I don't know that I've actually made it all the way through one of his solo tracks aside from Money On My Mind. Too boring to keep my attention.

His voice does seem to fit more with dancey stuff, and I happen to like the remixes of his songs more than the originals themselves. But it's no reason to throw hate onto Sam Smith himself. The industry just seems to overplay certain stuff of his.

 

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

I don't like these posts about whether an artist deserves success, I mean I feel like some people are using it as a way of slating an act. Its not Sam Smith's fault he has success or Ed Sheeran fault this success has had happened. Whether you think there rubbish or not the fact is any person, artist or group deserve success. (within reason I wouldn't say people who have been in prison do :lol:). I like most of his songs (apart from MOMM, that got old quick) so I can say I don't like some of his songs.

 

As Cody Slayberry said the industry seems to overplay his stuff really.

 

His voice does seem to fit more with dancey stuff, and I happen to like the remixes of his songs more than the originals themselves. But it's no reason to throw hate onto Sam Smith himself. The industry just seems to overplay certain stuff of his.

 

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

 

This is just my opinion and sorry for posting my view on the matter :D

I don't like these posts about whether an artist deserves success, I mean I feel like some people are using it as a way of slating an act. Its not Sam Smith's fault he has success or Ed Sheeran fault this success has had happened. Whether you think there rubbish or not the fact is any person, artist or group deserve success. (within reason I wouldn't say people who have been in prison do :lol:). I like most of his songs (apart from MOMM, that got old quick) so I can say I don't like some of his songs.

 

As Cody Slayberry said the industry seems to overplay his stuff really.

This is just my opinion and sorry for posting my view on the matter :D

No need to apologize, that's the point of the thread!

 

Having recently listened to his album I'd say yes it's worthy of success. I just wish Sam was having success with different singles :P

 

*cough release Restart already cough*

Okay, as far as people questioning the right to claim whether an artist has success goes, sure, everyone who has people buying their music is entitled to the success their fans want them to have. What my answer (and probably others answering) is getting at though is that... is this the sort of music that should be having the greatest success? On the scale he's having?

 

This is going to get subjective... but in terms of providing inspiration and quality to the musical landscape, no. Whether you like his music or not, most of his ballads are very similar sonically and they're tapping right into the corner of music that will sound nice to most people, in order to sell as much as possible. Textbook middle of the road stuff. It's successful because it's designed to be successful and there's something very off-putting about that, particularly coupled with the amount of time that it has remained incredibly successful. And just how many people who buy his stuff now will still be listening to it in 5 years?

 

And not to mention that this will instead of new musical acts trying to be the next , they are more likely to try to be the next Sam Smith because it sells more. That's what I'm trying to get at. A better angle for these threads would be something like: 'Does X artist's success mean good things for the industry'?

iz did you see my piece on sam in my YTD, obv i totally agree with you.

 

focus grouped, mother-drawing warble

Yeah I did, that was a great read, I won't deny that it may have influenced my thinking but I've been feeling this about him for many months now, and it's something I've been more and more convinced by every second he stays around in the music industry, especially with him sweeping the Grammys like he did.

 

Why should he be getting all this acclaim? There's no risk there. No ingenuity, it's just the same old shit that clogs up daytime radio for people who aren't big music fans to have something un-abrasive to fill their drivetime. And it feels more offensive because you can plainly see the gears whirring.

it's a very out-dated notion of what makes for 'real music'. in an age of streaming record labels have become more markedly more conservative and more adverse to taking anything that constitutes a risk. look at the scarcity of new releases in Q1 this year and it's a trend i foresee continuing. with such little money in the industry labels are going for any easy to listen to, mass market sound that is totally white, middle class and faux-emotional and people lap it up. i think it's easy to loose site of the fact that we are banded here together in this community called buzzjack because we are passionate about good quality music be that pop to indie to whatever but so much of the world is totally indifferent to music and hear the odd bit on say heart.fm. there will come a point of stagnation and then the industry is fucked over totally.

 

with a singer-songwriter record such as sam smith's debut you need to have lived a little and experienced an actual relationship to make it work and not come off half-baked and disingenuous. it's so very telling that sam has centred his record around 'one man's rejection'. i mean really, it's a basic event and one that you get over, to hash out an entire debut record around this pretext just shows the desperate grappling to garner some sort of weight and meaning to a collection of hollow tracks. is this the type of music sam listens to himself? i doubt it. this is why an artist moves towards more adult-contemporary material as their career evolves and they have actually lived somewhat and have something "meaningful" to sing about.

 

i think the final thing that tops it all off though is yes, sam smith has a remarkable voice but he is a total charisma vacuum and tbh lacks any real star quality or power. his live performances that i've caught have been non-events and he conveys no real sense of personality in interviews. he doesn't look one bit like a popstar either...

No.

 

La La La and particularly Latch are excellent produced songs which his voice (which I will get to) was well suited to. His solo material on the other hand is completely devoid of any creativity and artistry musically (in response to Ed, I can't say the same for him -- many of the compositions on x, + and his EPs are masterful and excellently produced), his lyrics repetitive and his style of songwriting generic and uninteresting. I would absolutely love to say that I think he has talent that I just can't seem to appreciate, but when he sings he sounds like he either vocalises through his nose, has a mouth full of shit or is being strangled whilst doing so. In the Lonely Hour is run of the mill and has as much personality as a cucumber, although few songs on it are powerful, the most obvious ones being I'm Not the Only One and Restart.

 

#sozsam

Yes. Money On My Mind wasn't great, but Stay With Me, I'm Not The Only One and Like I Can were amazing. Lay Me Down is also good (but not very keen on the original).

No.

He was great with Disclosure, his other stuff is just so dull.

yes and no.

 

Great topic!!!

 

there are many artist on their way (Now, Now. My Starving Lion!) that WILL make it and that ALREADY deserve their success.

 

 

-Church-

Edited March 2, 201510 yr by generalissue