Thursday, December 24, 2015

Stephen Fry intersects with modern music

Newsbeat got Stephen Fry in to listen to some pop music and say what he thought.

He was, reliably, all high-court-judge-what-is-beatles about his task:

“I could lie, but I couldn't even say what it is. I don't know the names of anybody. I'm not interested,” he admitted. “There's someone called Adelia? Adalia?”

“Adele,” replied the interviewer. “Adele. I've heard of her,” he said.
They played him some Little Mix:
As the English popsters sang the ‘sha-la-la-la, woo-ooo chorus’, the 58 year old asked: “Oh, they're not still singing ‘sha-la-la-la’ are they? It's got bits of Phil Spector right at the background through '70s bubblegum pop into a sort of modern version and it's a hideous, toxic compound. It's basically the musical equivalent of Haribo Starmix.”
Actually, Stephen, that's not really an insult.


4 comments:

PeterD said...

A man hurtling towards retirement age doesn't get pop music. I am also with you, comparing someone to Haribo Starmix is a compliment in my eyes.

Robin Carmody said...

The thing about that quote is that it's almost certainly apocryphal; as is now obvious to anyone with the relevant access, the Guardian *headline* "What is a Beatle?" - reporting a December 1963 court case which had something to do, I think, with one of the beat boom-era managers and his rights to certain work - is simply an impressionistic capture of the general vibe in court, not a direct quote.

One of the "toff" assumptions which most irritated me came when someone I once knew assumed that Stephen Fry only really knowing the pop music of his youth was a sign of his class. As if there weren't, and hadn't been, huge numbers of working-class people to whom that would also apply.

Can't say I warm to Haribo Starmix, though.

Unknown said...

Your writing is great. You should refer to the song download here for free: https://mp3tomato.com/

Anonymous said...

I want to let everyone know a reputable and high quality iPhone ringtone download address is bestringtonenet - iphone ringtones. All music has been converted to m4r format for easy installation

Post a Comment

As a general rule, posts will only be deleted if they reek of spam.