The Gossip

[Benji]

Most media over-rated pile of wank in many a year.

Discuss.

[Steeb]

The song is pretty damn great.

The album is a pile of fucking shite.

Beth Ditto is a disgusting specimen.

NME are whores for her.

NME are a disgusting specimen by association.

Win.

[-A-]

The song's OK, apart from being pretty bland instrumentally. I want to get annoyed by her voice, but I don't quite. I can imagine liking it a lot more in a song which isn't entirely devoid of personality apart from it.

Also, Radio 1 has made me hate music.

Edited March 9, 2007 by JudgeClassical

[Skummy]

I haven't heard the rest of the album, but the single's fucking brilliant, great stuff. And who cares if she's a "disgusting specimen"? Bands exist to be listened to, not looked at, so what does it matter?

Oh, and the NME stopped mattering years ago.

[Steeb]

I didn't say it mattered, I just expressed my opinion. Anything wrong with that?

[fourstarfizzle]

I haven't heard the rest of the album, but the single's fucking brilliant, great stuff. And who cares if she's a "disgusting specimen"? Bands exist to be listened to, not looked at, so what does it matter?

Oh, and the NME stopped mattering years ago.

[Skummy]

I think it's fairly ridiculous to say they're only getting anywhere because of her. Plenty of bands have fat female lead singers, and it's far more of a setback than it ever is an advantage...women in music are expected to have supermodel good looks.

I didn't say it mattered, I just expressed my opinion. Anything wrong with that?

Not at all, I completely agree with your opinion, because it combines "NME" with "disgusting".

[RPS]

I fucking love the Gossip. Maybe its because I'm not from the UK and don't ever read NME, but they are a half decent band. I dig their older stuff a lot more than their newer stuff. I mean, they aren't the greatest band in any sense of the word at all, but there are hundreds, nay thousands, of other bands who deserve scorn over these guys.

Plus, Beth Ditto says some pretty fucking funny things every now and again.

[Steeb]

I think it's fairly ridiculous to say they're only getting anywhere because of her. Plenty of bands have fat female lead singers, and it's far more of a setback than it ever is an advantage...women in music are expected to have supermodel good looks.

I didn't say it mattered, I just expressed my opinion. Anything wrong with that?

Not at all, I completely agree with your opinion, because it combines "NME" with "disgusting".

[METALMAN]

That was so stupid nominating her for sexiest woman. I hated her live performance with Jarvis Cocker too and I think the band themselves are way overrated. It all goes back to her topping that stupid cool list. Nobody had really heard of Beth Ditto before that.

[Skummy]

I wouldn't have known who she was as an individual (I didn't even know her name before reading this), but the band had been knocking about for a while beforehand, so I don't think the Cool List had too much to do with it...I doubt anyone really takes it seriously, as it's always a bag of cocks, and NME hasn't been the trendsetter it used to be for a long time, it just reflects what's happening in the music world already.

Her being up for sexiest woman is a bit stupid, I mean I don't mind big women, and I like dykes, but she's just not attractive.

I don't know, though, I don't listen to the radio (except local stuff, which has been playing them a little bit), don't really watch TV, and the only music magazine I still read is Plan B, so I wasn't even aware that there was any media hype behind them.

[TMM]

The only "media hype" I've seen is an advertisement for the album. That's it.

For what it's worth, I like the song. I think it's really catchy, and she sounds very good on the track. That said, she could be atrocious in everything else.

[Steeb]

There's a fair bit of hype from the press, and the radio. Radio 1 love 'em, The Guardian has a semi for 'em, and so on.

[Benji]

I think it's fairly ridiculous to say they're only getting anywhere because of her. Plenty of bands have fat female lead singers, and it's far more of a setback than it ever is an advantage...women in music are expected to have supermodel good looks.

I didn't say it mattered, I just expressed my opinion. Anything wrong with that?

Not at all, I completely agree with your opinion, because it combines "NME" with "disgusting".

The gimmick isn't "she's fat", it's that she's a fat, feminist, lesbian with a transgendered partner who is clearly 'against the system', it may well be her life, but it's pandering to the "anti-norm" crowd like no-ones business. But I agree, it is about the music. And their music is fucking awful.

[Herr Matzat]

are you shure about the the?

[Benji]

are you shure about the the?

Are you even trying to make sense anymore?

[GA!]

The Gossip are one big gimmick. The lead singer is a whale who hates the penis from some Jesus loving red state, big whoop. The NME has got behind her because the image is rebellious. lol, nme fites aginst teh systemo... I personally think they'll be one of these bands that has some success, but will be known for the gimmick and mostly because of one song... Basically they're The Darkness of 2007.

I just wish the NME will fuck off, or to be precise, the fucktard university students that believe the shit the magazine produces should die. The good only band they've shilled since Britpop is Franz Ferdinand... The rest has been generic shite where the singer has more to say (lol, magazine exclusiveo!) than to sing.

[Skummy]

Wait...so because she chooses to live her life in a way that's different to you it's "all one big gimmick"? Just because she's in a band and she's gay doesn't mean it's a conscious effort to sell records. It's the music press that have presumably made it into an issue, I doubt it was the reason she joined the band or anything of that nature. It's like Antony & The Johnsons....he's a transvestite. He also makes incredible music. Which of those two things is going to be selling more albums?

Comparing them to The Darkness, who were/are an irony-soaked parody of classic rock and explicitly a "gimmick" band is ridiculous, when they're making fairly original music (from what I can tell, at least), and doing it well, but because the singer has an alternative lifestyle, and isn't a bloke with a neat fringe or a size 8 girl with bleach-blonde hair getting her tits out for Maxim, it makes it a "gimmick".

[Benji]

Wait...so because she chooses to live her life in a way that's different to you it's "all one big gimmick"? Just because she's in a band and she's gay doesn't mean it's a conscious effort to sell records. It's the music press that have presumably made it into an issue, I doubt it was the reason she joined the band or anything of that nature. It's like Antony & The Johnsons....he's a transvestite. He also makes incredible music. Which of those two things is going to be selling more albums?

Comparing them to The Darkness, who were/are an irony-soaked parody of classic rock and explicitly a "gimmick" band is ridiculous, when they're making fairly original music (from what I can tell, at least), and doing it well, but because the singer has an alternative lifestyle, and isn't a bloke with a neat fringe or a size 8 girl with bleach-blonde hair getting her tits out for Maxim, it makes it a "gimmick".

Stop being so fucking naive, if you believe it isn't in the control of The Gossip and not just the media you're so wrong, she makes a MASSIVE point about being gay and her past, she's got a loud mouth and that's what's really getting the attention, because she's another musical prima donna who isn't actually all that talented.

Face it Skummy, while it is her life, and the media does push it, it's the band that pushes it the most, because they know it'll sell records, it's the singer that portrays a 'rebellious' image because it gets her attention, and that's all most band in NME are right now, attention whores.

[Skummy]

Okay, I have to admit, as I have done throughout this thread, I'm essentially playing Devil's Advocate...I haven't seen, read or heard any interviews with the band other than a couple a few months back in Plan B, and they never really made an issue of it too much then, they just glossed over it. It probably is a symbiotic relationship between band and media, but at the end of the day, every band needs something to make them stand out, that's how the music business works. That said, though, there are hundreds and hundreds of bands with gay, lesbian or transgender singers, many of them I'm sure are more obnoxious than The Gossip, that never make it anywhere, so there's obviously a large degree of their success that can be attributed to their actual talent.

Like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if they are playing it up for increased media attention, but to put them in the same kind of category as The Darkness because of it is stretching it far too far.