For those of you who aren't voice coaches or members of MENSA, here's what I've found out about a glottal stop:

The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʔ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ?. The glottal stop is the sound made when the vocal cords are pressed together, and is the sound in the middle of the interjection uh-oh.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop

Crikey, it's all getting a bit scientific for me . Can science be used to explain why You're Beautiful has re-entered the singles chart at number 16 this week, even though it has been on the chart for 31 weeks already and is actually deleted? June?

I have no idea - just that I am fed up with James Blunt, "You're Beautiful" and you SGE!

As far as I am concerned it is sloppy speech when people say "bu'er", "wa'er" etc. That's what I means by glottal stops.

I have to admit, it's a catchy song. I heard it in the supermarket on Saturday and I'm still trying to make it stop I really can't stand his voice, sorry.

Thats what a glottal stop is. But if my English Language teacher heard you describe it as "lazy" she'd go nuts. Thank Buddha I don't do English Language any more...

why would your english teacher have gone nuts? i'm pretty sure most of mine would have called it lazy too.

Were your teachers A-level English Lang. Teachers or just average teachers. Most of the run-of-the-mill teachers would have probably agreed but its the same as if you said to an art teacher "pop art is rubbish", they would have argued its an expressionist art.

Well maybe "nuts" was a hyperbole but still. They stressed (maybe because the exam boards want them to) that it is not lazy but instead variation.

Or maybe its just because if the first lesson was "Glottal stops are lazy" we'd have had many empty lessons.

Anyway enough of English Lanugage debates, back to Mr Blunt :P

2.4m morons in Britain buying it. I'd never judge without at least listening to it, and I just thank the good lord i never parted money for such a pile of dog s**t.

I bet the same people who bought this shameful repetitive pap also bought Dido, David Gray and Coldplay AND thought they were "hip" and "trendy" in the process.

Ha ha ha! That is so funny - and so true!

Just wait until it surpasses your beloved band's Sgt Peppers as the biggest selling album ever in the UK. I've got the paramedics on standby And to call people morons for buying an album that you don't happen to like is, frankly, pathetic. Grow up.

SGE,

I bet you have allot of dinner parties

Yes, Mrs SGE and myself have A LOT of dinner parties, at least 3 a week.

Because it's sold a lot doesn't mean it's good!

But who gives anybody the right to be the arbiter of taste in music, Mrs Young? There are loads of artists I personally don't like but I wouldn't call the people who buy their stuff morons, as that shows a real lack of class. And it's also incredibly patronising.

You were saying?

Meanwhile, back on topic, Back To Bedlam is the world's 8th biggest selling album this year. Remarkable when you consider he's only just started making inroads into the US market.

http://www.geocities.com/inthitlists/2005-albums.htm

Are you Blunt's agent SGE? You seem to be working overtime to prove a point!

First you say this:
And then this:




Now who is being patronising?

I love the bit about the agent, DarkDrums!

However, I know I do like Will above all other singers. He is an incredibly talented and diverse man. Whereas some other singers haven't got it in them to do anything different - yet. We will see what JB's second album brings us. :yawn:

Your quite welcome

It won't ever pass 4.6m that Sgt Peppers has sold - its taken enough time to limp past 2.4m. Its peaked, Sgt Peppers was #1 for almost 30 weeks!

Oh, and its MY opinion that people who buy James Blunt are morons. So grow up and deal with it!

Hardly remarkable, its only about 6m units sold in over a year, i do believe the Beatles "1" sold 13m in just 3 weeks of release!

The guys a little scrawny weirdo, possibly homosexual. There are so many great albums out there, yet the majority of bored UK housewives prefer to buy that James Blunt dirge than something decent.

You are a woman though, so you've had one of those new civil partnerships then? Or is MRS SGE your mum? I refuse to believe you are a male, as real men don't buy James Blunt.....ahh, think i got my answer!

Precisely. Look at the UK's best selling studio albums this decade - RUBBISH like Dido, David Gray and now James Bland. I know there are SLIGHTLY more women in the UK than men, but surely not that many more!!!

Yes, the above is BIRDS music, any males who have bought any of the above artists probably have that music on their iPod whilst strolling around Hampstead Heath at 2am on a Thursday.

Does this same criteria apply to Will Young`s latest album as well?!

WTF are these "real" men then? Are gays just figments of the imagination?! Jeez.



Do you enjoy being offensive?

I bought James's Blunt's album in May/June on the recommendation of a friend. I thought it was ok with 3 or 4 decent songs ( especially Wisemen). But (to me at least) it ain't anything amazing.
I cannot believe the hype surrounding it in recent months. The way some people are talking its another 'The Bends' or 'Nevermind'. It isn't. It's a reasonably good debut album, nothing more.

Why has it sold so many? I really don't know. Somebody earlier said it was 'Dinner Party' music and I laughed at that but maybe it's not way off the mark. There is a very big market in this country for 'middle of the road', inoffensive music with nice melodies. Which is fine. Each to their own. My friend who recommended James Blunt to me also bought No Angel by Dido and Talk on Corners by the Corrs. She isn't a major music buyer and just likes a CD to sing along to in the car when she's taking the kids to school. She ain't looking for invention or anything 'leftfield' in her music.
Whilst obviously not being able to generalise, I suspect she is fairly typical of a lot of the people who bought (and enjoyed) Back to Bedlam.
Others (like me) bought it on recommendation of friends.

James Blunt's album has sold phenominally well. Whether or not he has longevity in the music business is more difficult to say. It does seem possible for artists to have really high selling debut/breakthrough albums but much more difficult for them to sustain the sales into a third or fourth album. Time will tell.......

Will my friend buy his follow up album? Yes.
Will I buy his follow up? Probably not.