Nick, who has also written some songs (recorded by his brother on a solo album) also plays at least keyboards; I’ve seen them play and sing together myself.
As for Micky Dolenz (son of actor George Michael Dolenz), yes he was always an actor first and foremost (Circus Boy at age 10); however, in his wandersome teens he hooked up with musicians and indeed played guitar (no evidence of how well) as Micky & the One-Nighters and The Missing Links.
Nesmith’s post-Monkees musical endeavors, while not stinking up the joint, were not the critical success and spectacular musical pieces Mike dreamt of creating. I think they’re okay myself.
Regarding the first single, while Boyce and Hart lended their voices, there is a Monkee singing on every Monkees song recorded and released.
Bottomline, the Monkees group/band was a miraculous fluke. They managed to match four very differently talented men to play at being a band and the four personalities melded and the actor/musicians grew and evolved into a band/musical group. I, for one, believe it could not be duplicated–its amazing and a bit perplexing that it happened the way it did…
Just 2-cents worth from a semi-obsessive fan.
[/hijack]
According to John Lydon/Johnny Rotten’s autobiography, Rotten: No Irish. No Blacks, No dogs, it was Rotten, not McLaren, who introduced Sid Viscious/John Beverly to the band, as Sid and Johnny had been friends from school. Also according to that book, Glen Matlock was a full member of the band until his ouster over musical differences, chiefly his opposition to the anti-establishment lyrics Rotten wrote.
And as for the whole NSYNC thing, what they are is a vocal group. The fact that they dance around onstage and don’t write their own songs means nothing. Lots of musical artists don’t. Back in the 60’s there were a whole bunch of very talented vocal groups doing what NSYNC is doing now. For example, take the Temptations. They didn’t play instruments, they used choreography onstage, and other people wrote the songs they sang. And they’re in the Rock N Roll hall of fame. Does this mean NSYNC will be joining them there someday? Probably not. After all the Temptations’ songs had a couple of things NSYNC’s dont: lyrical depth, social relevance, in addition to being danceable.
Bottom line: you don’t have to write music and play instruments to be a talented singer (whether NSYNC and their ilk are or not is a question I will leave to others, since I don’t really give a shit). And by the way, I’m a songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, so I’ve got some experience in those areas.
I defer to JBirdman on the Sex Pistols… But it does not change the fact that Sid’s addition to the group was a major source of its downfall. The other guys in the band hated him, and he spent most of his time in a drunken/drugged stupor, and indeed never learned how to play the bass.
And N’Sync is not popular for their musical skills, which the Temptations were. N’Sync is popular because they are cute boys: They are porn for 12 year old girls.
Hey. If GWAR can win a grammy, N’sync can get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
I’m a huge GWAR fan btw, so no one flame me for that.