4 ARTS' The Michigan Daily Thursday, February 14, 1985 Page 6 Duran Duran: Most hated band at ' I By Beth Fertig oday's music market is flooded T with many strong, moneymaking personalities. With heavy MTV ex- posure and a healthy record industry, the American public is now acutely aware of who's in the limelight and when. But if sales are meant to tell us who this public loves and listens to, wouldn't it be interesting to ask them about who they hate? Several University students were polled randomly to get some response to this question. They were asked, generally, what bands or individuals in popular music they hate and/or, would like to see banished from the airwaves. There were no truly surprising an- swers, for of course, all the big money- makers were mentioned; but the responses themselves were interesting. Michael Jackson, Prince, and Duran Duran were the three most popular choices. Basically, people are sick of hearing about these artists. Of Jackson, students exclaimed that they were "tired of the whole thing." Said one LS&A junior, "They play him up so The fastest-growing profession i t miAmerica. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need for paralegals is about to double. Now is the time to become a part of this dynamic profession ... and there is no finer training available than at Philadelphia's acclaimed Institute for Paralegal Training. After just four months of intensive study, we will find you a job in the city of your choice. We are so confident of the marketability of our graduates that we offer a unique tuition refur I plan. To learn how you can add market value to your college degree, return the coupon or call toll free: 1-800-222-IPLT. We'll be on campus March 14 & 15, 1985 Contact your placement office to arrange for an individual interview or group presentation. much with the tour and the expensive tickets - it's really too extravagant. He's not a well-rounded performer like Prince." There was a great deal of comparison between these two artists Among the students. While some felt that Jackson was hype but Prince was art, there were others who tended to disagree. Said one student, "I think his music's inane." Another person remarked that they just didn't like his style. The "new wave" band Duran Duran was mentioned by many people, and for various reasons. This band usually seemed to generate stronger feelings of dislike than the previously mentioned artists who seemed to merely bore listeners. Said one LS&A senior, in a frenzied explanation, "They stink! They are absolutely the worst band I've heard in my entire life. I'd rather hear Sid Vicious, if he came back, or the Psychedelic Furs than ten seconds of Duran Duran! ", Other people disliked the band's image and commercial ap- peal. Heavy Metal music on the whole got a bum rap from many students. Several said that it was not music, but noise. One student remarked that she "couldn't see the point in it." Another flatly stated that he'd like to see the band Krokus "destroyed forever." Other head-banging bands like Black Sabbath and Twisted Sister were com- mented upon as "loud and obnoxious." An LS&A freshman was annoyed by this whole particular genre of music, explaining that "a lot of the music today is getting away from what it should be." As for personalities, Billy Idol seemed to generate the most revulsion among students. One found Idol "disgusting", and remarked that the singer's "personal habits are disgusting," as well. Another student found the man "kind of obnoxious." The band Journey was also disliked by one student due to their pop sound and the fact that "Steve Perry's really ugly." Students weren't the only people questioned about their musical tastes. Professor Geyer of the History depar- tment, an avid listener of WCBN, remarked that he hates "bubblegum music and head-bangers," as the whole heavy metal scene isn't his forte. Philosophy professor Sarah Conly ob- jected to "Kiss, those people that paint themselves." She also found Foreigner 4 4 Kiss may have disposed of its make-up, but its music has not yet changed. While some Ann Arbor high schoolers tend to embrace their music, 'U' students tend to think of it as dogfood. Billy Idol (inset), with his costume and music, makes it excusable to be confused by the boundaries between punk and heavy metal. Housing and Merit Scholarships available THE INSTITUTE FOR PARALEGAL TRAINING Approved by the American Bar Association -"- - - -- - - - - -U tMail this coupon to: |RM I t Institute for Paralegal Training I I1926 Arch StreetI Philadelphia, PA 19103 Please send a copy of your catalogue. SName Address City State ________Zip ICollege (Yr of Grad) Phone I (present) (home) _j revolting because of their "adolescent lyrics." On the more "professional" end of things, imput was obtained from several record store employees. These are people who have had experience dealing with consumer taste, and whose own taste, for the most part, had become very specific. Jim Erwin, of Schoolkids, had a list of grievances against the popular music scene. When asked what bands he hated most, he replied that "Duran Duran is an ob- vious choice," and that, "There should be a fifteen year moratorium on The Doors until women stop throwing their bodies at this dead carcus." Erwin went on to say that he disliked "rap" music because all of the twelve inch singles sound the same. "People like George Clinton really knew how to play," he declared. As for Pop music on the whole, he said that he doesn't like anything that's sold over two million copies.The popular groups were objec- tionable, he concluded, because, "if it has some kind of outstanding quality, someone will like it and someone will hate it." At Discount Records, employees' tastes were equally discriminating. Saleswoman Marie disliked many popular names such as Prince, the Rolling Stones, Styx ,and Tina Turner; explaining that it's "a bunch of hype and sounds bad. It's contrived and too commercial." She also was disgusted with what she felt many of today's ar- tists are propagating. "It's too sleazy," she said, "especially if you're female and you've got to live with it." Jim Leonard, the manager of Discount Records was able to somehow classify his pet peeves into three main categories: Germans, Australians, and Canadians. "Germans have the grossest bands," he said with disgust. "Australians are second. You can't get too much worse than the Scorpions." As for American culture's perception of the music scene, he said that it's all "aimed at cultivationg our stupidity. David Lee Roth is the epitome of this." Employees at Music Mart, Wazoos, and Record & Tape Exchange had grievances against everything from Ozzy Ozbourne's "cruelty to pigeons" to the "manufactured music" of Duran Duran. One assistant manager resen- ted the band Journey for still being popular. At campus stations WCBN and WJJX, the DJ's -raised complaints against Prince and heavy metal music. So what does this leave one to draw as a conclusion about today's music? Professors Allen Britton and George Cavender of the School of Music aren't entirely sure that they have an apswer. When questioned, they replied that they had withdrawn from popular music several years ago, but explained why. Britton's critique of today's music was that he "couldn't tell the difference between one singer and another" and that he couldn't comprehend what they were singing. However, both he and Cavender emphasized that they don't understand this music well enough to hate it. They compared rock stars to "children dressed up and jumping up and down while making faces." Yet, they were sure that this sounded as bad to them as the jazz of their day did to their grandmothers; or the Spartan war songs did to Socrates in Plato's Republic, for that matter. What basically caused wonder to these men was the marketability of pop music. They feel that it is now all catered to thirteen year-olds. Said Britton, "the money and technology has changed the capacity of reaching the audience. The money that comes in is fantastic." Professor Britton added that "under- standing music is :a trick. You have to be familiar with the idiom." He ex- plained that many people don't realize this, and therefore don't like many kin- ds of music because of this lack of un- derstanding. So what is it about popular music that people dislike? Obviously, the biggest money-makers are loved by enough4 people to make the money, while hated by a great number of others, as well. Nobody's going to dislike something they haven't heard of. But look at groups like U2, R.E.M., or Big Country, which weren't mentioned by anybody questioned. Although this was far from a scientific method of polling, what one could conclude from this research is that while these groups are doing well, they obviously aren't doing as well as they could be. . , [ r/ '" ... n ni d Q SUBSCRIPTIONS .........764-0558 CLASSIFIEDS ............764-0557 NEWS ..................764-0552 SPORTS .................764-0562 DISPLAY ADVERTISING ...764-0554 BILLING .................764-0550 USHER POSITIONS available for i p Td-p-P THE CRUCIBLE F, HOT L BALTIMORE JEEVES TAKES CHARGE ebruary 20-24 March 11-17 Valentine's Day was named for a prisoner held in jail for his beliefs. Valentine went to prison because he refused to forswear his per- sonal beliefs and pledge himself to the state. Valentine's Day celebrates love because the daughter of Valentine's jailer was moved by the prisoner and she saw that he was well treated. 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