Mindie : The commercialization of indie bands bringing the genre into the mainstream making the style become MOR.

I put in my penneths worth on the mobileact unsigned site. It has since been taken down, which is fair enough as it's their website.
I've become more intolerant in my dotage and can't always keep my trap shut when things bother me (especially where music is concerned)I'm always interested as to what other peoples views are too. Here's what I wrote..

'Alex James comment on The Mentalists the other week was appalling: That they are somehow making a statement by being four girls. Treating them like a freakshow and making an issue out of gender in such a way is just as irksome as the whole competition.

Lily Allen (not 'opinionated' just silly) who not only made a similar comment along the lines of 'I don't want to say yes, ‘cos you're girls and you're pretty' was equally as disparaging but she also said to some very eager, very young faces in the heats (they were about 16 years old I think) ‘I think you’re awful’, which was a terrible thing to say to such impressionable people who have loads of time to develop and who I hope we’ll see in about ten years time in a great band. Unless she has scarred them for life by her attitude or by sending out entirely the wrong message and to other aspiring musicians that you have to look and be a certain way in order to achieve making conformity a pre-requisite: from looks, to attitude, to personality and to money spinning music.

On the flip side, there still aren't enough female musicians around for it not to still be an issue. Encouraging girls to pick up an instrument and play is a brilliant thing, success can be accomplished without having to look like a model and compromise creative originality. – please see Beth Ditto. Unlike the overly competitive and insecure attitudes of other established acts a la Ms Allen.

Most (not all) of the bands in the competition are banal, middle of the road indie schlock with more of an emphasis on haircuts and becoming part of the disposable musical culture; it appears to be more like a corporate venture than finding something that is new and exciting. I’m not so naive as to ignoring the word “business” from the term “Music Business” yet without forward thinking people such as Tony Wilson and Alan McGee (and of course John Peel who gave everything a good listen), there wouldn’t’ve been Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, Mr Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, Jesus and the Mary Chain, to name but a few and to whom most of the bands today are indebted to for forming the face of modern music.

That poor Screamo band had come all the way from Scotland TWICE, only to be rejected under the excuse of "We don't know enough about this scene in order to put them through". Well why don't you know? If this is your business (and isn't it just?!) then you should have the insight and finger on the pulse of all the smaller scenes that are around to see what’s on the up, not just flogging to death the dead horse of what’s in the charts wearing skinny jeans.

That Mobileact has somebody ubiquitously called Simon, who is head of a record company is mildly entertaining, in it's faux-X-factor stylings and Alex James comes across like a bigoted Tory maniac with terrible taste and should probably stick to making cheese but Ms Whiley, really! What happened?'