THE LETTERS PAGE You're going in for the quillRe: Mediocre Pop
Dear Sirs,
First of all (the negative part), I think you should cool it with putting up bad things to make fun of on your site. It just adds a nasty edge to your image that is almost a little Perezy.
But on the subject of spectacularly bland, check this out. The best (?) part is at 1:56 – IF YOU CAN MAKE IT THROUGH THAT LONG – the point at which the one sole male member of this apparent girl group BEGINS TO RAP and WAIT FOR IT claims to have “invented hip-hop”.
One of the girls is (of course) currently attending community college in Orange County, CA.
Love from a fan.
You're right that nobody needs yet another pissy blog writing yet another pissy post about yet another shitty pop release, but I do try to strike a decent balance - if you have a website that only writes positive reviews of songs it likes, it starts to get really boring. Sometimes good pop music makes most sense when you know what bad pop music is, and sometimes bad pop music makes sense when you know what good pop music is.
Also I try to be quite careful not to personally attack people - often these bad things are written about mostly to berate the managers, the labels, the A&Rs and everyone else (usually male) who exploit young (often female) artists.
I think your letter was probably inspired by this post about Grace Valerie. One extra thing I will say is that if you had any idea how much awful pop music was sent my way - there tends to be at least one artist/song as bad as Grace Valerie every single day - you'd realise how little I do actually cover. Mostly out of politeness to be honest - particularly because, as you have obviously realised, banging on about bad stuff can be quite fun.
Re: The Importance of Being Adele
Dear Sirs,
I am distressed.
I hate Adele but I don’t fit in with my friends who like her.
Love from Ryan H (Sheffs)She's alright you know.
Re: Your blog, my bible.
Dear Sirs,
Mr PJ, your site is the bollocks.
Music is something I love and have a passion for. I love coming on this site, reading the blogs and listening to the music you post. You go into so much depth about the artist, about the song and even the sleeves for songs, I love it.
To be honest, you kind of shit all over music magazines and other blogs.
You blog is my bible. I love it.
Love from Sam WestDid you write this in 2006?
Re: Reader’s Poll (WHERE IS IT)
Dear Sirs,
It’s been almost 2 months now, get on with it.
Love from Participating Readers of 2012 (The Internet)Re: Was my thread censored and if so then why ?
Dear Sirs,
About an hour ago I started my first thread on the Popjustice forums.
The point that I was attempting to make in the post was one about censorship and how an essentially gay boybands such as [BANDNAME REMOVED - SEE BELOW] are not just hiding their sexuality but in fact blatantly marketing an opposite image, for example, with their latest release [SONG TITLE REMOVED - SEE BELOW].
Luckily I copied the thread before I posted it:
“ [BANDNAME REMOVED - SEE BELOW] are an outrageously gay boyband who disappointingly do not admit to being gay.
Not only do they not openly admit to being gay to the public but their latest single is called [SONG TITLE REMOVED - SEE BELOW]
I live in Seoul and it is an extremely open secret that the boys are gay.
Why must they release a song about a dream girl ?
Although I am sure ‘ [BANDNAME REMOVED - SEE BELOW] gay’ is an amazingly popular google/naver search it will lead you to female fans explaining to each other that [BANDNAME REMOVED - SEE BELOW] are in fact not gay at all and that they are just, quote ‘Divas’.
Discuss.”
I find it interesting that I am not even allowed to discuss the very idea of it on the pop justice forum. Why arn’t I allowed to talk about the pink elephant in the room ? Is it an insinuation that saying they are gay is a negative or that I am saying something offensive ? Is being gay an offensive topic ? Should we just carry on and listen to [SONG TITLE REMOVED - SEE BELOW]‘ and imagine them as straight then ? Would I be able to start a thread asking about what type of girls the [BANDNAME REMOVED - SEE BELOW] boys like ?
It is these type of questions which led me to starting the thread in the first place.
I am genuinely shocked that it was potentially considered as inappropriate.
Love from Thom-Jack Crawley (City Hall, Seoul, South Korea)It's an interesting and valid topic for discussion but I don't think it's okay to out people in this way, particularly as you don't seem to have any proof. Even if you did have proof, it's up to the boys to come out in their own time not for someone on the internet to out them. I do agree that there's a lot of dishonesty in pop - but people lie about worse things than this. Sorry!
Briefing