The Hotlist

• Madonna: "Music". Madonna reached a new high with her previous album "Ray Of Light" and continues to pursue new paths with her new release. The album consists of all kinds of styles, often with acoustic guitars and dance beats mixed together - and it all works very well. So even though it builds on the formula of "Ray Of Light", "Music" very much has a life of its own. Under all the layers of noise and beats its still Madonna's well-know pop formula, but the use of strange sounds and musical elements makes the songs appear much stronger. It pretty amazing that at this late stage of her career, Madonna is at her creative peak and more that anybody else sets the standards for how pop music sounds today.
• Playing By Heart. I've spoken highly about the soundtrack for this film before and now I've finally seen the film. And I must say that this combination of a brilliant film and a killer soundtrack makes it the best film experience I've had for a long time. This is very much a must see...
• The whole Napster issue and discussion about illegal exchange of music on the Internet deserves a comment. It's a very difficult subject since it's hard to see the real crook in all this. You have the artists and record companies on one side and most of the record buying audience on the other. Here's a few of my views:
  
  It's hard to decide whether one should be for or against the whole idea behind Napster. There are good arguments on both sides and it's easy to lose focus of what it's really all about. The artists and record companies are very one-dimensional about the whole thing, claiming that they're losing lots of money and their artistic integrity is violated with things like Napster and illegal exchange of music. I think this fear is exaggerated and that the focus of the discussion needs to take other important factors into account.
  
  It's obvious that part of the struggle from the record companies also has to do with a desire to maintain the very high cd prices. Cd's a very overpriced in most parts of the world and the record companies have only been successful in keeping it this way because there haven't been any real alternatives. There are now and one good thing about it all will be that cd prices will eventually have to come down if the record companies wish to maintain the current sales level.
  
  Different studies point towards the fact that easy access to music on the Internet really hasn't meant lower record sales for the artists and record companies. Instead, many people are using the Internet to discover new music and listen to it before they decide to buy it. Pretty much the same way they used to do by listening to the radio in the old days. However, the radio days have changed and today people want to decide themselves what to listen to. Napster provides this opportunity.
  
  Of couse many are also using it to acquire cheap music and this group of people is the center of all attention. And I do think it's wrong to deprive artists of earnings that are rightfully theirs. But for smaller artists, music exchange holds valuable opportunities. Many artists can actually reach a much larger audience than they would have if everyone needed to buy the album in order to listen to their music.
  
  So, the question of people exchanging music is not really relevant here. This is something that will happen no matter what - if not via Napster then via something else. So that really isn't the main issue in this matter. The music business needs to wake up and realise the new world order. And instead of trying to hold on to an impossible illusion of total market control they should be focusing their energy on finding new ways to exploit all these new opportunities. And artists should focus their talents on making good music instead of worrying about an evolution they won't be able to change anyway...
  
  A good example of a band who has decided to act with this new world order is British band The The. Instead of trying to fight a pointless struggle they have chosen to make their music available to people on the Internet. This will probably not mean a loss in earnings for the band, instead they will reach a larger audience - in other words a focus on their art before money...They have observed, realised and reacted - others should do the same.

• Björk & her appearance in "Dancer In The Dark". I'm not that big on her weird nature and I don't really like musicals - so I guess it had to be a disaster putting her in a musical-like weirdo movie...
• Probably following the artistic success of the film/musical "Dancer In The Dark", the new trend from Hollywood is the creation of several musicals starring stars like Nicole Kidman and other big ones. Oooh no, do we really have to listen to them singing...and I'm not a big fan of musicals as it is...
• Robbie Williams: "Sing When You're Winning". A big disappointment. His previous album really had him flying high - now there's only the hard reality of coming back down. Robbie's lost his innermost qualities: Not giving a damn and good songs.
• Lloyd Cole is playing my city in October and I won't be able to go and hear him. What a bummer!!!
• Noel Gallagher from Oasis saying that the new songs he's currently working on are more or less the same style as always. If that's true, then Oasis could actually turn out to be the first band who actually bored the audience to death...No, really, they are in serious need of something new if they are to survive the demise of Britpop and total domination of electronic music.

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