Home  Forums |
|
|
|
|
Topic History of: Simon Cowell on Piers
Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
|
GG |
Anyone comparing Cowell's run at RCA/London with Muff Winwood's at CBS/Sony out to have their head examined (In my opinion).
Placing cover versions with Westlife cannot be compared to Muff Winwood in any sense.
If I were to reach out for advice it would certainly be to Muff. He's still got it, and I wish he was still at Sony.
Nothing personally against Cowell, he is what he is. Which at this point in time is a television executive, saturation marketing half-talents to the masses. |
|
JC |
There is far too much Piers Morgan on TV. I did watch his visit to Shanghai but couldn't help thinking how much better it would be if he wasn't in it. For this reason I didn't watch the Simon Cowell interview, but I find Simon more tolerable than Piers. |
|
DJKZ |
I agree with JK and there's a lot to admire about Simon Cowell.
He's a different kind of music executive and is very much from the old skool
way of doing things. A traditional A&R man who is succeeding with what he is
doing. We have to respect that. Simon didn't nick Opportunity Knocks or New Faces.
He nicked Popstars and transformed it along with Simon Fuller into Pop Idol which
was a fantastic idea.
All it did was televise the "Spice Girls" way of finding an artist & showcasing
them on TV and selling squillions. For me this only works to a point. You need to
keep the mystique but having said that he's had success with Leona, Susan Boyle and
to a lesser extent Will Young. The jury is out on Alexander Burke and I haven't even
counted all the American Idol stars he's unearthed.
For all the criticism of Simon he is a shrewd man who manipulated the public into
respecting him. He understood TV. From the high waisted trousers the snide almost camp
comments, the posh accent, he knows what he is doing and we have to respect that even
if we don't like it.
It's about drama at the end of the day and he has given us drama. Simon Cowell has in
a way opened the door to a new breed of executives who as long as they follow the basic
principle of "setting your acts apart from everyone else" will succeed. TV is the key
and there will be more executives (younger, smarter, and more hungry for success) who
will come from a diverse range of music genres and styles. The basics work all the time.
Let us also not forget Buster Pearson, a man who shrewdly gave us Five Star. There isn't
a lot of difference between him and Cowell in that he got them on TV, negotiated a very
good deal with RCA (similar to Syco/Sony) and created the drama.
I am not a fan of all of Cowell's acts but I admire his methods and acknowledge deep down
he is actually a decent music man. |
|
Chris Retro |
Muff Winwood was a musician who went into a&r with the knowledge, understanding & creative nous of a musician initially to help his brother establish Traffic and get Island Records off the ground as a 'rock' label - and was successful in that field at a pretty young age. It also helped that his mentor was Chris Blackwell - a man who, whilst not without his own flaws, was driven as much by a love for music over money and mere "product". Musicians tended to respect other musicians a lot more than they did mere executives.
Cowell will have greater detachment from the music (or 'product' - which is what his stuff generally is) and thus be more 'successful' than anyone else, if the yarsstick with which we measure success is just units shifted. In his televisual roles he has just applied that to himself.
All very admirable but ultimately completely soulless - a bit like his music really....
Blue Boy wrote:
Mr Cowell was an A&R man, a record executive, not an artist or producer. He came up via song plugging so he has always accepted and applied the old fashioned approach to record making - match a song with an artist in a way that will entice the public to buy the finished product.
Mr Cowell was a very successful record company executive who choose to work for a large corporation. Other than maybe Muff Winwood I can't think of any other UK A&R man who even comes close to his success within a UK record compaany. Mr Cowell is now a television executive and making a bloody good job of that as well I hear.
BTW - Scowl, his name is Simon or am I missing something? |
|
Blue Boy |
Mr Cowell was an A&R man, a record executive, not an artist or producer. He came up via song plugging so he has always accepted and applied the old fashioned approach to record making - match a song with an artist in a way that will entice the public to buy the finished product.
Mr Cowell was a very successful record company executive who choose to work for a large corporation. Other than maybe Muff Winwood I can't think of any other UK A&R man who even comes close to his success within a UK record compaany. Mr Cowell is now a television executive and making a bloody good job of that as well I hear.
BTW - Scowl, his name is Simon or am I missing something? |
|
|
|
