[QUOTE=Sage Rat]
I heard Supreme on TV in Japan while I was listening there and loved it. Then I bought the CD (Sing When You’re Winning just to discover that every other song on the CD except Supreme was the world’s most attrocious girl-bop music.
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Whoa. It’s in English! First time I’ve heard it.
The French version’s here:
[QUOTE=Marley23]
I’ve seen his name in a magazine here or there, and he wrote the song that played at the beginning of Rowan Atkinson’s movie Johnny English. I may be the only person who remembers that movie but didn’t work on it. There’s little reason to.
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The wife and I loved that movie, awful as it was. It opened in Thailand months before it did in the US. The wife can’t even look at a photo of Rowan Atkinson looking normal without cracking up. Atkinson is very popular here, too.
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
Let Love Be Your Energy and Rock DJ
are girl-bop?!
[/QUOTE]
In my mind, yes.
Compare that to this. Man music. nod
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
He has sold more albums in the UK than any other British solo artist in history.
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I have. I remember about 9 or 10 years ago when Millennium was a popular song. I still have that song on my computer, as well as Feel. Those are his only songs I know though.
Strange timing for a Robbie Williams thread, since his star has long been fading even here. My take on his success is that it was a lucky mix of his showmanship and the catchy but derivative Oasis-lite songwriting of Guy Chambers. That said, his cover of Karl Wallinger’s “She’s the One” is really nice (very similar to the original, though - and wouldn’t you know it, Chambers was a member of Wallinger’s band World Party). The later “Tripping”, which he did with Stephen Duffy, is IMO the best thing he ever did.
He’s a singer of some renown, though I couldn’t tell you anything about him. I tend to hear the name and think first of Robin Williams, then of Robbie Burns, though.
He sucks but I remember him having a fairly cool video where he (very unexpectedly) starts tearing his skin off, followed by his muscles and then his ass. It’s all fairly realistic looking for a music video too. It came out of nowhere and I’m not sure who came up with that idea but I thought it was cool.
I think they took the vid out of rotation because it was too graphic.
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
He has sold more albums in the UK than any other British solo artist in history.
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Head of him? Sure. He appears on American TV now and again, and occasionally TRIES to market himself here, but he’s never had much success in the States.
Why not? There’s no particularly good explanation. His music is not to MY liking, but it’s all pleasant, well-produced, danceable pop that SHOULD sell. There’s no language or culture barrier that should prevent him from being popular here- he just ISN’T.
Sometimes, there’s NO good reason that one act becomes huge and another similar one fades into obscurity. I’m sure there are some musical acts who are huge here that just never caught on in Europe. Who knows why?
I heard and disliked ‘‘Milennium.’’ I vaguely recall that “Back For Good” song, in a fairly negative way as well.
[QUOTE=What Exit?]
I have never heard of him. I have heard of Kylie Minogue. She had one or two hits in the late 80s and looked really hot. I saw her recently and she still looks really hot.
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Strange timing, she was on the Christmas Episode of Doctor Who tonight. (American premier) She does still look hot.
I have heard way way WAY more Robbie Williams and Take That than I’d prefer.
'Course, I live in Europe. Even here in the backwoods of the EU, he’s pretty big. Or maybe it just seems that way because he’s always on VH1 Europe.
Kylie Minogue, too. She’s playing in Sofia soon and it’s a BIG deal.
[QUOTE=Cubsfan]
He sucks but I remember him having a fairly cool video where he (very unexpectedly) starts tearing his skin off, followed by his muscles and then his ass. It’s all fairly realistic looking for a music video too. It came out of nowhere and I’m not sure who came up with that idea but I thought it was cool.
I think they took the vid out of rotation because it was too graphic.
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That particular video for “Rock DJ” singlehandedly wiped out whatever momentum that was building for Robbie Williams’ career career in the U.S. Americans weren’t familiar enough with Williams to understand that the video was about him joking about his reputation. Instead, they just saw an intensely disturbing and creepy video that was more fitting for an act like GWAR or Marilyn Manson rather than an ex-boy band member who sang lightweight pop songs. (In fact, Manson probably kicked himself for not thinking of the concept of the “Rock DJ” video first.)
As my tastes in music trend Anglophilic I have of course heard of Robbie. EastWest tried to break him with The Ego Has Landed, a repackaged album consisting of tracks from his first two UK albums and the track “Millennium,” which got some airplay. I have the album and I like it.
I agree that the Chambers/Williams writing partnership might have saved Williams from himself. The post-Chambers stuff I don’t like so much, but I think a song like “Lazy Days” shows how great they were together.
Why didn’t he get big in the States? Well, I think a lot of it is backstory. He was the naughty one in Take That, released an album that did nothing, got really fat… and then “Angels” came out of nowhere and saved his career. In the US we don’t know any of that. There’s no rooting for the underdog, because nobody knew who he was.
I think I made mention a few years back that ex-boy band members don’t do well in America. Outside of Donny Osmond, Michael Jackson, and most recently Justin Timberlake, I don’t think there’s a market for them here. You can see how uphill the battle would be for Williams… the minute people hear “Take That,” they turn him off.
Robbie’s campness and piss-taking nature fated him in America as well. If you’re a male solo artist here I think you have to be brooding, macho… there really isn’t a mold for him to fit into here. I’d say the only solo UK male artist to make an impact in the States in the past 20 years was George Michael, and we knew him as the guy from Wham!
[QUOTE=Maastricht]
The reason Robbie Williams is so popular here? A boyish impish humor, very good looks.. first and foremost, he is an entertainer, the kind of boy who wanted to make people laugh ever since he was little. You cannot help but loving the guy; when he’s on stage he just looks so darn happy and energised.
He’s authenthic. For instance, he did an entire album with old Sinatra and other Bratpack covers, just because he had always just liked those songs. Here is the one hit from that album, a cover with RW and, of all people, Nicole Kidman singing “Something Stupid” that was originally sung by Frank and Nancy Sinatra. Businesswise, that album, titled " Swing while you’re winning" was a completely WTF decision. Robbie even hired off the Royal Albert Hall, the most prestigious concert hall in all of London, to give a show singing those numbers. Here’s his live version of "Mr. Bojangles " (YouTube clip).
He’s troubled, but in a light hearted way. He mocks his own addictions, his own fucked up behavior. For instance, in this clip "Come undone " (great poetic title, IMHO) which mixes images from a wild party the night before and the hangover feeling you get watching the party’s remains in the harsh morning light.
He has depth. His song Angels, believe it or not, is very popular at funerals of young people. His song Feel, a ballad, of which the clip features moviestar Daryl Hannah, is another example.
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Thanks for explaining–I just watched and actually really liked the “Come Undone” video. That was pretty wild. I do like the fact that he doesn’t take himself seriously also. Seems rare among mega-famous popstars. 
[QUOTE=Millit the Frail]
Thanks for explaining–I just watched and actually really liked the “Come Undone” video. That was pretty wild. I do like the fact that he doesn’t take himself seriously also. Seems rare among mega-famous popstars.
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Sorry for bumping this I just have to say that he is just quintessentially British. That whole clip is IMO ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5gDG_vSvko ) The way he really does seemed phased by the whole thing at the beginning of it. I really think that’s real and not an act. I love the way the girl he brings up is totally up for it and is actually the aggressive one but then gets off the stage so easily, no security required, I also love how he then says in the middle of "OK I’m back! Good. "
It’s these things that make me like the fucker although my musical taste should mean I hate him. He has something about him that is just cool in a very British way.
Unfortunately it seems Robbie is now on a downward slope again. He seems to be to be somewhat bi-polar. Highs and lows with a constant trend of self loathing throughout.
About 9 years ago I was flipping through the channels on TV when I hit upon a concert on MTV. The venue was enormous - must’ve been 6 figures in attendance - and yet I quickly realized that I had no idea who the singer was. I watched the whole damn thing waiting for the message that was sure to come across the screen at any moment to tell me who this guy was that could draw this many people… and it never came.
The concert ended, no name or explanation of any kind.
I spent an hour trying to figure it out online at MTV’s website and by trying to check the lyrics of some of the stuff he sang, but he had done a number of covers so I never figured it out. Drove me mad. Couple months later I see him being interviewed on TV and I jumped out of my chair like a teenage Beatles fan - “Oh my God that’s him!” I think my girlfriend lost a lost of respect for me that day.
know him. like him.
The DVD “What We Did Last Summer” is just sensational. From a couple of years ago, he did a couple of big festival type shows, everyone in the UK turned up, and they produced this DVD. It’s just him doing what he does, and doing it magnificently. You can’t help but sit there and go, “Wow”.
Oh, and “I want to do that, too”.
As the concert progresses it gets better and better.
So I saw an interview with him a year or two back - I think it was Parky - and he said that in the US where he now lives, he’s practically unknown. And there was this girl, and they went out a few times, and he told her he was a singer. And she was like, “OK”. When he took her back to his place for the first time, he put the DVD on and said, “This is what I do”.
Quote from Robbie - “Scored”
Cool.
M
American here, I really like Robbie Williams. I heard Angels on the radio – the only song of his to get limited air play in the area I grew up in – and bought The Ego Has Landed. Liked it enough to buy Escapology. Then a friend who went to Europe brought back for me Swing While You’re Winning, his album of standards (which includes Beyond the Sea, the song from the end credits of Finding Nemo. But then I bought Intensive Care and didn’t really like it. Because of that, rather than buying Rudebox I listened to parts of it on YouTube (videos) and HATED it. So I guess I like him from about six years ago.
I like RW because he has a great singing voice and I like the subversive humor of many of his songs. I don’t have to overlook any of his personal baggage (former boy-bander, enfant terrible) because I’m mostly unaware of it; he gets zero press over here.
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
Let Love Be Your Energy and Rock DJ
are girl-bop?!
[/QUOTE]
The only thing lamer than the song Rock DJ is the video. Girl-bop is a charitable description.
