YOU HAVE NOT LISTENED TO ANYTHING ELSE BY JOSH GROBAN, EXCEPT YRMU!! ADMIT IT! OTHERWISE YOU WOULD 'GET IT' AND QUIT SAYING THE INSULTS THAT YOU SAY ABOUT HIM!

If you really have listened to his foreign language music, especially, and you can still come here and print the drivel you usually write about him ....well, then I'm a donkey's aunt!

Well, there's no accounting for taste, so kerry, love what you love...

But, IMHO, Josh Groban's music is so freaking unbearably saccharine... it's the EPITOME of vapid hackneyed aural drivel.

And Fergie?

Oh, FFS, I'll let the lyrics speak for themselves:

What you gon' do with all that junk?
All that junk inside your trunk?
I'ma get, get, get, get, you drunk,
Get you love drunk off my hump.
My hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump,
My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely little lumps (Check it out)

I drive these brothers crazy,
I do it on the daily,
They treat me really nicely,
They buy me all these ices.
Dolce & Gabbana,
Fendi and NaDonna
Karan, they be sharin'
All their money got me wearin' fly
Brother I ain't askin,
They say they love my ass ‘n,
Seven Jeans, True Religion's,
I say no, but they keep givin'
So I keep on takin'
And no I ain't taken
We can keep on datin'
I keep on demonstrating.

My love (love), my love, my love, my love (love)
You love my lady lumps (love),
My hump, my hump, my hump (love),
My humps they got you,

Such a shame that you are so vapid in your comments. Maybe a less venomous comment would be more appropriate. What's your problem? Jealous? or just a hack?

I cant believe that you could say such things. Ms Dion epitomises everything that is great about modern music. The Noel album is quite possibly the greatest Xmas album ever made and 'You lift me up' inspired me during a very bitter relationship split.............. actually, no, you're right. They are shit and the music buying public need their ears cleaned out.

Music, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I like all the ones you blasted. Does that make me less of a person than you? I think not. Does that mean that my musical intelligence is somewhat diminished or lacking in education? I don't think so.

Let's just say, to each his own. Like mine, your opinion has no weight in the real world.

sm

I beg to differ. I am a musician and a music connoisseur. I resisted the heck out of listening to Josh Groban's Xmas album. My roommate made me listen, and I was floored by the modest grace of his seemingly effortless baritone.

Those hoary old Xmas songs took new life for me, and I am now an atheist!

Give it a chance!

I love Josh Grobsn but cannot imagine any Christmas album being the best selling album of the year! Really amazing, as they probably only get played for a couple of weeks!!!

Yeah, you are exactly that, a snob. Reminds me of all the people like you were too cool for Bing Crosby--now he's recognized by real music experts as having been, oh, shocking--another effortless baritone. (And no, he was NOT a tenor). I'm a union musician, with several hours towards a PhD, and you don't know what the heck you're talking about.

Well, if that last comment was directed at yours truly, I'll have you know that I LOVE me some Bing Crosby, and listen to him every year during the holidays. And sing along.

people like pretty things.

Th easier it is for them to identify with, the higher they'll rise their arms.

It takes the opportunity to hear and see the difference between pretty and beautiful.

Most of the mass of mediocrity just doesn't have the time, talent or desire to learn the difference.

George W. is a clear example of the mob accepting wet shit instead of holding out for the real fertilizer.

Saddest part? Nothing new.

I love it when people come to a liberal website and either imply - or directly state - that, not only are THEY not a part of the unwashed masses, but they are BETTER than the unwashed masses. You people kill me.

Dear Gary,
Allow me to dabble in another artistic field in an attempt to make the kind of analogy that would-be elitist anywhere can use as cocktail fodder. Look at a Rothko; red stripe, white field, red stripe--somewhat simplistic; or perhaps a Mondrian with the addition of another color (or perhaps two-no more though!) and a diagonal line instead of just up and down. In my eyes, these pieces do not denote art because I could have painted them--I see no "talent" in display--not the finesse of Rembrandt, not the majesty of Michaelangelo, the blunt force of Rodin--yet the Rothko went off at Sotherby's for over 10 mil. I do not know what talents or influences you do appreciate Mr. Moskowitz, you really make no mention in this post, but understand; if I can sing them well at karoke, you perhaps need to divest yourself of the Fisher-Price sing-along set and let that musical palette that is your medulla mature.
Respectfully submitted,
Francis Jens Erickson

My my my! It seems having one's taste in music challenged hits a primal nerve that requires adjective laden responses promoting the soul wrenching, searing sheer awesomeness of one's particular favorite artist! As someone who has always been a music addict and views the rise of the MP3 format as an acceptable listening experience as something akin to self mutilation, I have to agree that much of what is being sold to the public these days is unoriginal, marginal crap. I don't care what style of music it is and please note I said MUCH of, not ALL of it. We live in an age when musical talent is no longer necessary to be a performer. Hell, you don't have to be a musician or a singer! Computer voice correction can make the most croakish, unmodulated, ugly voice sound positively angelic. There is software that analyzes a musical work and can determine its hit potential. Remember Alannah Myles and Black Velvet anybody? She was cast into the lead role of performing that song like an actor into a film part. She was also the test case to prove the software worked. The music loving public has always been sold a bill of prepackaged goods. The once ultimate refinement of this was the casting call that created the wacky teen heart-throb band sensation called the Monkees. The same formula was repeated decades later with the creation of the Sex Pistols. The promotion was so successful that to this day many people believe that punk started in the UK with the Pistols rather than in the US on the west coast. While once the music industry was about finding and promoting artists who had the potential to earn money for them based on the artist's talent and the appeal their art had, the business today is purely about making maximum money. And only that. Artistic integrity, talent, and creativeness is barely even necessary. Everything is prearranged and the profit making potential is refined to a science. Often just a pretty face atop a hot body is enough. Dance around in skimpy clothes and lip-sync perfectly to prerecorded everything and the money comes rolling in. Think Ms. Spears and her tribulations. She is used up and yesterday's news. Now, she comes face to face with the fact she was an actress pretending to be a talented performer. Nothing of substance was ever there. Countless more are waiting their chance to get rich while being used up. The smart ones would be best off to take the money at the end and walk away. Believing any true talent ever existed and trying to tap into after their star has blinked out just leads to madness. This was a path blazed by the troop of lip syncing dancers and excheerleaders during the late 1980s and into the 1990s. Again it proved the business model that maximum gain could be reaped from minimal input as long as the minimal input looked good in a tight dress. Or in the male case, chiseled features and six pack abs, and looking good in tight jeans. Once it was big hair, skinny legs, and the ability to pull off Spandex pants, pose with legs askance, knees bent, and sing in a faux Robert Plant falsetto. Mainstream and alternative rock were no different. Image and no substance. Cop the right 'tude, wear the right uniform, sound like somebody else who has already made it and success is assured. Remember the San Diego band who couldn't make it big until they moved to Seattle so they could claim to be part of the Seattle scene? It worked for a bit even though I'd be hard pressed to remember their name. If you've seen a music catalog lately even descriptions of many new bands are presented in terms of what combination of existing bands they sound like. There is so much money at stake that recording companies won't take a chance on promoting anybody new unless it's to a market segment they can manipulate. Like preteen and teen girls. Think Hannah Montana. The music consumer has been analyzed, picked apart, quantified, and catalogued. Almost everything you hear is custom made to appeal to you on the most elemental level. (I heard an interview with the band Loverboy many years ago in which the lead singer said the hardest part of songwriting was "...dumbing it down enough for the average listener to get it.") Challenging listeners is not necessarily a good thing if you want to make sure money. If you can control their sense of sight which is stronger than the sense of hearing, you can sell the image even easier than you can sell the substance. The braying of the sheep throughout the posts here attacking the author of this article prove the music industry has it right. Personal attacks against anyone who would dare say they didn't like your favorite artist. Wow.

to adam h: what the hell are you even talking about? you righties are so freaking obsessed with the whole Liberal thing you see Liberal boogey men in everything. no wonder your kind seems so confused- you can't tell what you actually see and hear from what you want to see and hear. maybe you should confine your listening to Military Marches of the Third Reich because anything else seems to trouble your comprehension. Heil Bush!!

Because a large number of people like an artist doesn't make them good, nor if only a small number like them does it make them bad.

All art is a matter of taste, and even that can change over time for any individual.

I have never been able to understand why people would actually pay money to see some of the fusion jazz artists - they certainly give me a headache. I've never liked it. But for some time in the 70s/80s, I enjoyed C&W. I can't stand it now - except for the old artists. It is just homogenized whine - they not only sound alike, they look alike, too.

Loud music has always turned me off. I came of age in the 60's, but I liked Procol Harum and Pink Floyd because of their classical roots and their melodies. No one has ever written a better piece of rock music than "A Whiter Shade of Pale", IMHO. I also loved Ennio Morricone's music, and still do.

For me, unless music is a little sad, it is not beautiful. Just me. I listen to smooth jazz, like Kenny G, LOL, but mostly like New Age and Meditation music.

We all have our likes, and it is probably a matter of how our brains are put together. I wouldn't presume to put down other people's taste, no matter how much I dont' share it, but don't appreciate others putting down mine, either.

Variety is the spice...

JimH -

Actually, it was AdamM. And I'm as liberal as most of the people who come to this site. But thanks for assuming otherwise. It's never good when you automatically assume that people who disagree with your premises are nazis.

Just a thought: Perhaps so much of music sales is via internet download anymore, the makeup of album purchasers skews album sales in unlikely directions.

Hey RKT, that's a really good point. I'd love to see data reflecting the demographics of music purchasers now versus 5 or 10 years ago...especially for top-selling artists

I'm with you, Gary. I listen to the radio and I just don't understand how this crap got on the air. Everything sounds the same and very few artists take any chances. They just churn out album after album that sounds exactly like the last one and is a great preview for the next one. The American Idolizaton of music needs to stop. We're headed for a world with a bunch of artists that are carbon copies of each other.

To Alyssa: What does Bing Crosby have to do with Groban, Fergie or Celine Dion? I'll answer for you...nothing! Crosby was a pioneer. The three mentioned in the article are just travelling the same old tired and worn roads that have been travelled by so many others before them.

This is probably the best response you've gotten, Mr. Elitist Music Critic....

"I wouldn't presume to put down other people's taste, no matter how much I dont' share it, but don't appreciate others putting down mine, either.

Variety is the spice...

Posted by: phatkhat on 01/19/08 at 3:07 PM Respond"

THIS PERSON HAS THE RIGHT IDEA. YET ANOTHER REASON I THINK CRITICS STINK.....WHO SAYS YOU CAN TELL OTHERS HOW MUCH OR HOW LITTLE THEY SHOULD LIKE SOMETHING?! WHOEVER 'INVENTED' THE WHOLE 'CRITIC' THING WAS JUST ANOTHER JERK IN A WORLD THAT DOESN'T NEED ANY MORE JERKS!