Urban Hat€monger ?

I think there are several ways of seeing if a band has passion.

Actually saying something rather than resorting to lazy lyrical cliches.

Excessive use of soloing when you can't be bothered to think up an original idea for a song to use instead. (Case in point Noel Gallagher admitted this is what he did on Be Here Now. An album slated by fans and critics alike)

Vocal delivery , Just listen to Lydon sing at an early Pistols gig such as Screen On The Green in 76 when they just started out & he was angry and had something he wanted to say and then compare it to the last gig at Winterland in 78 when he sounded totally jaded , couldn't be bothered and just wanted it to end. There's a world of difference.

Progression (or lack of , or too much) Personally I think this works two ways, If you can't be bothered to build on what you can already do and just release the same album over & over I don't really see how you can get excited about playing it

On the other hand if you suddenly want to add 500 piece orchestras , choirs , samples , studio trickery or whatever to your music then it's seems to me that there's not really anything there with any substance to start with.


Sudden changes of direction for no apparent reason - People like the Clash & Bowie have changed direction but it's always been a natural change. Bowie's Low album didn't come out of nowhere , he was building towards it even without Eno as in the Station To Station album. Same with The Clash , London Calling didn't just happen it was all their collective influences being brought to the front. Compare that to Madonna who just phones up ... (Insert trendy DJ name here)... And get's him to do the work so she's still 'hip' and can sell.

Soul music - How do you think it got it's name.

Those are some of my interpretations or course there are others , of course there are always exceptions to these.
I guess at the end of the day some people are better at spotting a fake than others.

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