If she's still finding her feet in this industry then why are they proclaiming her to us as the best thing since sliced bread and pushing her onto us using more hype and promotion than other acts, who are possibly more deserving, and who have learnt the hard way and have already found their feet?

In what way has her record done some great things for the music industry?
She's made music industry executives a fortune? How is that good in itself?

If she continues to be successful then why will that be a good thing for British music?

Fair enough but its hardly Leona at fault if they choose to promote her more than other acts, at the end of the day everything is about money so if she is gonna make money then she will be promoted. However it is good for British music beacuse she is becoming known worldwide and it could open doors for more British artists to be successful abroad and you only have to look at her record sales to show she (and other artists too) are helping to save an industry that is slowly becoming less and less prominent in todays society. Other artists may have worked harder to get a break but at the end of the day the music industry is a fickle one and if your not pulling your weight your gonna get dropped!

That's because people won't shut up. They keep on denying the thing that is so obvious in front of their face. Well now she has shoved the words of of all those in denial down their throats and they don't like it, well that just tough !

She has extreme talent, everybody with any sense whatsoever recognises that.

Of course he is jealous, why comment at all otherwise.

More to the point, why do we even give this nobody the time of day?

She aint going to go away, so people should just put and shut up.

Being from a TV show, Leona isn't taken seriously because it lacks 'credibiiity' to admit that you want fame and fortune. the Arctics wanted it as much as the original Monkees, but because they found a way to get it that was not as mainstream, they act and comment as if they invented being 'cool'.

people only seem to criticise Leona on the basis that she is a bit like a couple of other female singers - that's not really much of a criticism really. when people on here say she isn't any good - the natural response for her supporters is to say 'OK, but a lot of other people must like her - look how many singles/albums she has sold'. if somebody said "Elvis Presley was a lard-arsed crooner" people would mention that he was the one of th ebest selling acts of all time, so a lot of people must have thought he had some merit.

OK there is the Emporer's New Clothes syndrome to counter - if I said that the Arctics were a bit shit really, people would say they weren't and pray in aid their sales figures.

OK so Timmy Mallett and Black Lace sold records and it doesn't mean that they are gifted musicians, but it IS used as a measure of success which implies some merit.

music is so much about taste and if somebody is in tune, then beyond that it really is only preference - does range matter? does emotion matter? does choice of material matter?

music is an art form - no wonder we disagree with each other - at least music sales are an objective measure of effective popularity. by that measure it would be something like Leona 12 Rev 1, no contest.

and no, I didn't have a clue who Doug McClure was before this thread. so what?

The Spoon,......we appear to be speaking at crossed purposes for the most part because essentially I agree with quite a few of your points. Even the bit about the Arctic Monkeys which I am sceptical about (Them, not what you said).

But you seem to have also distorted and twisted what I was saying by stating that record sales are the best objective measure of popularity.
That's all,well and good, but it's irrelevant to what I was saying. It's kind of distorting the original point, because what I was saying was that popularity is no measure of quality.

The point I was making was that many people point you to popularity polls and record sales figures in order to prove that they are proof of the quality of that music.

You're kind of doing it yourself, falling into the trap of obsessing over record sales and popularity.

Other people, myself included, keep trying to say that popularity is not the same thing as quality.
That's why I said that posts in every thread about Leona Lewis which point to record sales or popularity polls are irrelevant when speaking of quality.
Popularity is not a measure of quality.

You say that if you said the Arctic Monkeys are a bit shit, then people would point you to their record sales. From what I've read on threads I honestly don't think that they would do that. I honestly believe that they wouldn't fall back on record sales figures and would definitely stick to discussing the music.

There have been many music acts that I've liked who have been very successful, but never have I tried to use record sales figures in order to prove the quality of their music, not even once. It wouldn't even cross my mind to do that.

I agree with the Spoon. This bloke Jon McClure and his band would not be known at all if he wasn't friends with Alex Turner and wasn't from Sheffield, you can see some posts here proclaiming just because he's both of those he MUST be good - what kind of crock of sh*t is that? I think it's a bit hypocritical to say Leona is sh*t when his band was promoted quickly and given opportunities into success which a lot of other bands don't because of association. Except, of course, in his case it was under the guise of "indie", therefore it's alright. He also attacked Johnny Borrell... oh, what a surprise, he definitely isn't following the NME's lead there!

Or let's look at another indie band we're told is the voice of God, the Horrors, who could afford to create a video created by some grammy nominated guy before they even sold anything. That sure sounds very popish to me. Or Kate Nash, or Lily Allen or Mika or Adele or Gossip who are all heavily marketed (although at least Gossip had a few albums out before). The only ones I can think who weren't immediately forced on everyone was Amy Winehouse and the Libertines before the drugs and hype kicked in. It seems exactly like Leona to me, except she went on a talent tv show and thus has no credibility in the eyes of the press compared to the other people/bands I mentioned.

Attacking pop bands gives you cred and therefore more sales and they know that people like Leona, My Chemical Romance, Kylie or Take That don't give a crap enough to respond. What not many of them would do is have the balls to attack other supposedly credible British rock bands, because that would factionalise their fans and they could potentially get an acerbic reply. Yes, okay, Leona is a bit dull and her songs are quite lame and formulaic sometimes, but she does have a natural talent which she has honed herself and she worked hard to try to get a recording deal before the X Factor (by the sounds of things a lot bloody harder than the Arctic Monkeys did).

It's definitely not. Not from my perspective, anyway.

If I ever go to a gig I expect energy, not just someone standing there, closing their eyes and singing about cliché subjects.

A voice is only one aspect of a performance.

I don't know who this person is. However he obviously cannot see how talented Leona is so I am hardly going to value his opinion

Remind me, HOW many Brit awards did she get?

Different strokes for different folks.


I find Leona Lewis overrated pap. I think Rev. And The Makers are quite good.

Remind me, HOW many records has she sold and how many countries has she gone to #1 in?

This is partly the point I was making. I don't think it's a good thing for a song to be written by a professional songwriter, but I'm not going to like a song any less just because it's written by someone else. I like the music that I like, whether it's written by the performer, regardless of the A&R exec responsible and regardless of how it is marketed. I would say that I like to hear a great voice singing a great song and where possible, this is preferrable to a crap voice singing a great song. I can appreciate the talent involved in writing a song and also performing it. If all music was only written by those that performed it, there would be loads of great songs written by professional songwriters (who can't sing) that would never have been known.

and the silliest question ever award goes to.....

Early early days for both.... lets see how things lie in five years time

some people wil not be told!

I would rather The Reverend become a bigger impact on British music than Leona. Their album is amazing!

lol @ Jon McClure:

A person that nobody knows, trying to get famous by name dropping Leona.

I'm sure her multi-million sales across 20 countries so far and platinum certifications are consolation enough

She was just on the top 40 in the US iTunes chart, my worst nightmare has arrived. Someone please save me! !!!!

#31 now


America , here she comes!

Let's hope she stays.

Not that she'll be on our screens much now anyway.

She'll be performing on March 14th for Sport Relief. BBC1, I know you wouldn't want to miss it.

I found this great definition of "Proper music" that John McClure falls into.

Wouldn't you want to hear Leona's own music though?
Even just out of interest to see if she's got the chops to cut it with her own creative ability?

That's poor. BBC6 play some great music. And great records don't always sell in masses, you know.