Westlife top of music charts/Westlife discussion

[noby]

Now, fat dancing monkeys I'd pay to see.


On another note, I read in the paper that their new single has been recorder by 103 different artists since it was written in 2001. The two boys who wrote it call it their 'pension song', and can happily retire now.

[Eire06]

Garbage and nonsense.
Fcuk the begrudger begrudgers I say!!!

I'll never get this concept of "ah sure aren't they Irish and isn't it great".
It is Not.

I have no more empathy for them or no more desire to see them do well than I would have for the owners and profiteers of an Irish Nuclear Powerstation.

Both are bad for the environment. The latter -physical, the former -cultural.

They and the pop culture that they feed into and from give lousy, lousy messages and example -particularly to kids, on what is expected of them. Conform, tow the line, be one of the crowd and don't try to be different, if you do try to be different you will be punished emotionally and financially. Find the center of the road and don't digress or deviate from it.

Big of them and magnanimous too to not think of themselves as "the best band in the world"

A "band", by the way, by definition is a number of musicians performing pieces of music in concert. Westlife and their ilk fall far short of the mark to be described as anything like a "band".

They are something closer to a "male vocal and dance cabaret revue act" though I somehow don't think smash hits will be publishing the results of their Battle of the male vocal and dance cabaret revue acts any time soon.

You seem to have a serious chip on your sholder..
Get over it..
Some people enjoy listening to their albums and I don't think anyone has the right to tell them what the should and shouldn't like

And on you comment on "ah sure aren't they Irish and isn't it great" it doesn't matter where they are from they are singing songs that people enjoy and make people happy and making good money for it Fair play to them I say no matter where they're from..

On you point that they are giving lousy messages and example to kids - thats crap
are they doing and promoting drugs and drink?
are they repeatedly using foul language?
have any of them been arrested for murder?
NO they haven't sorry where are the giving a 'lousy' example

Fair play you don't like them yourself thats grand everyone has a right to an opinion!

[REVIP]

well at least you dont have to carry that burden around with you everywhere like us sligo folk do

I was working in Mindanao in the Philippines four years ago, on the way to a meeting with miners in a mountain village.

The driver decided to stop at a village on the way for coffee and we went to the house of one of his friends.

On the wall there was a poster of the lovely lads. I had reached this place by flying Dublin-Bangkok-Manila-Zamboanga; 3-4 hours by jeep to a town called Ipil and two hours by jeep up a mountain track - and there they were.

I pointed to the poster and said, 'Westlife are Irish'.

'No', said the guy who owned the house, 'they are American. Like the Bee Gees'.

Sligo is safe from any association in that corner of the world!

[Lionel Ritchie]

You seem to have a serious chip on your sholder..
Get over it..
Some people enjoy listening to their albums and I don't think anyone has the right to tell them what the should and shouldn't like

And on you comment on "ah sure aren't they Irish and isn't it great" it doesn't matter where they are from they are singing songs that people enjoy and make people happy and making good money for it Fair play to them I say no matter where they're from..

On you point that they are giving lousy messages and example to kids - thats crap
are they doing and promoting drugs and drink?
are they repeatedly using foul language?
have any of them been arrested for murder?
NO they haven't sorry where are the giving a 'lousy' example

Fair play you don't like them yourself thats grand everyone has a right to an opinion!

I have no chip on my shoulder. I'm just drawing the line under being magnanimous and accomodating about their sh1te and the sh1te of others of their ilk. I'm done with it.

They are a cash cow, a front, a franchise -and they deflect attention away from quality music ...even quality pop music what little there is of it.

As for telling people what they should and shouldn't like -the organisations for which these guys are the front I refer to do this every day of the week "Once in a while a song comes along that captures the heart of a nation" Will they ever fcuk off like.

Finally -in regards giving good, bad or lousy example to anyone -I'd have to start with there assinine, homogenised, elevator music. That gives absolutely appalling example to anyone and has the effect of closing kids off to other musical influence as they and their kind have contributed to the middle of the road narrowing to no wider than the white line.

I don't read smash hits, the tabs or the glossies so I'm not particularly up to speed on whether they like to get smashed, use illicit substances or whatever -and frankly so long as they do it behind closed doors -I can't give a rats ass if they sniff glue through a home made bong.

I did notice though that McFadden was held up as some sort of a victim on the news recently after he'd a speeding charge (clocked doing 120+MPH on the M50) thrown out due to unseemly delay or some other nonsense.
If he flipped burgers in super macs I have my doubts that'd have happened.

Oh I forgot he's not in Westlife anymore. He 's a "serious" artist now -W@nker!

[Eire06]

I have no chip on my shoulder. I'm just drawing the line under being magnanimous and accomodating about their sh1te and the sh1te of others of their ilk. I'm done with it.

They are a cash cow, a front, a franchise -and they deflect attention away from quality music ...even quality pop music what little there is of it.

As for telling people what they should and shouldn't like -the organisations for which these guys are the front I refer to do this every day of the week "Once in a while a song comes along that captures the heart of a nation" Will they ever fcuk off like.

Finally -in regards giving good, bad or lousy example to anyone -I'd have to start with there assinine, homogenised, elevator music. That gives absolutely appalling example to anyone and has the effect of closing kids off to other musical influence as they and their kind have contributed to the middle of the road narrowing to no wider than the white line.

I don't read smash hits, the tabs or the glossies so I'm not particularly up to speed on whether they like to get smashed, use illicit substances or whatever -and frankly so long as they do it behind closed doors -I can't give a rats ass if they sniff glue through a home made bong.

I did notice though that McFadden was held up as some sort of a victim on the news recently after he'd a speeding charge (clocked doing 120+MPH on the M50) thrown out due to unseemly delay or some other nonsense.
If he flipped burgers in super macs I have my doubts that'd have happened.

Oh I forgot he's not in Westlife anymore. He 's a "serious" artist now -W@nker

If your 'done with it' why don't you just ignore them, instead of going on and on and on and on about them...
Its obvious now you secretly love them and your embarrassed to admit it..
its ok you can get counselling so you can learn not to be ashamed of your feelings

And about Brian McF court appearance, I think its our legal system you should be criticising for that one not Westlife who have nothing to do with it

[Lionel Ritchie]

If your 'done with it' why don't you just ignore them, instead of going on and on and on and on about them...
Its obvious now you secretly love them and your embarrassed to admit it..
its ok you can get counselling so you can learn not to be ashamed of your feelings

And about Brian McF court appearance, I think its our legal system you should be criticising for that one not Westlife who have nothing to do with it

I said I'm done with being magnanimous and accomodating of them and their ilk. Three posts is hardly going on and on. I don't think I'm repeating myself either. I think what they're involved in is an evil of sorts and it should be named.

Doubtless there's much for which I should be citicising our legal system. In this instance would you rather I should criticise it for
(a) not landing him in the 'Joy for a few nights,
(b) for not giving him a hefty community service order or
(c) for making it illegal to drive at 120+mph on the M50?

[Eire06]

I said I'm done with being magnanimous and accomodating of them and their ilk. Three posts is hardly going on and on. I don't think I'm repeating myself either. I think what they're involved in is an evil of sorts and it should be named.

Doubtless there's much for which I should be citicising our legal system. In this instance would you rather I should criticise it for
(a) not landing him in the 'Joy for a few nights,
(b) for not giving him a hefty community service order or
(c) for making it illegal to drive at 120+mph on the M50?

Your having a laugh 'evil' seriously come on!!
What exactly is evil about Westlife please tell me??
They sing songs which some people enjoy listening to and they are making a good wage out of it what is so wrong with that??

You can criticise the legal system for whatever you like but I don't think you can blame Brian McFadden or westlife for his case being thrown out of court

[Lionel Ritchie]

Your having a laugh 'evil' seriously come on!!
What exactly is evil about Westlife please tell me??
They sing songs which some people enjoy listening to and they are making a good wage out of it what is so wrong with that??

You can criticise the legal system for whatever you like but I don't think you can blame Brian McFadden or westlife for his case being thrown out of court

Eire if I start repeating myself now it's because you're asking me to.
Westlife -and to be fair a good few like them -are a corporate cash cow designed to separate little kids in partcular from what disposable cash they have as neatly as possible.
The companies behind them utilise an entire industry of childrens TV and media to do this and are quite cynical in how they go about it. For example -at the height of Westlifes popularity -some 3 or even 4 years ago now I'm guessing -if you went to westlifes website, as I'm sure many kids do, you met a frontpage that was predominanty pop-ups that led you to VIP area.
This was where you had to go get mommy and her Visa -because if you wanted to access anything of remote substance you had to pay for membership -kinda like a porn site. Legal yes. Cynical yes also.

But heh that's only money. It's the music I have the biggest "chip on my shoulder" about as you put it -and I have every bit as much right to consider it vile and destructive and -yes evil -as anyone else has to think it's fab.

There is a message contained not just in their horrible records but in their considerable success that people -and in particular young people pick up on their radar ...and that message is that if you want to get on in that business you'd better play it safe, take the easier path, hide your own personality behind a more "marketable" brand. (you see it any given week on X-factor with contestants being told to "just get up there and be yourself" when if they're truthful what they mean to say is "get up there and be the best Karaoke king/queen you can be").

Their music and their success tells kids that if you try to be yourself and try to express yourself in your own way -you'll be nailed, marginalised and ignored. Not making waves is the way to go.

That Eire -as far as I am concerned - is an evil and deserves to be named as such.

[Eire06]

Eire if I start repeating myself now it's because you're asking me to.
Westlife -and to be fair a good few like them -are a corporate cash cow designed to separate little kids in partcular from what disposable cash they have as neatly as possible.
The companies behind them utilise an entire industry of childrens TV and media to do this and are quite cynical in how they go about it. For example -at the height of Westlifes popularity -some 3 or even 4 years ago now I'm guessing -if you went to westlifes website, as I'm sure many kids do, you met a frontpage that was predominanty pop-ups that led you to VIP area.
This was where you had to go get mommy and her Visa -because if you wanted to access anything of remote substance you had to pay for membership -kinda like a porn site. Legal yes. Cynical yes also.

But heh that's only money. It's the music I have the biggest "chip on my shoulder" about as you put it -and I have every bit as much right to consider it vile and destructive and -yes evil -as anyone else has to think it's fab.

There is a message contained not just in their horrible records but in their considerable success that people -and in particular young people pick up on their radar ...and that message is that if you want to get on in that business you'd better play it safe, take the easier path, hide your own personality behind a more "marketable" brand. (you see it any given week on X-factor with contestants being told to "just get up there and be yourself" when if they're truthful what they mean to say is "get up there and be the best Karaoke king/queen you can be").

Their music and their success tells kids that if you try to be yourself and try to express yourself in your own way -you'll be nailed, marginalised and ignored. Not making waves is the way to go.

That Eire -as far as I am concerned - is an evil and deserves to be named as such.

Oh dear God you need help!!
Yes they advertise and make money from merchandise as do nearly every band that has a record contract you cannot criticise just Westlife for that, the likes of U2 and Greenday do the exact same to market themselves..

How are Westlife, their musin and their success telling kids that they have to act a certain way and that they can't express themselves?? Can you explain it because I can't see it and your comments are not making any sense..

I'd understand if you were on about the Prodigy's song 'Smack My b!tch up' promoting violence towards Women but Westlife come on all they do is sing a few Ballads

[Lionel Ritchie]

Eire this is disintegrating into a really tired and tawdry handbags about how sh1te or not Westlife are.

I'm not explaining for a third time how and why I believe Westlife and their kind are a pox.

If you want to debate the considerable relative merits of The Prodigys 'Smack My Bitch Up' I suggest you start a new topic on it -where I'll be happy to joust. Stick on topic.

[sligoman]

Hehe, I'm liking this debate . Good job Limerick are playing Galway United on Friday, than all matters should be resolved

[sligoman]

'No', said the guy who owned the house, 'they are American. Like the Bee Gees'.

I hope you set him straight and told him they were Irish?

[Eire06]

Eire this is disintegrating into a really tired and tawdry handbags about how sh1te or not Westlife are.

I'm not explaining for a third time how and why I believe Westlife and their kind are a pox.

If you want to debate the considerable relative merits of The Prodigys 'Smack My Bitch Up' I suggest you start a new topic on it -where I'll be happy to joust. Stick on topic.

You have made no valid points on the matter and you know you were talkin crap..
The point was not if westlife were any good or not.. you were trying to claim that they were evil and a bad influence ( you still haven't made any valid points to back that up) I was simply disagreeing with you..
I used the prodigy as an example to put a point across in this discussion so therefore it was keeping with the discussion topic..

[Lionel Ritchie]

You have made no valid points on the matter and you know you were talkin crap..
The point was not if westlife were any good or not.. you were trying to claim that they were evil and a bad influence ( you still haven't made any valid points to back that up) I was simply disagreeing with you..
I used the prodigy as an example to put a point across in this discussion so therefore it was keeping with the discussion topic..

Eire -I had just sacrificed much of my lunch break typing a response which added detail, colour and background to why Westlife are yet should not be celebrated in this country -when I accidently hit the back key and erased my post.

As I'm not going to let four fat lads rob whats left of my lunch I'm going to sum up in one sentence.

Westlife embody the rush to the center ground that is killing music, destroying creativity, conditioning -dare I say GROOMING -kids to expect particular Barry Manilow-esque mundanity from their music and making sure ther'll only be coleslaw and dick sandwichs left in the canteen.

[Eire06]

Eire -I had just sacrificed much of my lunch break typing a response which added detail, colour and background to why Westlife are yet should not be celebrated in this country -when I accidently hit the back key and erased my post.

As I'm not going to let four fat lads rob whats left of my lunch I'm going to sum up in one sentence.

Westlife embody the rush to the center ground that is killing music, destroying creativity, conditioning -dare I say GROOMING -kids to expect particular Barry Manilow-esque mundanity from their music and making sure ther'll only be coleslaw and dick sandwichs left in the canteen.

Still have to disagree, you under-estimate kids and over-estimating the effect Westlife have on them... Most kids I know listen to a wide variety of music, they usually start with whats in the charts at the moment but then they move onto appriciating other artists who don't make it into the single's charts.. The end up liking a lot of bands

and anyway most Westlife fans are now in their 20's or older

BTW you should enjoy your lunch away from your computer, its unhealty to be spending too much time online

oh and they're not fat
he he

[sligoman]

Eire -I had just sacrificed much of my lunch break typing a response which added detail, colour and background to why Westlife are yet should not be celebrated in this country -when I accidently hit the back key and erased my post.

A likely story

[Lionel Ritchie]

Still have to disagree, you under-estimate kids and over-estimating the effect Westlife have on them... Most kids I know listen to a wide variety of music, they usually start with whats in the charts at the moment but then they move onto appriciating other artists who don't make it into the single's charts.. The end up liking a lot of bands

and anyway most Westlife fans are now in their 20's or older

BTW you should enjoy your lunch away from your computer, its unhealty to be spending too much time online

oh and they're not fat
he he

Heh heh got the last chicken sambo!

I'm underestimating the kids? On what basis. There's voluminous evidence there that the kids buy what they're told to when told to go buy it. Record companies can literally bank on "the Kids" running out and buying particular types of records at particular times of year.

...in fairness - it lamentably extends beyond pop - Witness or Oxygen or whatever they're calling it next year is apparently close to sold out if you believe the hype -but the organisers haven't announced a single act for it.

Back O/T -I appreciate most Westlife fans are in an older bracket now but their inception is still the same as any other boyband - soppy muck targeted at 7-12 year olds who just happen to have grown up at this stage.

I hope you appreciate that anything I apply to Westlife I apply with equal disdain to any of their carbon copies and with increased disgust to the McFlys and Busteds who are an attempt by the industry to "mop up the stragglers" -boys in particular who find the Westlife type model too syrup-ie.

But much of my annoyance is with the way they're treated here in Ireland. A country that claims the likes of U2 (not a fan) to The Cranberries (not a fan) to Therapy (AM a fan) to Ash (nyih can take em or leave em) to Divine Comedy (am a fan) to The Thrills (not a fan) as it's own now that they've had some success did absolute jacksh1t to help any of them before they left here.

Yet when some shower hop up and start prancing like a bunch of tits and miming a Bee Gees song -they not only get the radio play and the TV appearances -they're interviewed as guests like they've done something remarkable.

The classic example of this is the disgraceful introduction of Boyzone to the Irish public on RTEs flagship programme 24 hours after they were formed in a room above a nightclub. I genuinely believe the producer should've been fired for it.

They'd never made a record, never performed anything anywhere and waltz onto the Late Late show. That's not "pull" and it's not "contacts" it's just wrong like.

Where were Whipping Boy that night?
Were there no actual bands out there who'd gone to the bother of producing something, who might've been up for a late late show slot that night?

Eire you're from Galway -where were Toasted Heretic? What stretch of dangerous back road were Toasted Heretic being bounced around in the back of a Hiace with no seats going to do a gig in some godforsaken hole while they could've been on the Late Late instead of half a dozen chavs with nothing to say? A disgrace so it was.

The Cranberries got about the same length feature as Boyzone did a month or two later -but The Cranberries had to get into the US top 10 first.

I'll say it again. We're a disgrace.

[noby]

*clap clap clap*

[Green Tribe]

Go Westlife, go Westlife!
Basically Eire06, Lionel Ritchie is just jealous of them. I think they're a nice bunch of lads, I appreciate them because they're from Ireland and they are sound lads, no arrogance or look-at-me! They are not setting a bad example to young people unlike some famous 'role models'...

[sligoman]

I appreciate them because they're from Ireland and they are sound lads, no arrogance or look-at-me! They are not setting a bad example to young people unlike some famous 'role models'...

Know them well do you?.

Kian Egan is one of the most arrogant pr!cks in the music industry at the moment.