Originally Posted by WatershipBrakey:
“You challenged him to make a hit out of a song that wasn't top 100. He made hits out of Amy's previously unheard new material. Job done.”
No....I didn't.
I did nothing of the sort.
You say he made hits out of Amy's previously unheard of material,..but again, you're putting all the credit onto Mark Ronson.
Amy Winehouse was noticed as a creative talent before Mark Ronson's involvement. She would probably be making hits now anyway. You say 'he made hits' out of her songs as though she is inconsequential and could be anyone.
As I said before, Mark Ronson is a decent producer, but as another person in this thread said, he's doing what many, many other producers do every day.
It's this hero worship of Ronson that's getting annoying. I've heard some of Amy's stuff and I really like it, but I've heard some of his other collaborations and I think it's pretty tame stuff and even in some cases is simply murdering the original songs.
In my personal opinion he turned Radiohead's 'Just' into something really 'soft' and weak. He took all the power and energy out of it and turned it into music I would probably hear if I was shopping in Morrisons. If you like great powerful original songs with emotion to them turned into fluffy pop ditties, then maybe you might like that sort of thing to hum along to. You could even say that there is a certain talent to blanding out a strong song into something lightweight and commerically easy-listening sounding.
Has he got talent?
Yes I think he has a talent. He's a decent producer. But I don't think the sun shines out of his arse, because there's many very good producers who don't get the kind of accolades which he does. It's just the case that the media have decided to point the spotlight onto him, that's all.
But it's at the point where some fanboys are calling him a musical 'genius' for reworking other people's songs, and appear to have no powers of discrimination when it comes to anything he does. Everything he does has to be brilliant, there's no room for criticism, everything he touches turns to gold, apparently.
I think he's done some good work, and also done work that I don't really rate highly.
I think he's done some good work on Amy's album, but it appears as though he's declared as some sort of genius for mainly doing cover versions of other people's songs.
I'm watching on thinking 'WTF?????' because I'm wondering what the hell's going on when doing cover versions or remixes is nothing new, and I've seen many covers in the past which have been very good. But the producers of those songs weren't propelled into the media spotlight.
Suddenly this guy's the flavour of the month and the media are having orgasms over him as though he's some sort of musical god.
To me he's just another producer who sometimes does a good job, and sometimes doesn't. Essentially he's mainly about doing cover versions. His talent is celebrated for doing that.
But for me, if you're being celebrated as much as this guy is in the media then I think that you need to make your name for being known for creating and constructing brand new songs that stand in their own right as excellent songs.
Apparently I hear that he's planning to do several new Radiohead covers of their songs.
In a couple of years time I can imagine the music industry throwing accolades and gushing praise at some guy for doing mash-ups and describing him as a 'Legend' . It certainly appears to be going that way right now.